An important witness to the Gleason's Gym, the gym where Mike Tyson learned the art of boxing and where he actually discounts the last penal sentence. Teaching the secrets of the boxing to the children and transforming themselves in the positive symbol of the values of friendship of sport. Between the historical walls of the boxing gym passed the most famous of New York unforgettable legends of the ring, from Jake La Motta and Rocky Graziano until Shane Mosley. By now the ex irradiation heavy weight is the attraction: back on the ring in order to conquer them all, with a smile.

Visiting the gym where Iron Mike is redeeming himself training the children: a monster of lovability.

Gianna Garbelli filmmaker and daughter of art. Second daughter of the first mariage of Giancarlo Garbelli, boxer from Milano,was one of the most admired champion at the end of the '50 biggining '60. The grandfather Cesare also, was protagonist on the ring conquered the title of Italian amateurs in 1926, Gianna is born in Varese and grow up in Milano. Mike is a trainer because a penalty.

Mike Tyson teaching boxing after the sentence because a brawl in Brooklyn in front of Marriot Hotel last 21st of June 2003. The boxer make two men to go in the hospital because they make joke of him after he refused to make autographs. To avoid one year in prison ex irradiation heavy weight has negotiated at 100 hours at social services.

I have seen Mike Tyson to discount his penalty at Gleason's Gym of Brooklyn. There's a beautiful phrase written on the wall as soon as you enter, is taken from the Eneide written by Virgilio: "Now whoever has courage, and strong and collected spirit in his breast, let him come forth, lace up his gloves, and put up his hands." Mike is not ugly and bad. The last sentence that makes him an executioner it forces him to return to the Gleason's Gym where he was born, where he was carried by the great Cus D'Amato, who has introduced him and grown. He's now there with the children of ten years, all the colors, he teaches them how to carry the blows. One of them takes his hand and he doesn't detach it . He goes that way all around the gym. The children watch him seriously, hang from his lips, bewitched by his movements, his style, his sweet and convincing smile. Mike makes some feint, plays, the boys compete for him. Me with them. All to the bag, all to the speedy ball, all in circle, convinced of its athletic model. He is a great entertainer, he cares about his boys, jumping the rope so fast and you cannot see him doing. The oldest boys they ate him with their eyes and one of them quite goes up on the ring, under the eyes wide opened of all the people, for sparring a much light one, wink blows to the body and the ace. A great lesson of boxing and everybody there is proud of being with the great Iron Mike. It will be therefore every day until the end of the penalty. The small boxers do not know anything of the injuries with some too much eager woman and some "friend" too much interested, have fed his reputation of monster. Mike has his fault, it's true, but he's also a difficult boy, with existential trauma in his past and therefore ready to cross the ropes of the ring. It's a rule: in needs a shock in order to go up on the ring. I make my excuses for the non-psychiatric license. Mike Tyson is an adorable person, a legend of boxing. He represents the Gleason's Gym. The myth of the gyms in America, the most important from 1937, when an Italian-American named Bob Gagliardi, in order to give appeal to his original Gym of the Bronx, has used the name of an Irish boxer: Bobby Gleason. In that period the Irish had the better one to New York. The arena cost two dollars to the month. From that Gym passed everyone who is important; from Phil Terranova and Jake the Motta to Rocky Graziano and Carmen Basilio, from Muhammad Alì and Joe Frazier to Larry Holmes and George Foreman, from Kid Paret and Emile Griffith to Carlos Ortiz, Vito Antuofermo, Roberto Duran, until today to Arthur Gatti, Shane Mosley, Mike Tyson. A lot of young people is trained every day, all of them under the Gleason's Gym rules. The gym leaves you intense vibrations, it has special smells of humanity, any is the reason for which you enter, in order to train you because you're a real champion or because you make part of those that want to be there, or you're a simple spectator. However you are welcome and the respect to you is due. The Gleason's Gym is beautiful, with its red walls, the concrete pavement, four ring, on one of them you can only go up with the skin ankle boots and leather soles, ten heavy bags at least, ropes, mirrors where to make movements, cyclette, dressing rooms, showers, cabinets, approximately 1500 meters of boxing paradise. I do not forget the smell of it. I brought it with me. You can arrive passing under the bridge of Brooklyn; the gym is in Front Street at the second floor. The panorama in the outskirts is unparalleled, even though the sky is angry or blue or it is reflected on the water. At the corner of the road, the director Sergio Leone shot one scene of his movie "Once upon a time in America". To the Gleason's Gym Martin Scorsese shot "Raging Bull" and here Robert De Niro has been trained for months, then awarded with the Oscar for the role of Jake the Motta. Bruce Silverglade waits for you, he is available for all the people. He is the third owner since Gagliardi. He takes care of the gym, it's his house, he has invested all his money, maintaining the heat and the harmony that Gagliardi had created. The gym is clean and there is no conditioned air, but it has great impellers when the air of New York becomes unsupportable. The price is equal for everybody: 70 dollars for a month, the amateurs pay 10 less dollars and then a beautiful initiative has been created: "Give a kid a dream " program, which affords underprivileged children the opportunity to train at gym without paying dues. The Gleason's Gym gushes a feeling of equality and true acceptance, a microcosm of the society, crude, difficult, of all races, all with great dreams to realize. For me it' clear from where the great reputation comes. . Bruce tells to me that in the gym there are represented 167 nations. In Bruce's office you get lost on the walls to watch the photos of the legendary champions, in a little corner of the bar there's a television set that transmits only boxing fights.

