by David P. Greisman
As Mike Tyson stayed on his stool, his trainer Jeff Fenech informing referee Joe Cortez that the former heavyweight prodigy was retiring from the bout, I had unwittingly found an answer to a question raised by Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley on HBO's competing Boxing After Dark broadcast.
Noticing that the boxing writers from most major newspapers were not present for Miguel Cotto's revenge match against Muhammad Abdullaev at the Madison Square Garden, instead opting for the “freak show” in Washington, D.C., over the “real fight” in New York City, the commentators, perhaps properly, insulted the state of the sweet science.
But as I left my seat to make my way to the post-fight press conference, I knew that the “freak show,” the circus-like train wreck that Mike Tyson has become in the past decade and a half, is capable of producing a story so astonishing that it becomes pertinent, no matter how irrelevant Iron Mike has become on the championship scene.
In this week's edition of Fighting Words, I will dig deep into the consequences of Saturday's card featuring Mike Tyson and Kevin McBride; take a glance at the undercard at the MCI Center, which had Sharmba Mitchell, Laila Ali and Hussein Hussein, and, allowing some leeway, give due time to Miguel Cotto/Muhammad Abdullaev and its Kid Diamond/Joel Casamayor sidekick.
Mike Tyson - Rusted Iron
Despite their astonishing athleticism, the wear and tear that professional sports stars put on their body causes rapid aging in the form of deteriorating mobility and agility.
For Mike Tyson, his fifty-eight professional fights make up only a portion of the determining factors; he has lived a difficult life, oft chronicled, facing adversity, much of it self-inflicted, for decades.
Despite his getting old in front of our eyes in June 2002 against Lennox Lewis, we all deluded ourselves, thinking that Iron Mike still could flash elements of excitement, knock out opponents with his trademark firepower and maybe, just maybe have one last contending shot in the middle of his bankruptcy-healing comeback tour.
Last year, he was to have commenced his fundraising against Kevin McBride, but when the Irishman priced himself out of the opportunity, Tyson's handlers picked a cheaper, but more difficult foe named Danny Williams.
Tyson unleashed hell in the first round of that July 2004 match, but Williams withstood it and then let loose on an injured Tyson, culminating in a fourth-round knockout.
After a lengthy rehabilitation, Tyson was coming back, again, and this time he would actually face McBride, a seeming tomato can who despite his 6'6”, 271 pound frame was seen as a slow, limited easy target that would be defeated quickly.
Such an analysis would have been proper for the Tyson of the 1980s, but this Iron Mike, who turns 39 towards the end of June, was rusted, exhausted mentally and physically from spending so much time in the industry.
Tyson entered the ring dry, making one wonder if that was from an intentional lack of warming up, or due to his fight being hurried up thanks to early endings of the two televised undercards.
And when the fight began, McBride was able to handle whatever was left of Tyson's bad intentions, holding on, burdening his foe with his weight just like Lewis had three years prior.
Tyson knew that he was not there to go the full ten rounds, that McBride was supposed to be the second coming of Peter McNeeley. He abandoned his dedication to vicious body shots, searching for the knockout, and when it didn't come, Tyson knew that he could not resurrect who he was when he had been half his age.
Instead, Tyson brought back his persona from the second half of the 1990s, the Tyson that bit both of Evander Holyfield's ears, the Tyson that attempted to break Frans Botha's arm in 1999, the psychotic pugilist promptly replacing the kindler, gentler Mike that we had come to know in the time leading up to his meeting with McBride.
But when even an intentional head butt, arm wrenching and low blows wouldn't weaken McBride for a knockout, Tyson quit. And when he quit it wasn't just the fight that was over, it was his career.
In the press conference immediately after, Tyson was intelligently introspective, realistically realizing that if he couldn't beat the McBrides of the world that he was embarrassing the sport that he had studied and loved so. Boxing wasn't in his heart anymore, it wouldn't fulfill him, and despite his debts, he knew when to call it quits.
For a man who has been “stigmatized” in this country, as he often puts it, Tyson, a convicted rapist and accused domestic abuser, finally knew when to make the right decision.
The 10 Count
1. McBride repeated his mantra, “I'm a contender, not a pretender,” so often in the pre-fight buildup that it seemed that the hypnosis that he reportedly underwent to prepare for the Tyson fight caused him to narrate that phrase upon some undisclosed stimulus. Yes, McBride won against Tyson, but the W came from a battle of attrition, from Tyson losing, not necessarily McBride winning. For “The Clones Colossus” to announce to reporters that he now wants a championship match, that he wants to face Vitali Klitschko, is foolish. When Danny Williams beat Tyson, he had been a much more accomplished fighter, although he was exposed and turned into a punching bag by the giant Ukrainian. McBride is slow, his punches wide, and for this victory to launch any possible ranking or contention would be a complete miscarriage of logic. Nothing against McBride, but Tyson was right when denigrating his opponent's caliber.
2. With Jeff Fenech training Tyson, one of his charges, Hussein Hussein, had the opportunity to fight on the undercard, looking to bounce back after being manhandled by Jorge Arce in March. His opponent was Mexican journeyman Evaristo Primero, whose 14-7-1 record entering the match contained just two noteworthy bouts, losses to Rafael Marquez and two-time Marquez victim Mauricio Pastrana. Primero had also lost to Ruben Contreras, the junior flyweight that was put into a coma after his May loss to Brian Viloria.
