Kevin Rooney

As of 2010, Kevin is acting in a consultative capacity on a stage play and screenplay written by Dianna Lefas about the life of Cus D'Amato, KNOCKOUT: The Cus D'Amato Story.

In November 1994, after being stopped by State Police in Connecticut for erratic driving, Rooney refused to take sobriety tests and assaulted a State Trooper. Rooney was subsequently taken into custody and charged with driving under the influence along with assaulting a police officer and interfering.

Rooney successfully sued Mike Tyson for over $4 million claiming that the latter broke a contract by firing Rooney in 1988. [1]

Rooney began professionally boxing in 1979 and acquired a record of twenty-one wins, four losses, and one draw. In his most important fight as a professional, on July 31, 1982, Rooney lost to three division world champion Alexis Argüello, who was making his first fight in the Junior Welterweight division, by a second-round knockout. He also lost to future WBA world Junior Middleweight champion Davey Moore, who avenged an amateur loss to Rooney, by a knockout in seven rounds, on June 21, 1981.

After Teddy Atlas, who was Rooney's cornerman during his boxing days, was relieved of his duties as a trainer of Mike Tyson, D'Amato assigned Rooney to be Tyson's trainer. Rooney was with Mike Tyson since late 1982, when Tyson was 16 years old and just won the National Junior Olympics (having a 9–1 amateur record, with all 9 wins inside the distance), oversaw the second half of his amateur career (44 fights), saw the start of his professional career in 1985, followed Tyson throughout his world championship days, until Tyson's bout with Michael Spinks in 1988, when on the insistence of Don King, Tyson fired Rooney along with all other staff that comprised the Team Tyson from the beginning. In the words of sportswriter Jack Newfield, "the day Tyson fired Kevin Rooney there was a cap put on Mike Tyson's development as a fighter, he did not develop anymore behind that day."

Rooney won the 1975 147 lb Sub-Novice New York Golden Gloves Championship. He defeated Kevin Higgins of West Point in the finals. Rooney trained at the Police Athletic Leagues 120th Precinct in Staten Island, New York.

Kevin Rooney (born May 4, 1956 in Staten Island, New York) is an American former boxer and a current boxing trainer. He was portrayed by Clark Gregg in the 1995 movie Tyson and by Aaron Eckhart in the 2016 movie Bleed for This.