And the trainers? Some great former champion like Carlos Ortiz, who has won and then he has lost two times with Duillio Loi; I meet Emile Griffith that tells things to me from his deep one and sends a great kiss to his godson Giuliano Benvenuti; the third party match with Nino, his father, was the splendid inauguration of the new Madison Square Garden. Vito Antuofermo capture me and we start talking, but we are interrupted by Bruce Sivlerglade who has words that go beyond the boxing themes, for his greatest humanity. Then Bob Jackson who comes from the recovery of the boys in the prison of Sing Sing (asking me: "Who is the greatest champion of all times?" My straight answer to the heart does not disappoint him: Sugar Ray Robinson". And it starts rivers of words and stories and anecdotes). There are 78 trainers, who motivate and assemble personality pieces in order to make champions, or show to boys the right way. With a bit of talent and a lot of discipline you can make yours the noble art.

It's simple to understand that Mike Tyson feels like home, supported by love of the great boxing family, that it is so intimate. Mike is admired here for its lovability. I speak and he does not detach his look from mine, While the words are threading one behind the other. It has been in Italy, embraces to me strong, gives to me an "high five", he tightens the hand without hurting me. Bruce takes the photo. Mike signs autograph without no presumptuousness. In the gestures of Mike there's no misinterpreting. The girls, some of them convinced boxer, the greater part of them in gym in order to keep themselves in shape, struck with the champion. In the gym there are the rules sport and here Mike is in his own right atmosphere and everyone with him respect the rules. He's a sport man not a criminal. Boxing has redeemed him, he has a debt with it. I like the way he took the decision to discount the penalty after the brawl in Brooklyn not only between the boys and between the professionals boxers but also between the employers who want to be on the ring for one day. They are business men, lawyers, judges, others are the mothers of the young people aspirants; it's good for Mike, but it's good also for the people to see his real face. As I've seen it.

The life of Mike Tyson in some way remembered me my first film " Tentazioni Metropolitane aka Jailbirds", the story of a girl held in semy custody that I have produced, written, directed and interpreted in Milan between the jails of Saint Vittore and Opera. The world of boxing loves me and I love the world of boxing. I was born in it and I recognize the smells and the emotions since when I was a child. I entered this world in tip of feet, I have been recognized as daughter of art. I did not realize that until the moment, three years ago, I started to build "the Italian fighter", history of my grandfather and my father boxing champions . They wait for me and I does not lack the smell of the sweat and the hard work in order to realize the great dreams, without whom the cinema does not exist. Many appointments, lair solidarity, a "Cigar Night" in favor of the FITS (the foundation that supports the boxers when they finish the career. Where do the purposes that I have collected for the bill for the annuity of the former Italian boxers, a generation on extinction, ended?). A lot of material for my back stage, a documentary of whom I have already recorded 7 hours. The outskirts of the gym are fantastic, the water, the bridges of Brooklyn and Manhattan, the romantic but metropolitan pedestrian way, with the cars that you can feel but you do not see. The sky with the horse light, wonderful, with the background of a barge on whom I could write "Mamma Leone Restaurant", beautiful than how it was, another different one, but the cinema is fantasy, therefore, in my mind, I have a precise vision. The colors are magic. I've adapted my screenplay, with the advising of precious companies of this sport, in English-American with most likeable and prepared writer of American boxing, Bert Randolph Sugar, and by now it's in the hand of the powerful agents of the star system. I have headed up for the cast of " The Italian Fighter", but I also have found a young cast, as it is obvious are the athletes. My discovery to the Gleason's Gym, is Paul "Magic Man" Malignaggi, 23 years-old, he was born in Brooklyn from Italian parents, a good boxer (17 victories on 17 encounter), disciplined, able, arrogating, funny, he surely got a role in my film. He deserves it. He has already a great artistic sparring partner: Giancarlo Giannini.

At the Gleason's Gym I feel myself just like at home in Milan, with my friends boxers, the masters of boxing, the Andrew's Square, gym of boxing and everything else, than as far as its acceptance it does not have anything to make me mourn. So in Milan like in New York I have found a great heat, affection and real professional support for the film. "We miss you", they have written to me from the Gleason's Gym and I now must return with all pieces of the large puzzle of the film between Italy and America. It's my dream that is coming true, with all the possible poetry, in order to render homage to the boxing that represents social redemption. The ring does not send you to jail, it lets you out from the abyss, it helps you to not to desperate. Boxing gives you the rules in order to enter the society and to live in it as an healthy man. copyright(c)2004allrightsreserved