Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson page 9
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Article page 9 of 13
Initially he struggled in jail, with a further 15 days added on to his sentence in May, after he was found gulty of threatening a guard. He soon settled down to life inside and, according to his autobiography, embarked on an affair with his drugs counsellor after he paid $10,000 to have her roof fixed. Tyson read avidly, though he was not a fan of Hemingway's writing, which he describes as "too much of a downer", and converted to Islam in jail, taking the name Malik Abdul Aziz. In October 1992 his biological father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick, passed away in Brooklyn, but Tyson made no request for leave to attend the funeral. Tyson's first appeal fails in August 1993 as the Indiana Court of Appeals upholds his conviction by a vote of 2-1 and a month later Indiana's Supreme Court denies Tyson's appeal without comment. After serving less than 3 years in jail, Tyson is released in March 1995, with a requirement to register as a sex offender.
Following his parole, Tyson was straight back in the ring for a couple of fighters that were termed 'tomato cans' for him to knock over by the press. First he took on Peter McNeeley in August, in Las Vegas, which saw McNeeley go down twice in the first round, the second knockdown led to McNeeley's trainer, Vinny Vecchione, to jump into the ring to save his fighter from further harm. Vecchione actually attempted to take Tyson on, but he just ensured his fighter was disqualified and the fight was a first round DSQ win for the former champion. In December Buster Mathis Jr. was knocked out in the 3rd round as Tyson put his case forward for another shot at a world title, a rematch with Frank Bruno, who, surprisingly, had managed to win the WBC belt.
This time Las Vegas was full of, according to Tyson, 'rabid' English fans, who booed him and sang about him being a rapist, when Tyson faced Bruno in March 1996 for the WBC heavyweight championship of the world. Bruno had the look of a beaten and scared man, Tyson himself saying that Bruno smelt of fear, and he was holding from the start of the fight. A point was deducted by the referee in the second round due to Bruno's refusal to let go of Tyson, but it was not to matter as Tyson finished the job in the third round, winning by TKO. Tyson was just the 6th man in history to regain the world heavyweight championship after losing it, joining the illustrious company of Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Tim Witherspoon, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman in doing so.
Next up should have been another British boxer in Canada's own Lennox Lewis. However, Lewis took a $4m pay off from Don King to step aside and allow Tyson to fight Bruce Seldon for the WBA belt instead, with the understanding that he would be the next to face Tyson. That was a decision that was to have many consequences. On 7th September 1996 WBC champion Mike Tyson faced WBA champion Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas in a fight that ended with the crowd chanting: "Fix.... Fix.... Fix!" Seldon gave up the WBA belt after he threw himself down in the 1st round after a glancing blow, got up on the count of 6 and then went down again, under what can best be described as a clip, to be counted out. The fight was overshadowed by the aftermath as Tyson's friend Tupac Shakur was murdered on his way home.
Lewis was to have to wait a little longer to get his fight with Tyson as Holyfield, in a fight dubbed 'Finally' was next instead, in November, leading to Tyson being stripped of his WBC belt. Holyfield was 34 years old, four fights into a comeback following his 1994 retirement following a defeat by Michael Moorer and many considered him a 'washed up' fighter. The fight was extremely controversial, as the Tyson camp complained bitterly about Holyfield's frequent headbutts, which referee Mitch Halpern deemed as accidental. The fight ended with an 11th round TKO win for Holyfield, but it left Tyson and his camp bitter and angry over Holyfield's repeated use of his head.
Despite marrying his second wife, Monica Turner, in April, the bitterness over the first fight was still there in June 1997 when the rematch, dubbed 'The Sound And The Fury', took place. Mitch Halpern had been chosen to referee again, but protests from the Tyson camp saw him replaced by Mills Lane for the fight which was to take place in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, just like the first fight. The fight was paused in the 3rd round, with Tyson angered by yet another headbutt, that had opened up a gash over his right eye, being ruled accidental, he bit Holyfield's ear. The referee deducted two points from Tyson and the fight resumed, only for Tyson to then bite Holyfield on the other ear. A near riot in the arena followed as the fight was stopped and several people were injured in the fracas after Tyson's disqualification. It was the first heavyweight title match in over 50 years to end in a disqualification.
After the fight, a piece of Holyfield's ear was found on the canvas floor of the ring. Boxing journalist Jerry Izenberg said after the fight: "At first, I didn't know what had happened; I had no idea. They were fighting in close and then Holyfield started running round in circles. Someone yelled how Tyson had bit him, and then he did it again of course; on the other ear. I can tell you what I heard up close: Mills Lane, a good referee, told Holyfield that, if he felt he couldn't go on, he would call it right now and he'd be the champ still. Don Turner, Holyfield's head trainer told him, 'take it, champ'. But Holyfield said, 'put the mouthpiece in, I'm going to knock the motherfucker out.'"
It was no surprise when, on 9th July, just over a week later, the Nevada State Athletic Commission rescinded Tyson's boxing license and, in a unanimous vote, fined him the maximum possible amount of $3m, as well as ordering him to pay the legal costs of the commission. 1997 was not finished with Tyson though, as the verdict on his late night brawl with Mitch Green back in 1988 saw him ordered to pay Green $45,000 in compensation, despite the jury ruling that Tyson had been provoked. Later that month he suffered a broken rib and punctured lung when his motorcycle hit a patch of sand and he skidded off a Connecticut highway.
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Mike Tyson page 10 of 13
Written by Ed001 - June 04 2018 10:30:52
