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Boxing--- The legendary career of Mike Tyson appeared to come to an end tonight, as he lost by sixth round TKO to journeyman fighter Kevin McBride and then announced his retirement from boxing. It was a memorable night and a sad finish to one of the most thrilling and controversial careers in the history of boxing. While it's true that athletes regularly come of retirement, especially in boxing, Tyson came across in every post-fight interview as confident and certain with his decision to retire as anyone I've ever seen.

The Fight, and the Post-Fight Interview
Through five rounds, Tyson vs. McBride was a close fight in which the ferocity of the old Mike Tyson was not present. McBride took a lot of hard shots to the body during the fight, and Tyson took a lot of hard shots to the head. Tyson was ahead on the scorecards going into the sixth round, but he got rocked by an uppercut in the last twenty seconds of the sixth round and was never the same after that. Even before the uppercut, he appeared to be physically hurt and emotionally finished, and the uppercut just sealed the deal.

The closing seconds of the sixth round saw McBride push Tyson to the canvas, which was correctly not ruled a knockdown. Tyson looked dazed and had the look of someone who didn't want to continue, as he struggled to his feet. He staggered back to his corner with a very distant, glassy look in his eyes, and sat down on the stool. Several of Tyson's cornerman then had a heated verbal exchange with each other (more on that in a moment), before the head trainer ultimately asked the referee to stop the fight.

As he announced his retirement during an in-ring interview with Jim Gray after the fight, Tyson said, "I realized early into the fight that I don't have it anymore. I don't have my heart anymore. I was just fighting to take care of my bills. I don't have the stomach for this anymore. I don't have that ferocity anymore. I don't love this anymore."

When asked by Jim Gray what his future holds, Tyson said, "I do not have the guts to be in this sport anymore, and I don't want to disrespect the sport that I love by continuing to fight like this. My heart is not into this anymore. I'm sorry for the fans. I wish I could have done better. I want to move on with my life. It's time to move on with my life and be a father, take care of my children."

Repulsive Display from Tyson's Corner
The argument among Tyson's cornermen in the closing moments of the Tyson-McBride fight only serves to further illustrate that the best thing for Mike Tyson's life is to get as far away from boxing as possible. It's the entourage of people surrounding him, leeching off of him, who helped rack up his huge debt and continued to treat him like a piece of property that exists for them to profit from, right up until the very end. Tyson's best shot at being alive ten years from now is to get far, far away from the kind of people who were screaming in his corner right before the fight was stopped.

You see, as Mike Tyson was sitting on the stool in the corner after the sixth round, having taken a lot of clean shots to the head, in a dazed state, and clearly looking like he didn't want to continue, the instant replay on the pay-per-view broadcast with amplified audio was able to clearly and sickeningly reveal that everyone in his corner except the head trainer was actually yelling at the head trainer to NOT stop the fight.

They were yelling at the head trainer to ignore anything Tyson may have to say, and send him out there for the seventh round even though he would be out on his feet. They were yelling at the head trainer to "leave him alone," meaning don't talk to him and find out what he has to say, and hopefully he will go out for the seventh round just out of pride.

If you rewind through the magic of TIVO and listen carefully, the actual quotes are as follows, with the assistant cornermen yelling the following at the head cornerman: "Come on, come on, leave him alone! Leave him the f--k alone! Just leave him alone! Come on, don't f--k with me! Leave him the f---k alone!"

Fortunately, the head trainer, longtime Tyson friend Jeff Fenech, wasn't willing to send a fighter out for another round who was in no condition to continue, and might have been seriously injured if he had continued.

In the face of all the leeches in the corner yelling at him to send Tyson out for the seventh round at all costs, Fenech showed that he has a spine in his back and a heart in his chest, as he yelled back at them, "I'm the f---ing boss!" essentially telling them to shut up, before he informed the referee that the fight had to be stopped.

