Though Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson (Pictures) still has British bomber James Thompson (Pictures) to contend with at EliteXC’s debut with CBS on May 31, it hasn’t stopped potential suitors from getting in line for a shot at the Internet legend.
Challengers like Strikeforce heavyweight contender Paul Buentello (Pictures) and boxing implant Eric “Butterbean” Esch (Pictures) have publicly voiced their interest in taking on the rising star.
But a rumored bout between “Slice” and 41-year-old former boxing champion Mike Tyson is not in the works, despite various Web site reports posted Thursday stating that the once-feared pugilist has verbally agreed to square off with Slice, 36, in the EliteXC cage.
“I have had no discussions with Mike Tyson or anybody surrounding Mike. I know Mike and yes, I would make the Kimbo Vs. Mike Tyson fight in a heartbeat,” said EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw during a teleconference Thursday hyping the May 31 card.
Kimbo Ferguson’s brutal backyard brawls have drawn tens of millions of viewers on the Internet and made him nothing short of a marketing goldmine. The Florida native will be featured in a coming issue of ESPN the Magazine, a privilege previously reserved only for UFC icon Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell.
His bout with Thompson will be Ferguson’s third professional MMA contest, which makes a matchup against Mike Tyson all the more unlikely at this time.
Esch, the 400-pound “King of the 4 Rounders,” is apparently not an immediate consideration for Kimbo either.
“Right now, no. I don’t have Butterbean on the radar for Kimbo,” said Shaw, who added that he’s spoken with Esch about the bout. “I’m trying to get him in with more MMA fighters and bigger-time fighters, but there may be a time we’ll let Kimbo knock Butterbean out.”
The Cannes film festival is premiering a new documentary about Mike Tyson, directed by James Toback, which is in the Un Certain Regard section of the competition.
There’s no question that Tyson was one of the greatest world heavyweight champions, but he is also the anti-hero - the man who bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear and who served three years in prison for rape.
Toback cast Tyson in the 1995 film “Black and White”, which makes fun of rich, white kids trying to be black - a la Ali G! He says he has always been fascinated by Tyson, as are most people. It’s a bit like when your driving down a road and you see flashing blue or red lights - you slow down and try to get a look at what’s happened. Is it someone fainted on the side walk, a shooting, a car accident - you just need to know.
Tyson always has and always will have this effect. So it will be interesting to see what he has to say for himself in this documantary and how he comes across - vulnerable apparantly.
Toback made the following comments in an interview with Variety magazine:
“The point is not to polish his image or make a cinematic apology, but rather to get a first-hand look at a very complex and epic story.”
“He was honest about all the things that have highlighted his life, from the bitter divorce, the ear-biting, prison, to his becoming a sex addict. He is self-aware, smart and a totally fractured personality, and he made himself completely vulnerable.”
He apparently spent more than 30 hours interviewing Tyson, but for me the most intersting part of a documentary is what the people around the subject have to say.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is coming to Britain during the month of May for a five-city speaking tour, and tells the Sunday Mirror that he wants to help incoming heavyweight.
Haye, who earlier this year unified the cruiserweight division, plans to target more titles when he moves up in weight to the heavyweight division in the next few months. Tyson wants to make sure that Haye doesn’t follow the same path as him.
“I keep hearing about David Haye and I will try and speak to him to make sure that he doesn’t make the type of mistakes I made,” said Tyson.”I’ve been in hell for so long but I’m starting to get my head together. Every day I want to drink and use drugs but I know I need to stay clean. I’ve been in some of the most amazing situations and I look back and realise how lucky I am to be alive.”
Tyson was asked about a possible comebak, but the former champ says a comeback is the furthest thing from his mind.
“There has been a lot of talk about a comeback but all I’m interested in is getting my life back,” Tyson added. “I’m not fighting but I’m taking back control of my life again.”
EA today announced the fourth installment in its popular Fight Night boxing franchise. And surprisingly, Fight Night Round 4 will feature notorious boxing champ Mike Tyson – the first time in nearly a decade.
The game, currently in development for PS3 and Xbox 360 at EA Canada (Vancouver), features a re-written gameplay engine and will “add a variety of fighting styles and boxer differentiation to authentically emulate the greatest fighters of all time.” A new physics and animation system also will allow for missed punches, glancing punches, knockout blows and “rough and tumble inside fighting.”
