by Jeremy "Fasttalker" Bjornberg - 11/07/2005
Part one of a two-part article
I was very negative about the heavyweight division and honestly believe that there isn't anything positive to talk about. The fact that Vitali Klitschko and Hasim Rahman are about to face off in the "biggest" heavyweight battle of the year is all that needs to be said.
The division is obviously in need of someone to take the world by storm. Mike Tyson not only put the division in the public eye he also brought an edge-of-your seat drama to the ring. Mike also has spent or had stolen pretty much every dime he ever made. Mike has no other skills and inevitably will have to make another comeback. He will hookup with a top trainer, go to the gym a few days in a row. Then the stories will circulate about how good he's looking, how he has his focus back. Every boxing writer and fan knows it won't be too long before the slimy Shelly Finkel puts Tyson in the ring with another behemoth.
As I look back at Mike Tyson's career, the strangest thing was that he wasn't involved in any great fights. 90 percent of Tyson's fights were one-sided blowouts. Mike never beat any great opponents either. Michael Spinks was definitely great, but he was undersized and past his prime. He came in undefeated but was only in it for a payday. Mike Tyson's 90-second destruction of Spinks made Tyson the baddest man on the planet, something that none of the creampuff titleholders can claim.
How does boxing miss Mike Tyson? The mainstream public has no interest in boxing other than the Tyson fiascos. Whenever I meet someone who doesn't follow boxing and I tell them what I do, the inevitable question always comes. "Is Mike Tyson still champ?" "When does Tyson fight next?"
The questions are painful because the last thing people should care about is Mike Tyson. The man is one of the biggest buffoons and disappointments the sport has ever seen. His career fizzled faster than Micheal Jackson's skin in the California sun.
Tyson was involved in one of the most confusing marriages in modern history. Robin Givens easily could be the motivation for the new Kanye West hit, "Golddigger". Givens only fooled Tyson as any sober and senile citizen in America realized what she was up to. She also pulled him away from his management and trainers and delivered him to Don King. Don King probably has more to do with Mike Tyson's financial trouble than Tyson himself. King paid him in gold chains and Bentley's and meanwhile stuck Tyson with paying taxes on money he never received.
Although Don burned Tyson for millions, at least he knew how to pick opponents for the former champ. The clueless Shelly Finkel insisted on putting Tyson in the ring with giants every time out. Mike always had trouble with big men. With confidence as fragile as Mike's, there is no excuse for the terrible job Finkel did. The public never cared who Tyson fought so it made no sense for him to fight guys bigger than him every time out. Mike was always undersized and asking him to KO bigger guys every time out isn't much different than asking a middleweight to KO a light heavyweight. People forget size still does play a factor in the heavyweight division. Mike was also old, rusty and shot so it almost seemed like punishment from Finkel.
Tyson then proceeded to lose half his money to Givens in a divorce. Mike would outdo even himself when he was bamboozled into marrying a doctor a few years later who even more brutally took him in the divorce. It is easy to believe that Tyson has considerable mental regression as a prenuptial should have been a necessity.
Tyson reminds me of Micheal Jackson. Both are famous more for their aloofness and strange crimes than for their actual talent. Jackson actually was much luckier than Tyson was in his dealing with the law. Jackson had much more evidence against him than Tyson did but the boy-toy was able to take advantage of qualified lawyers, something Mike ignored in his ill-fated rape trial.
Mike had already started to dig his grave but he was still good enough to have given Evander a run for his money. The fight was shelved due to a prison term for Tyson. As I started to reminisce about Tyson, I realized his career is as strange as any athlete I can think of. I decided I would come up with a list of the best Tyson fiascos as well as his possibilities outside of boxing.
Make sure to check out Part 2 of this expose on Tyson as I will look into all matters from ear biting to porno flicks with shag-queen Jenna Jameson.
Due to all the questions sent in Doc's is going to start a monthly mailbag to sort out all your boxing and gambling questions. It also gives you a forum to express your opinion. Please send all correspondence to service@docsports.com