By Bruno Camuti: I recently saw an interview with Mike Tyson where he walked out after some pretty idiotic and insensitive questions were asked about his recently deceased daughter. At the time I was on the phone to a friend and when seeing that Tyson was on TV, I immediately stopped listening to the person on the other end of the phone and found myself glued to the TV waiting to hear what was going to come out of iron mikes mouth.
It’s amazing that years after he has retied from the ring this former heavyweight king (50 Wins, 6 Losses, 2 No Contest, 44 Knockouts) still has ability to draw us in and intrigue us. It’s an aura and a presence that I can only compare with that of Muhammad Ali. Ali drew us in with his fantastic in ring ability and his charismatic personality, whereas Tyson endeared himself to us with his ferocity and intensity. His menacing demeanour and his ability to destroy his opponents are what got him into our heads.
Both made headlines inside the ring and outside the ring, unfortunately Tyson will probably be remembered by many people for his many misdemeanours instead of his exceptional talent inside the ring. His explosive power and hand speed with the ability to dispatch opponents with frightening ease is how he should be remembered. Up until the Buster Douglas fight he was seen as invincible (the modern day sonny Liston) Many believe including myself that if Tyson could have stayed on the straight an narrow Tyson may have gone on to dominate for years, but hey who knows for sure right. After that fateful night in Tokyo Japan Tyson by his own admissions admits that his career was over. Anything after he said was not the real Mike Tyson. I tend to agree with mike here as it was plain to see post prison mike Tyson was not the same.
As a boxing fan I will always remember Iron Mike as an action packed fighter who picked up the slack in the heavyweight division when Muhammad Ali retired. A fighter who had us so hooked that we would stay up until 4am to watch a fight which would only last about 30 seconds (which we knew but still stayed up anyway) I’m pretty sure if Tyson said he was coming out of retirement to fight again many a fight fan would pay to watch it, just to see what happens. (I know I would) I struggle to find many fighters that have that kind of quality and have the ability to draw us in with such ease.
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