By Thomas Gerbasi

Despite the presence of the kinder, gentler Mike Tyson we’ve come to know and love over the last couple years, the man who will enter the Hall of Fame in Canastota next year was cut from a different cloth during his fighting career, something he famously referred to after his 2000 fight with Lou Savarese.

“I was gonna rip his heart out,” said Tyson, who halted Savarese in 38 seconds. “I’m the best ever. I’m the most brutal and most vicious and most ruthless champion there’s ever been. No one can stop me. Lennox (Lewis) is a conqueror? No I’m Alexander, he’s no Alexander. I’m the best ever. There’s never been anybody as ruthless. I’m Sonny Liston, I’m Jack Dempsey, there’s no one like me. I’m from their cloth. There’s no one that can match me.”

You remember the rest, about eating then-heavyweight champion Lewis’ children before giving praise to Allah, but what is still most compelling about this nationally televised stream of consciousness is that despite his ups and downs, despite being on the tail end of his career, Tyson still had his mean, and he wouldn’t lose it until he faced Lewis two years later and wiped blood off his rival’s cheek during a post-fight interview. Iron Mike would fight three more times, losing two, but the die was already cast. As Burgess Meredith’s Mickey told Rocky Balboa in the third Rocky film, “you got civilized.”

At 34, way past the sell-by date for a bantamweight, and maybe even more so for a fighter who met his greatest success at 112 pounds, Vic Darchinyan is still mean. Reflexes might dull, power might not carry north in weight, and speed may diminish, but if you still approach each fight as that – a fight – the world may still be yours.

This Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington, Darchinyan will test this theory against talented and unbeaten young contender Abner Mares in the first night of Showtime’s four man bantamweight tournament. The 25-year old Mares, a former Olympian, has been brought up slowly and surely by Golden Boy Promotions, and though he came up empty when he drew over 12 rounds with fellow tournament participant and IBF champion Yohnny Perez in May, he acquitted himself well enough that a sizeable segment of the fight community believed he won the fight.

It’s a fistic upbringing that Darchinyan (an Olympian himself) scoffs at.

“I’ve fought in 14 world title fights, he’s fought in one,” said the native of Vanadzor, Armenia. “I’m going to out-school him badly and prove to the whole world that I’m too good for him and anyone in this division. This fight is a mismatch.  I am just too good for him.”

Mean. It has to be one of the first words that pop into your head when you look at Darchinyan’s eyes in the ring, at weigh-ins, press conferences, well, just about anywhere. For him, this is not a sporting event; it’s a sanctioned street fight, a brawl with rules, a way to settle a score that only he has in his head.

And that’s a gift, especially these days. Throughout boxing history, there have been numerous examples of the power of a mean streak. Stanley Ketchel, Harry Greb, Roberto Duran, Jake LaMotta, the young George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Marvin Hagler, just to name a few. Sure, they fought to make a living, but you got the distinct impression that they would have done it for free just as ferociously.

Today, the rankings are filled with solid citizens, gentlemen, and skilled practitioners of the sweet science with the rare Darchinyan and Bernard Hopkins left to represent the mean contingent. Sure there’s some heated trash talk thrown around before big fights, but when it’s all over, it’s hugs and pats on the back. Duran flipped off Sugar Ray Leonard’s wife before their first bout in Montreal, Tyson was threatening to eat children, and guys like Foreman didn’t need to shake hands or bad mouth their opponents after bouts because they were still attempting to wake up after getting knocked unconscious.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning bad behavior, and the problem is that we celebrate it much too often. But in a four post ring where two men will punch each other for a half hour or more, sanitizing it too much is not only ludicrous, it’s insulting to most people’s intelligence. And as a guilty pleasure, who doesn’t want to see someone fight with a passion that you see outside of a high school at 3 O’clock or in a bar at last call?

That’s not to say Darchinyan has expressed any anti-social behavior in or out of the ring, but the impression he gives off is one of menace, one that says at any given moment, I can tear your head off with a left hook, soccer kick it into the third row and not even give a second thought about it as I collect my check.

And man, would that be fun to watch or what? Frankly, it’s what gives this four man tourney and added boost after Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire opted to do their own thing. Sure, the Perez-Joseph Agbeko rematch will be interesting, as would rematches featuring Agbeko-Darchinyan and / or Perez-Mares, but for the casual fan wondering if they should spend their Saturday night with a bunch of 118-pounders, it’s Darchinyan who could be the deciding factor thanks to his long-running reign at flyweight, his power, aggression, and attitude.

The question is, despite a three fight winning streak, does he still have enough in the tank for an improbable run at 118 pounds? Needless to say, he thinks he has more than that.

"I am comfortable at any weight,” he said.  “I can lose as much weight as I want or I can put on as much as I want.  It is going to be my show, my tournament.  I am going to prove to everyone that I am very skillful and a good puncher.  I am very prepared and confident."

So is Abner Mares. The Guadalajara native is also faster, younger, and he doesn’t know how to lose yet. But is he meaner than Vic Darchinyan? You know the answer to that one, and if Mares doesn’t, “The Raging Bull” is happy to give him a lesson Saturday night.

“He is going to remember me.”