Anyone else see the match?
Tyson's circus act comes to ugly end
June 12, 2005
BY GREG COUCH SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
WASHINGTON -- It was over already for Mike Tyson in the sixth round, even though he was winning. His career was down to fighting Kevin McBride, some big slow guy who should be fighting bouncers and barroom toughs. Tyson hit him with quick left body shots and big left hooks. But McBride wouldn't fall down, and Tyson was down to the last gasp for the night, for his career. He tried to grab and snap McBride's arm, but nothing. He head-butted McBride, opening a gash by his left eye. But nothing. He hit below the belt. Nothing.
Talent gone, antics gone. Tyson was there all by himself. He sat down against the ropes with one second left. The bell rang, and this is what I'm going to remember about Mike Tyson forever:
The ring ref stood over him and waved his arms, telling him to get up, that the round was over, not the fight. But Tyson kept sitting there. Get up, Mike. It's not over. It's not over.
It's over. He lost by technical knockout after the sixth round.
"I can't do this no more,'' he said. "I'm not going to lie to myself, not going to embarrass this sport anymore. Losing to a fighter of this caliber. ... This is just my ending, you know.
"I don't want to look back on it. My career has been over since 1990.''
He hasn't won a significant fight since 1991, when he beat Donovan Ruddock. He was 24 then. He's 38 now. Has it really been that long?
And if this career seems like an American tragedy to you, that's fine. To me, it was just a waste. And it's just going to get uglier now because even though it's over, he is going to have to keep fighting to pay off all his debts.
But there was a definite finality here. They're going to say that he quit this fight, but really he just had nothing left to give.
He threw it all away
He tried to give us the old Tyson, the great fighter, one more time, but couldn't do it. He kept trying to reinvent himself, but he's permanently trapped in his persona now. He threw so much away, his talent, his fortune.
But the persona is all he has left to sell, and he'll fight until every last cent has been wrung from his credibility.
Tyson still filled the MCI Center with more than 15,000 fans. But as he sat there, people were yelling, women were crying.
"They mustn't be too sensitive,'' Tyson said. "I'm a cold and cruel and hard person. I've been abused any way I can be abused. I see people cry when I lose. Save your tears. I don't know how to handle that.''
His greatest abuser stared at him in the mirror every day.
Tyson has been a freak show, and not a fighter, for years now. But he spent the buildup to the fight looking like a new man. After one public workout, a fan somehow was able to ask a question during a news conference. He harshly asked Tyson if he was done with the antics, and would now start being a fighter again.
Tyson calmly chastised the man for using foul language in front of the kids in the audience. Unfortunately, he repeated back the same foul words several times.
He is who he is.
During another news conference, he started getting angry and pronounced his plans for McBride: "I'm going to gut him like a fish.''
Headlines.
People keep coming back
We still come for his freak show, and the sport is willing, because no one has ever really replaced him. He has been the definition of the sport for 20 years, from the time we used to wonder if he could have beaten Ali or Louis, all the way till now, when we wonder if he'll bite someone's ear.
Will people remember the anticipation there used to be when he took the ring, over how badly he was going to hurt his opponent with his skills? At 20, he became the youngest heavyweight champ ever.
It's not easy to remember specifics anymore, but I do recall Marvis Frazier trying to fall forward onto his face, but Tyson hitting him so quick and hard that Frazier couldn't fall. Finally, he slumped into a seated position.
There was the Trevor Berbick fight, when Berbick, the champ, was knocked down, quickly stood up and wobbled across the ring and fell down again. I had nightmares for weeks. Remember the great Michael Spinks climbing into the ring before the fight with eyes three times their normal size?
Tyson used to intimidate, frighten. Nobody could beat him. He beat himself.
Somewhere in there, he went from boxer to carnival act. He bit Evander Holyfield's ear and lost, grabbed Frans Botha's arm and tried to break it, went to jail for beating up some guys after a car wreck, hit Orlin Norris after the bell, tested positive for marijuana after beating Andrew Golota, then apparently bit Lennox Lewis during a pre-fight news conference.
McBride wasn't scared of Tyson. A guy with a potbelly, who was introduced to bagpipes, and he wasn't afraid of Mike Tyson?
This was a hand-picked victory for Tyson, an attempt to get him back into a title fight. They tried it last year, too, giving him some dead weight named Danny Williams. Williams won.
So they went down from level C, two or three more levels to find McBride.
"A tomato can,'' Tyson said.
