nuisance with white socks, poor table manners and
a forged party invitation. He’s a fun guy to watch from a distance but you
don’t want him joining your country club.Most of the fight crowd doesn’t attend the ballet or the opera or expect too much in the way of amenities. They don’t know Hamlet from ham and eggs, but they understand the old three-knockdown rule and why you don’t always go to the scorecards. They like simple things, like cold beer, clean knockouts and honest judges handing out fair decisions. Asking for anything more would be stepping out of line.
For the most part, fight fans also have a few heroes. You can’t have a fight game
without heroes. Fortunately, there are a few still out there, guys like Shane Mosley,
Arturo Gatti, Mickey Ward and Vernon Forrest.
There are also a few bad guys. They come with the package. Just about every sport has its felons, but most are either locked up, kicked out of their sport or dead. They seldom become the league’s MVP.
Some boxing people say a win by Mike Tyson over Lennox Lewis on Saturday night would be good for boxing, that it would capture more headlines. Obviously, they figure any press is good press. The fight game could use the exposure, even if it’s the kind you don’t want your wife and kids to see.
They’re right, you know. Boxing needs more high-profile felons, more ugly
controversy, more self-imposed ridicule. It needs to show the world that you ain’t seen nothing yet, guys. Want to know how low we can go as a sport, how big a fool we can be? We’d like to see a convicted rapist become heavyweight champion of the world, that’s how low. It’s a perfect fit. Mike Tyson, ambassador of boxing.
Hey, while it’s down there on its knees gasping for air, let’s kick this sorry sport a few more times in the teeth.
The good news is, in spite of guys like Tyson, the fight game is still alive and still kicking. Regardless of who wins Saturday night, boxing will still be with us Sunday morning. If Tyson is champ, it might wake up a little more beaten and battered than it has in the past, but it will still open its eyes and crawl out of bed.
If he does win, strap yourself in for a wild, scary ride. It won’t be fun or pretty,
but if we’re real lucky, it will be short. And I can promise you it will be memorable.
Disasters aren’t easy to forget.
