LOUISVILLE – Mike Tyson will fight again. Just when and where only time will tell. Louisville, Memphis, Hackensack, who knows? But mark my words he will fight again. And people will watch even if they say they won’t, because Tyson may no longer be a great fighter. But he is still Mike Tyson.
“All sports are entertainment,” Showtime boxing boss Jay Larkin was saying this week, “and within the world of entertainment, I could argue boxing is the most dramatic sport. And within the most dramatic sport, the most dramatic personality is Mike Tyson.”
He remains so today even after being knocked out by unheralded Danny Williams of England in the fourth-round of Tyson’s supposed “Return for Revenge” Friday night at a packed Freedom Hall. Overpowered and out-slugged by a virtual unknown, Tyson suffered the kind of defeat that makes retirement the most logical and healthiest progression.
“I care about Mike,” said Tyson trainer Freddie Roach. “I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
Slumped on the canvas against the ropes, his right eye bleeding from a cut, Tyson, now 50-5 with four of his losses by knockout, looked ready for a new career.
Before the fight, he had pronounced himself in great shape physically and mentally. He looked good in the first two rounds, jabbing, moving and staggering Williams in the first with a left hook followed by an uppercut. But by the end of the third round, Williams was showing he could stand toe-to-toe with a tiring Tyson, inviting a slugfest the underdog would eventually win by dropping the former undisputed champion with a barrage of unanswered punches in the fourth.
“I thought we were on our way to a quick KO,” Roach said. “But the bigger guy just outlasted Mike.”
Tyson, who won the first three rounds on all three judges cards, tore a meniscus in his left knee in the first round and couldn’t put much leverage on it the rest of the fight. He could be headed for surgery in Phoenix.
The loss is a huge setback for Tyson and his manager Shelly Finkel. A deal worth $80 million was being dangled by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. Now earning $8 million over his next two fights will be difficult.
Still, you should expect to see Tyson again, maybe within in a year, maybe in a rematch with Williams. He’ll fight because boxing is what he does, and because he still owes the IRS nearly $40 million, and because he fought with everything he had Friday night against a bigger, younger and more determined opponent. A crowd of 17,000 got its money’s worth and those that paid $44.95 got to see a decent heavyweight brawl.
Tyson might lose as many as he wins from here on out. But he’ll continue to fight because people will pay to see it. Arum said he may still want to do deal at a lower number, and Don King wouldn’t mind owning a piece of Tyson either.
Both would be better at maximizing Tyson’s dollars than Finkel, who got his fighter beaten just before an $80 million payday, then declined to show at the post-fight press conference to speak for Team Tyson. Instead, Roach was sent out to field questions about Tyson’s future.
“Mike’s 38 and he took a lot of shots,” Roach said. “When everything settles down, we’ll have a long talk and see where we should go.”
There are plenty of fights out there for Tyson: Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver, Lamon Brewster, John Ruiz, Vasilli Jirov, James Toney. Those fights will make money. And people will watch because Tyson’s life was reality TV before there was reality TV. The show isn’t over yet.
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Tyson tamers
Mike Tyson’s loss to Brit Danny Williams on Friday night marked the fifth defeat of his career. Here’s a look at them:
FEB. 11, 1990, Tokyo – James “Buster” Douglas – 10th-round KO
NOV. 9, 1996, Las Vegas – Evander Holyfield – 11th-round TKO
JUNE 28, 1997, Las Vegas – Evander Holyfield – 3rd-round DQ for ear biting
JUNE 8, 2002, Memphis, Tenn. – Lennox Lewis – 8th-round KO
FRIDAY, Louisville, Ky. – Danny Williams – 4th-round KO