Gut McBride like a fish? No. Tyson had already done that to himself.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg121.html
Tyson's circus act comes to ugly end
June 12, 2005
BY GREG COUCH SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
WASHINGTON -- It was over already for Mike Tyson in the sixth round, even though he was winning. His career was down to fighting Kevin McBride, some big slow guy who should be fighting bouncers and barroom toughs. Tyson hit him with quick left body shots and big left hooks. But McBride wouldn't fall down, and Tyson was down to the last gasp for the night, for his career. He tried to grab and snap McBride's arm, but nothing. He head-butted McBride, opening a gash by his left eye. But nothing. He hit below the belt. Nothing.
Talent gone, antics gone. Tyson was there all by himself. He sat down against the ropes with one second left. The bell rang, and this is what I'm going to remember about Mike Tyson forever:
The ring ref stood over him and waved his arms, telling him to get up, that the round was over, not the fight. But Tyson kept sitting there. Get up, Mike. It's not over. It's not over.
It's over. He lost by technical knockout after the sixth round.
"I can't do this no more,'' he said. "I'm not going to lie to myself, not going to embarrass this sport anymore. Losing to a fighter of this caliber. ... This is just my ending, you know.
"I don't want to look back on it. My career has been over since 1990.''
He hasn't won a significant fight since 1991, when he beat Donovan Ruddock. He was 24 then. He's 38 now. Has it really been that long?
And if this career seems like an American tragedy to you, that's fine. To me, it was just a waste. And it's just going to get uglier now because even though it's over, he is going to have to keep fighting to pay off all his debts.
But there was a definite finality here. They're going to say that he quit this fight, but really he just had nothing left to give.
He threw it all away
He tried to give us the old Tyson, the great fighter, one more time, but couldn't do it. He kept trying to reinvent himself, but he's permanently trapped in his persona now. He threw so much away, his talent, his fortune.
But the persona is all he has left to sell, and he'll fight until every last cent has been wrung from his credibility.
Tyson still filled the MCI Center with more than 15,000 fans. But as he sat there, people were yelling, women were crying.
"They mustn't be too sensitive,'' Tyson said. "I'm a cold and cruel and hard person. I've been abused any way I can be abused. I see people cry when I lose. Save your tears. I don't know how to handle that.''
His greatest abuser stared at him in the mirror every day.
Tyson has been a freak show, and not a fighter, for years now. But he spent the buildup to the fight looking like a new man. After one public workout, a fan somehow was able to ask a question during a news conference. He harshly asked Tyson if he was done with the antics, and would now start being a fighter again.
Tyson calmly chastised the man for using foul language in front of the kids in the audience. Unfortunately, he repeated back the same foul words several times.
He is who he is.
During another news conference, he started getting angry and pronounced his plans for McBride: "I'm going to gut him like a fish.''
Headlines.
People keep coming back
We still come for his freak show, and the sport is willing, because no one has ever really replaced him. He has been the definition of the sport for 20 years, from the time we used to wonder if he could have beaten Ali or Louis, all the way till now, when we wonder if he'll bite someone's ear.
Will people remember the anticipation there used to be when he took the ring, over how badly he was going to hurt his opponent with his skills? At 20, he became the youngest heavyweight champ ever.
It's not easy to remember specifics anymore, but I do recall Marvis Frazier trying to fall forward onto his face, but Tyson hitting him so quick and hard that Frazier couldn't fall. Finally, he slumped into a seated position.
There was the Trevor Berbick fight, when Berbick, the champ, was knocked down, quickly stood up and wobbled across the ring and fell down again. I had nightmares for weeks. Remember the great Michael Spinks climbing into the ring before the fight with eyes three times their normal size?
Tyson used to intimidate, frighten. Nobody could beat him. He beat himself.
Somewhere in there, he went from boxer to carnival act. He bit Evander Holyfield's ear and lost, grabbed Frans Botha's arm and tried to break it, went to jail for beating up some guys after a car wreck, hit Orlin Norris after the bell, tested positive for marijuana after beating Andrew Golota, then apparently bit Lennox Lewis during a pre-fight news conference.
McBride wasn't scared of Tyson. A guy with a potbelly, who was introduced to bagpipes, and he wasn't afraid of Mike Tyson?
This was a hand-picked victory for Tyson, an attempt to get him back into a title fight. They tried it last year, too, giving him some dead weight named Danny Williams. Williams won.
So they went down from level C, two or three more levels to find McBride.
"A tomato can,'' Tyson said.
Gut McBride like a fish? No. Tyson had already done that to himself.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg121.html