Being a "Quitter" in Boxing, and Retiring as a Shell of Your Former Self
I've already seen a lot of knee-jerk reactionary talk on the Internet, branding Tyson as someone who will be remembered as a "no-good quitter" and acting as though it's disgraceful for a boxer to ever quit during a fight. Ten or twenty years from now, people are not going to remember Tyson quitting in this fight and think of his career as a disgrace because of that. Is Roberto Duran a disgrace for the infamous "No mas" episode? Is Kostya Tszyu a disgrace for just last week saying that he had enough before the 12th round in his fight against Ricky Hatton? I don't think so.

Furthermore, it is downright ridiculous for anyone say that a boxer should never quit, given the fact that countless boxers have died over the years from brain injuries that were suffered during fights. For any boxing fan who thinks that a dazed and disoriented fighter (as Tyson was) doesn't have the right to not go out for the next round, you need a serious reality check of how dangerous boxing can really be.

The online database of boxing deaths lists 1,255 deaths that have been documented from 2005 going all the way back to the year 1741, including 53 deaths in the past five years. In addition to people who have died, there are countless others with mild brain damage, or severe brain damage, or who are in a coma. Just a few weeks ago on a fight card in Los Angeles, a boxer named Ruben Contreras suffered head trauma, had to have emergency brain surgery in order to save his life, and is still in a coma.

There's no doubt Tyson is leaving the sport of boxing as a shell of his former self, but that's really the norm in boxing instead of the exception. It's incredibly common for a legendary boxer to lose fights to sub-par boxers at the end of his career. That includes the Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali, who is so respected and worshipped, as he should be and as he was during his appearance on this very broadcast. That includes Sugar Ray Leonard, who actually retired a grand total of seven times according to PTI's count. That includes almost every single heavyweight champion in the history of the sport, with Rocky Marciano being one of the only exceptions. A former champion retiring as a shell of his former self is nothing new in boxing.

Post-Fight Press Conference Proves to be Very Revealing
There are two sides to Mike Tyson. There's the entertaining, crazy side that exists to create hype for pending fights and to satisfy the media and public demand for that side of him, as we saw earlier this week at the pre-fight press conference for this fight. Then there's the articulate, intelligent, student of the game who knows as much about boxing history as anyone, and who is actually a quiet and reserved person most of the time. You saw that side of Mike Tyson if you saw the week he co-hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live, and you can often see that side of Mike Tyson immediately after a boxing match, when there is no "next big fight" to promote.

Without boxing as something to focus on, Tyson's life could easily spiral out of control and come to a tragic end, but at the post-fight press conference, he appeared to be more at peace with himself and more intent on doing something with his future than he has been in a long time. This was definitely the articulate, intelligent Mike Tyson, as he reflected on his life, talked about the overseas missionary work that he sees as his future, and seemed even more certain than he did in the Jim Gray interview about his lack of a future in boxing.

At the post-fight press conference, which was broadcast on ESPN News, Tyson said, "There's nothing that can happen that hasn't already happened to me in my life... I could just keep on fighting or be a boxing broadcaster and have people compliment me and all that, but I'm not really contributing anything. I'm not doing anything for anybody, I'm not helping anybody. I feel like I need to do something where I'm helping people who desperately need help, just some kind of contribution in this world.... I could help children in the inner cities in America, but that would still be dictated by the media and I understand the stigma that I have in this country... I need to go to other places in the world like Bosnia or Rwanda where I've talked to some missionary organizations that would be willing to have me work for them, and I need to help people, doing the missionary work, in any way that I can."

The assembled members of the media gave Tyson a standing ovation at the post-fight press conference, even as he told them to sit down because he didn't know how to react emotionally to any "swan song." Through the highs and the lows, Mike Tyson has provided boxing fans with a lot of thrills and entertainment over the past two decades. If this was indeed his last fight, we as boxing fans should wish him the best in his life after boxing, and should hope that he finds meaning, purpose, and happiness in the missionary work that he seems to be genuinely anticipating.

Labels: Boxing

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:57 PM

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