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Mike Tyson, lounge act

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Drip, Mar 6, 2012.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Great minds think alike. I was coming here to check it anyone had posted a "Raging Bull" reference yet.

    Erie how similar it is, right down to the New York City upbringing, unhealthy marriage, and jail time for a sex crime.
     
  2. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    John L Sullivan went into vaudeville when he was done fighting. As did Jack Johnson. In no way sad, this is the natural order of things.
     
  3. rmanfredi

    rmanfredi Active Member

    This guy thinks that a boxer turned nightclub act sounds like a great idea:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  4. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Condescending prick? The guy had $300 million and blew it. Screw him and the horse he rode in on. It's a sad story to hear about him doing this lounge act.
    As for his moving on, like what other option did he have?
     
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Wayne Newton has $300 million - and still performs in Las Vegas. Not sad.
     
  6. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    How much will it cost to have him sing Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe style, to IJAG? I have an unemployment check that was going to get wasted on bills and food that I'll happily contribute.
     
  7. rmanfredi

    rmanfredi Active Member

    This guy thinks that a boxer turned entertainer sounds like a great idea:

     
  8. Traveling

    Traveling Member

    See? It's not sad at all. You're disgusted by it, and your pithy remarks are beyond transparent.

    What's sad is what happened to his daughter a few years back.

    What other option did Mike have? You're not even aware of how deep in the gutter he was 5-6 years ago.
     
  9. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Mike Tyson was always more entertainer than boxer. He might have been the hardest puncher of his era, but he was never a good boxer. He was a phenomenon. He was as much a great boxer as Vince Carter was a great basketball player. Tyson's best wins came against Donovan Ruddock and Trevor Berbick and Michael Spinks. To say his technical skill betrayed him would be to say he possessed technical skill in the first place. Tyson's frame was too short, his chin too weak, his reflexes too slow. The man could punch and did just enough other things right that he had the opportunity to showcase that power regularly.

    But Tyson was the second-greatest heavyweight entertainer in boxing history, behind only Muhammad Ali. Tyson was special. Tyson made you forget you spent all that money on the pay-per-view for a fight that was over in one round because you could watch that knockout over and over and over. Biting Evander Holyfield's ear was the pinnacle of Tyson the entertainer, who was always the central figure.

    Moreover, Tyson's entertaining nature endeared him to fans. It gave us — yes, I was and still am a Tyson fanboi — unreasonable and unflinching faith in Iron Mike. The next fight, man. The next fight, the old Tyson was going to come out and score that third-round knockout. I remember his bout with Lennox Lewis. I was still living with my parents. A friend had a big-screen TV — I'm not sure high definition existed at the time, and if it did, well, we weren't that rich — and a bunch of us sat down there drinking beers and eating wings and waiting for the fight of a lifetime.

    Alexander the Great, rip his heart out, eat his children, I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey, impregnable defense ... in a one-minute interview, Tyson managed to give this fight a two-year buildup and make Jim Gray urinate himself on national television. The illusion of Tyson the Terrible was at full force. Sure, he'd lost to Holyfield twice. But he'd knocked Lou Savarese out without breaking a sweat. Francois Botha was no match. Andrew Golota got lucky, but we all knew Tyson smoked weed. The angel dust must have washed out of his system before the test.

    But there was a moment in that fight, first round, that I think embodies Mike Tyson the boxer: He goes for a wild left hook and misses by a mile right near the end of the round. It took a ton out of him, but all we could talk about was how Lewis' face would have caved in had it landed. It wasn't a smart punch, and Tyson was lucky Lewis didn't expose him with a quick counter. But it was an entertaining punch. It was a punch to remember. Tyson won that round, as I remember it, but he'd lose the rest.

    There was a Tyson headbutt in one of the rounds. He got cut pretty bad early on, and they never quite sealed it. By the end, he was laboring just to stand. Lewis was too big, too physical, too skilled, too quick, too strong. Tyson just had that hay-maker. He's lived life with a puncher's chance.

    I'll always remember that fight because I lost about $100 on it. There was no good reason to pick Tyson. There is no good reason that we'll all always remember that as Tyson-Lewis. We talked about Tyson afterward. It wasn't xenophobia. Lewis is one of the great heavyweights of all-time with a resume that dwarfs Tyson's. And he was interesting in his own right. And he was the rising star. And he'd beaten Holyfield. And we hated Holyfield. So we liked Lewis. But we wanted to eat his children, before, during and after the fight.

    That's Mike Tyson's power. He was the most entertaining boxer of my lifetime. He's not dangerous to the public. He feeds pigeons. He makes mistakes, bad ones, and he has hurt more people, in and out of the ring, than I think he'd ever care to admit. But the spotlight stays on him. I hope it never leaves.
     
  10. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I know about his plight. I know he's been used and abused by many. I also know that many of the things he did, no one put a gun to his head and made him do it against his will. Mike Tyson is a complicated person. I don't wish ill will against him or anyone else. I'm glad to see that he's making loot.
    But facts are facts. He had $300 million and blew it. That, to me, is sad.
     
  11. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Sugar Ray Robinson.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd70iqK_bsU
     
  12. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Dempsey and Carpentier both toured in vaudeville.
     
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