Needing a confidence-building win, Hussein Squared instead sleepwalked through a ten-round unanimous decision victory, winning six rounds on two of the judges' cards, three on the other. This being his first fight since Arce, it remains to be seen just how much of Hussein was left in the ring due to that war.
3. Fighting in front of a hometown crowd for the first time since 2002, Sharmba Mitchell began his foray into the welterweight division with a unanimous five round technical decision over Chris Smith. In his first fight back after being knocked out by Kostya Tszyu in November, Mitchell used a solid one-two to build into combinations, as well as flurrying to get off the ropes when necessary. But just sixteen seconds into round five Smith threw a left hook, and was following with a right when his head collided with Mitchell's. A large gash opened up a half-inch or so under Mitchell's left eye, bleeding profusely and sending Sharmba to the corner to be checked out by the doctor, who called a halt. While the wound was being pressed, Mitchell exhibited pain and frustration, the latter, according to a ringside photographer, due to his belief that the bout would be called a no contest.
Under the rules, though, the fight went to the cards, and the judges saw it 48-47, 49-46 and 50-45 for Mitchell, who picks up the NABA welterweight title (the what?). Like Hussein, Mitchell needed to make a statement, but at least his brief showing had him looking quick and effective.
4. Laila Ali looked impressive in her third round TKO victory over Erin Toughill, a tattooed former kickboxer whose major selling point entering the fight was that she was approximately the same size as Ali. But what Toughill lacked was confidence and the know-how to clinch and punch so as to stop her opponent's onslaught. Toughill was tentative in the first round, which Ali won based off of landing the harder shots. In the second, Ali finished sizing up Toughill and began to land right hands over Toughill's lefts. The third and final round saw Toughill come out as the aggressor, only to be countered. The fight ended as Ali got Toughill against the ropes, where she landed a series of rights and a pair of left hooks, causing Toughill to turn away and referee Joseph Cooper to call a halt.
At the press conference, Ali insisted that she does not want to fight Lucia Rijker due to Rijker being thirty pounds lighter, although she and husband/promoter Yahya McClain will need to find a decent name so that Ali does not fall victim to the same level of opposition that plagued Roy Jones Jr.
5. In attendance to support his daughter was Muhammad Ali, and when he made his initial appearance during the second round of the Mitchell/Smith fight, the crowd stood and chanted his name, proving once more his universal popularity. Kevin McBride paused answering questions from the media so that he could get his picture taken with the Greatest of All Time, and Mike Tyson gushed over Ali, saying, “I'm just overwhelmed that this man knows who I am. I can't believe that he knows my name.”
6. I hate to eat my words, but I have a feeling that a lot of sportswriters will be doing so, with a tremendous amount of us not thinking that Tyson would have fallen as far as he had. I had told any inquiring friends that the fight would be over quickly, that McBride had no chance, and now I worry that they'll be curious about just how knowledgeable I am on boxing.
7. Also on the undercard: Anthony Peterson beat Wayne Fletcher in a junior welterweight fight by sixth round technical knockout, Joseph Van Daniker lost by disqualification to Ronald Boyd due to low blows in the fourth round of another 140 pound fight (although both weighed in at masses that would be low for lightweights), and Tyrone Barnett won a four round unanimous decision over Michael Salyers.
8. Quick “Reality” TV Side Note: I caught ABC's “Dancing With the Stars” last Wednesday and watched Evander Holyfield fumble through the quickstep, a sight that was almost as painful as his loss to Larry Donald.
9. Miguel Cotto got revenge over Muhammad Abdullaev in Saturday's “real fight,” gaining victory in the ninth round when Abdullaev, who defeated Cotto in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (and whose name I have been butchering with spelling for months), properly called it quits due to his right eye being completely closed. Despite being behind seven rounds to one on two judges' cards and six rounds to two on the other, Abdullaev was giving Cotto a difficult, tactical fight, and should not face the same kind of heat for quitting that has been heaped upon Kostya Tszyu. Abdullaev's vision was absolutely affected, and it was wise for him to realize that being half-blind would be dangerous against the WBO junior welterweight champion. I would like to see a rematch, a sort of rubber match if you include their amateur fight, but then again I wanted to see Cotto face DeMarcus Corley again after the disgracefully premature halt to their February match. Cotto should be given his due for his development, and if he continues to win, he should be a force to reckon with in unifying the 140-pound division. It was also interesting to hear Cotto mention moving up to welterweight, a decision that may be long overdue thanks to his difficulties making weight.
10. On the undercard of Cotto/Abdullaev, Kid Diamond and Joel Casamayor fought to a draw that absolutely seemed like a decision that should have gone towards the prospect from Kyrgyzstan. Diamond, whose real name is Almazbek Raiymkulov, landed the cleaner harder shots on the elusive Casamayor. The Cuban veteran was spare in his activity, and did not show the sort of urgency that would come after losing via split decisions to Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo in 2004. His match was a 12 round WBC title eliminator, and the winner would have earned a shot at Corrales (although with the WBC's insistence that Castillo be granted an immediate rematch with Corrales, that may have had to wait anyways). Wrapping things up on a light note, wouldn't it be cool if, akin to professional wrestling, the draw meant that Corrales would have a handicap match with Diamond and Casamayor?
Next Week's Fighting Words - Antonio Tarver vs. Glencoffe Johnson
In next week's edition of Fighting Words, I will take a look at the results of the June 18 rematch between the two best light heavyweights. Antonio Tarver is promising to knock Johnson out this time around, a tall order considering the durability of Glencoffe's chin, and the fight should be just as entertaining and intriguing as the first.
