For many years, I have dedicated myself to researching, writing about, and preserving the legacy of Cus D’Amato. That journey ultimately became Confusing the Enemy: The Cus D’Amato Story. We created the book because we believed the real story of Cus deserved to be explored not simply the story of a legendary boxing trainer, but of a thinker, strategist, teacher, and student of human behavior and a person who understood that the mind could be every bit as important as the body in creating a fighter.

On August 22, 2026, that journey once again came full circle for our team at the Legends of the Ring Autograph Show. I had the opportunity to spend time among some extraordinary figures from boxing history, including Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Gerry Cooney, Junior Jones, Mike Tyson, and many others. For someone who has spent so much of his life studying boxing, and the martial arts working with fighters, and researching Cus, being surrounded by so much living history was incredibly meaningful. It also gave me another opportunity to share what we have been trying to accomplish through Confusing the Enemy, preserving not only Cus’s story, but his philosophy, his fighters, his methods, and, whenever possible, his actual voice.

Seeing Mike again in his old home made the day particularly special. Mike Tyson will forever be an essential part of the Cus D’Amato story. Cus saw something in that young man that others either could not see or did not know how to develop. Their relationship became far more than trainer and fighter. Mike became his student, his protégé and, in many ways, the culmination of Cus’s life’s work. Cus gave Mike more than the peek-a-boo style. Teddy Brenner did that.  He taught Mike  about fear, confidence, discipline, preparation, psychology, and belief. He taught him that fear did not have to be eliminated it could be understood, controlled, and ultimately used in everyday life.

During the event, Mike was presented with a special tribute recognizing his achievements and his role in keeping the memory of Cus alive. The statue of Cus and Mike depicted from the picture that Gene Greene took brought to life by Ed DuPont and his team from the Catskill Gym Boxing Gym is particularly meaningful because preserving Cus’s legacy has also been the purpose behind much of my own work. Through the book, the Confusing the Enemy website, our newsletter, the surviving training recordings, and now my upcoming podcast, I want people to understand why Cus was different. I want them to hear his voice, study his methods, understand his philosophy, and recognize that his system was about far more than keeping your hands high and moving forward. There was science, movement, timing, combinations, strategy, psychology, and a remarkably sophisticated understanding of fear.

After the event, we ended the day by paying homage to Cus at his resting place. Standing beside Cus D’Amato’s grave with Mike Tyson is surreal, no matter how many times you have done it In that moment, the championships, the fame, the crowds, and the history seemed secondary. What remained was the relationship between two people: the master and the student and my connection to Mike n Cus.

Standing there, I felt an enormous sense of respect for Cus, for Mike, and for what existed between them. Cus gave Mike a life but more importantly, he gave him a belief in himself that no one saw or cared about. That is one of the reasons I continue telling this story.

People sometimes ask why I have spent so many years researching Cus D’Amato. My answer is simple: because his story still matters, the common denominator of greatness is Universal and controlling of your emotions through any endeavor produces a consummate professional.

Cus was brilliant, complicated, controversial, secretive, intensely driven and weird some may say. He saw possibilities in people and fighters that others could not see, and he understood something that remains relevant far beyond boxing: My hope is that Confusing the Enemy and the information to come helps ensure that future generations discover Cus D’Amato not simply as the man who trained Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and José Torres, but as an extraordinary teacher who changed the way many people thought about boxing, fear, confidence, ot any task one puts the human mind to.

That is why we continue to tell his story. And that is why, standing beside his grave with Mike Tyson and some new friends, I was reminded once again just how important that story is to preserve.

Dr. Scott Weiss
Co-Author, Confusing the Enemy: The Cus D’Amato Story