“The EA SPORTS Fight Night franchise has always been synonymous with quality and innovation that raised the bar for the sports videogame genre,” said Kevin Wilkinson, Executive Producer, EA SPORTS. “EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 was a platform defining game as the industry transitioned to next generation consoles. EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 will change how boxing games are played and measured in the future.”
The game currently is slated for release some time in 2009. No rating is assigned just yet.
Mike Tyson’s greatest wins were devastating displays of speed and power, but in other fights critics saw technical flaws and emotional frailty. Here is a look at 10 Tyson fights: five in which he looked like one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, and five that will have a negative impact on his place in boxing history.
The Best
KO1 Marvis Frazier — Glens Falls, N.Y., July 26, 1986
Although Marvis Frazier had been stopped in one round by Larry Holmes, he entered his bout with the 20-year-old Tyson on a six-bout winning streak and was considered a good test. Once the bell sounded, though, it was clear that Smokin’ Joe’s son didn’t stand a chance. Tyson crumpled him against the ropes with a series of uppercuts and referee Joe Cortez started to count, then waved the fight off just 30 seconds in. Frazier got a few laughs at the postfight press conference when he said: “Mike, you must have had a sledgehammer [in your fist].”
KO2 Trevor Berbick — Las Vegas, Nov. 22, 1986
Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history by blasting his way though the experienced Jamaican Trevor Berbick, who had been viewed as the prodigy’s toughest opponent. Long-serving sports columnist Jerry Izenberg wrote that Berbick “brings experience and a classic kind of awkwardness to the match.” Berbick’s experience and awkwardness didn’t help him. The big left hook that ended the fight in the second round had an astonishing effect as Berbick twice fell back to the canvas before managing to drag himself up, for three knockdowns from one punch. Veteran British reporter Donald Saunders wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “The noble and manly art of boxing can at least cease worrying about its immediate future, now [that] it has discovered a heavyweight champion fit to stand alongside Dempsey, Tunney, Louis, Marciano and Ali.”
TKO7 Tyrell Biggs — Atlantic City, N.J., Oct. 16, 1987
Undefeated Olympic gold medalist Tyrell Biggs, with his height, reach, movement and boxing skills, was thought by some to have a good chance at upsetting Tyson. “We’ve just got a good gut feeling about this fight,” Biggs’s co-manager and co-trainer Lou Duva told reporters.
The fight proved to be a mismatch. Tyson showed boxing skills as well as punching power, even outjabbing the 6-foot-5 Biggs. Michael Marley wrote in The New York Post: “Hell, the kid from Catskill by way of Brooklyn wasn’t perfect. He was better. He was pluperfect.”
KO1 Michael Spinks — Atlantic City, N.J., June 27, 1988
If anyone could beat Tyson, some in the fight fraternity believed, it would be the undefeated Michael Spinks, who in his last fight had chopped down the much bigger Gerry Cooney in five rounds. Spinks could box and move, had an excellent jab and hit hard with the right hand. Veteran writer Dave Anderson assured fight-day readers of The New York Times: “Sometime around midnight, Michael Spinks will be the new undisputed heavyweight champion. Probably in a 12-round decision. But possibly in a late-round knockout.” The fight turned out to be a 91-second massacre. Colin Hart reported in the British tabloid The Sun that Tyson blew Spinks away “as if he were a twig in a typhoon.”
TKO3 Frank Bruno — Las Vegas, March 16, 1996
Britain’s Frank Bruno had managed to rock Tyson before being overwhelmed in five rounds in a previous meeting. This time, Tyson smashed right through him, and referee Mills Lane rescued the bloodied, battered Bruno 50 seconds into Round 3. It was Tyson’s third consecutive win after his four-year layoff because of a rape conviction. Ken Jones reported in British newspaper The Independent: “If not entirely Tyson reincarnate, he had looked a considerable heavyweight, still devastatingly quick and powerful.”
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The worst
W10 James “Quick” Tillis — Glens Falls, N.Y., May 3, 1986
The fight with veteran James “Quick” Tillis was the one that first raised doubts about Tyson. He won a unanimous decision but struggled after dropping Tillis with a left hook in the fourth round. For the first time, there was a sense of disappointment about a Tyson performance, Richard Hoffer noting in the Los Angeles Times: “Tyson did not do as much damage inside as he normally does, and he was strangely inactive in the final three rounds.”
