Dylan Hernandez Dylan Hernandez is
picking Golota to knock out Tyson (legitimately) in the seventh.
Hernandez can be reached at [email protected].
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Boxing is dying. You don’t need to see the latest
television ratings to realize that.
One of boxing’s most exciting matchups in years ““
Felix Trinidad v. Fernando Vargas on Dec. 2 ““ is just around
the corner, but no one seems to care. No one even seems to know
that the fight was signed a couple of weeks ago.
The little attention the sport is getting, instead, is being
diverted to tomorrow night’s joke of a fight between Mike
Tyson and Andrew Golota. Considering it’s a ten-round,
non-title bout between two washed-up fighters, it’s not a
good sign for boxing.
People are looking forward to a brutal beating, which in most
cases, would be fine. The sport has rules and officials who are
supposed to keep combatants from getting seriously injured.
Problem is, most fans are expecting someone to get hurt when
Tyson or Golota ““ who are considered the dirtiest fighters in
the world ““ snap and disregard these regulations. So in that
sense, people aren’t shelling out $50 to see boxing.
To the masses, boxing’s greatest appeal lies in its sheer
barbarism. Most people don’t pay to watch a boxing match;
they pay to watch a fight. They want to see someone come close to
being hammered out of existence without actually dying; that
hasn’t happened much lately.
And due to the sport’s failure to deliver anything violent
enough, it has been reduced to a state in which it has to rely on
farces like Tyson-Golota to ensure its survival.
For much of the last century, boxing was among the most popular
sports in America. It adequately satisfied people’s thirst
for savagery.
Boxing continued to get its fair share of press in the early
1980s, as Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Tommy
Hearns took turns bombing each other’s brains out. The sport
got a big boost later that decade when Tyson came on the scene and
battered his opponents senseless.
In the years during Tyson’s first jail stint, however,
boxing began to change. Seeing former champions like Muhammad Ali
and Floyd Patterson barely able to speak may have made fighters
more cautious.
Most of today’s top fighters ““ i.e. Roy Jones, Floyd
Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya ““ are safety-first
counterpunchers. They don’t bull their way in and open up.
Rather, they wait until their opponents make a mistake or tire
before firing away.
Furthermore, the maximum number of rounds has been reduced from
15 to 12, eliminating knockouts that are a result of fatigue.
Consequently, no one really gets clobbered. Title fights rarely
end with someone sprawled out on the canvas, even when two
powerpunchers are facing each other.
And that’s why boxing has transformed into a cult sport
watched only by die-hards.
Tomorrow’s Tyson-Golota fight, though, is expected to get
an audience of a million or so on pay-per-view. It’s not
because it’ll be a good boxing match ““ it won’t
be.
As the saying goes, styles make fights, and more often than not,
when a tall fighter (like 6-foot-4 Golota) is pinned against a
short one (Tyson is 5-foot-10), the bout will resemble a hugfest
between two water buffaloes. It doesn’t help, either, that
these fighters’ skills eroded long ago.
What most people are counting on is that one of these guys will
lose his head in the ring, explode in a fit of rage, forget about
the rules and do serious damage to his opponent. Judging by their
pasts, it’s very likely.
Tyson, of course, bit a chunk off of Evander Holyfield’s
ear in 1997. Since then, he has nearly broken Frans Botha’s
arm, knocked out Orlin Norris with a late punch and took several
shots at Lou Savarese after their fight was stopped (when the
referee tried to prevent Tyson from hitting Savarese, Tyson hit him
out of the way and continued throwing punches).
Golota, on the other hand, is best known for nearly making
Riddick Bowe impotent. Twice, Golota was on his way to victory over
Bowe, but both times, he was disqualified for repeatedly delivering
blows south of the border into “tierras del fuego.”
Tyson, to his credit, has done a magnificent job of selling this
fight. His hand speed is gone and his punch is now wider than
Jennifer Lopez’s rear end, but Tyson has used his mouth to
convince the judgement-impaired boxing media that he’s still
dangerous.
He’s given the press a batch of ridiculous quotes
suggesting he is insane and desperate fans have convinced
themselves that he is serious.
In the bout’s first press conference (which can be seen in
its entirety at www.houseofboxing.com), Tyson delivered several
gems.
“Bring on Golota,” he said. “Bring on
(heavyweight champion Lennox) Lewis. They can keep their titles. I
don’t want to strip them of their titles, I want to strip
them of their f””mdash;ing health.
“I’m in pain, so I want them to be in pain. I want
their kids to see pain. Lennox Lewis, I want his kids to say,
“˜Daddy, are you okay, Daddy?'”
When asked about Golota’s dirty tactics, Tyson replied,
“I wish a motherf””mdash;er would hit me low. If he does,
ohhh, it’s on like a motherf””mdash;er.”
Fans are only wishing it happens.