Thinking the unthinkable?
Thinking about Marco Antonio Barrera, supposedly shopworn and really just back to collect the money uno mas, turning into James ?Buster? Douglas?
Thinking about the boxing writer who skipped Tyson-Douglas even though his newspaper would?ve paid his way. The poor shlub felt like the White House correspondent who missed Reagan getting shot by nutcase Hinckley?
Thinking how it was Don King?s egregious mistake to haul Tyson to Tokyo when Iron Mike had been there once before. On that trip, he played with Tony ?TNT? Tubbs but Tyson just never took to the scenes, sights and sounds of Japan?
Thinking about how AP fight writer Ed Schuyler summed it up, going through immigration control upon landing in Tokyo, was asked how his visit would last. If I recall, Schuyler said, ?About 30 seconds.? Douglas got off the deck to KO Tyson in 10?
Thinking that not even anyone in the Mexican press corps thinks Barrera can win just like the US press corps, except for a kid from the Columbus, Ohio, newspaper (Buster?s hometown), all picked Tyson to steamroll Douglas?
Thinking how I haven?t seen any brave or insane Filpino writer willing to go out on a limb and perhaps commit journalistic suicide, by forecasting a Barrera victory. Would President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declare such a column worthy of treason?…
Thinking about how the media flock at Tyson?s final Tokyo workout left en masse and followed Mike to go meet some sumo wrestler or martial arts guy. I stayed behind along with the hometown paper guy and one other fight scribe to watch Douglas go through a light workout. Douglas, whose mother had recently died and who was feuding with his trainer and father Billy ?Dynamite? Douglas, seemed especially downcast. Good luck, I said. Douglas looked at the floor and mumbled, ?I hope I can get through one round??
Thinking about the idiocy in which the knockdown counter only spoke Japanese and the ref, Octavio Meyran, only spoke Spanish?
Thinking about the unforgettable, instinctual move of a KO?d Mike Tyson, laying face first on the canvas and yet, somehow, reaching, reaching and reaching in vain for his gum shield?the heart of a warrior personified?
Thinking about how Douglas? yahoo of a coach, John Johnson, started telling people that Buster was going to outdo Muhammad Ali?of course, Evander Holyfield cut the Fat Man down in his next fight?
Thinking about how, in one way, that Tyson and this Pacquaio are similar. Tyson had and Pacman has a loyal legion of fans and a cadre of haters. Tyson?s attitude was ?loved by few, hated by many, respected by all.? Does Manny ever think about all those people who want to see him fail, want to see him fall?…
Thinking the unthinkable. Thinking of bold, black banner headlines: BARRERA KOS PACQUAIO or MARCO ANTONIO SHOCKS MANNY?
Nah, it could never happen. Not in real life, only in someone?s imagination.
But that?s what we all said in Tokyo until about 1 p.m. on Feb. 10, 1990, in The Big Egg,
Korakuen Stadium.
Tyson turned into Humpty Dumpty and had a big fall in The Big Egg. The yolk was on Iron Mike?
Wouldn?t it be eggsciting to see Barrera do it? Never happen, MAB is just a shell of his former ring self, isn?t he?
Thinking the unthinkable?