W12 James “Bonecrusher” Smith — Las Vegas, March 7, 1987
It was difficult for Tyson to look good against the clutching tactics employed by Bonecrusher Smith. The crowd started booing as early as the third round. Tyson resorted to rough tactics, including landing punches after the bell. Ominously, Tyson was wobbled by a right hand in the last round. Among those critical of Tyson’s performance was Hart, who wrote, “the image of Tyson the Terrible took a knock. Who knows? It’s possible he could turn out to be Mike the Myth.”
L-KO10 James “Buster” Douglas — Tokyo, Feb. 11, 1990
The stunning loss to Buster Douglas stripped away Tyson’s aura of invincibility. Douglas landed jabs and right hands, pounding Tyson’s left eye shut and surviving a knockdown to win in spectacular fashion in the 10th. Despite the closeness of two scorecards, Douglas seemed to have dominated the fight. Tyson just plodded in, trying to land one big punch at a time.
“Technically and emotionally, he was not into the fight,” reported Phil Berger in The New York Times.
L-TKO11 Evander Holyfield — Las Vegas, Nov. 9, 1996
Chew on this: Evander Holyfield, right, proved the way to beat Tyson was to stand up to him.
Faced with an opponent of immovable will in Evander Holyfield, Tyson was outfought, outgamed and outlasted. Tyson’s harshest critics will point to this fight as one in which he was exposed as a power-punching front-runner who would wilt when faced with a determined and skilled opponent who refused to go away when hit. Anderson wrote in the Times: “In the MGM Grand, where ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is part of the film heritage, the 34-year-old Holyfield turned the brute known as Iron Mike into the Tin Man.”
L-DQ end of 3 Evander Holyfield — Las Vegas, June 28, 1997
In the ultimate fall from grace, Tyson was disqualified by Lane after twice biting Holyfield’s ears. The widely held view is that Tyson, sensing another long, tough, losing fight was ahead of him, in effect took an easy passage out of the bout. “Fear causes people to do things to get out of it,” Holyfield said afterward.
Tyson argued that he was retaliating after being cut from what he felt was an intentional head butt. USA Today’s Mike Lopresti was one of many who were not buying the excuse, remarking in a scathing commentary on Tyson’s shocking conduct: “There is not the slightest honor left, if there was any before.”
“My next house is gonna be really small, a regular house with real people (neighbors).” Rapper 50 Cent insists he’s tired of living in boxer Mike Tyson’s sprawling Connecticut mansion.
A day after Cory Spinks lost to Verno Phillips by way of a 12-round split decision, his Uncle Michael Spinks is reminded of the only loss of his career. It was his final bout and it lasted a mere 91 seconds. Back in 1988, Michael lasted only 91 seconds against Mike Tyson. Until that fight Michael was undefeated. Michael blames his annihilation by Tyson on a lengthy layoff between fights, and is convinced a long layoff is also the main reason his nephew Cory Spinks lost on Thursday.
Quoted by the Associated Press, Michael stated: “Cory had his hands full being out of the ring for about a year. Ring rust is going to play a part, and if it hadn’t, it would have been amazing.”
“You think you’ve got it and you try to move from a punch you see coming, and it’s almost in slow motion. You want to do it, but you can’t.”
The loss reminds Michael of his defeat to Tyson. Michael recalled to the AP: “They waited me out. They said, ‘We don’t need Spinks. Did I have ring rust? I’m sure I did because I fought a foolish fight, I went out there trying to slug with the guy and I got nailed.”
Michael also told the AP that he got some advice from Muhammad Ali before he faced Tyson, but he didn’t utilize Ali’s wisdom. “That wasn’t usually my fight. Muhammad Ali told me before the fight to jab and move from side to side, and I didn’t do that,” said Michael.
In describing the effects of opponents who talk smack and try to get inside your head, such as Calzaghe and Hopkins have been doing to one another, Lennox Lewis used his experience with his fight with Mike Tyson to give his views on the effects of smack talk.
In discussing the smack talk between Calzaghe and Hopkins, Lewis reflected on his own past experience, stating: “Some opponents listen to it. Some opponents take it in and some opponents use it and take advantage of it.”
Lewis says he took advantage of the smack talk during his career, utilizing it for motivation. “Like me, for example,” said Lewis, adding: “Mike Tyson bit me on the leg (in January 2002) and I used that to my advantage.
Lewis further explained: “Everyday I put up a picture of Mike Tyson at training camp and said, ‘Ok, he had first blood, but I am going to finish the fight.”
