Fascination with Mike Tyson is proving to be a lot more durable than he ever was as a fighter. A sure sign of that is his appearance at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of a documentary that – from fear to loathing – is said to portray everything in a life that resembles one long accident.
It’s hard to figure out what more can be added to the Tyson story. Still, there’s no end to the interpretations.
It sounds as if this documentary, Tyson, is just another look at a former heavyweight champ who could never overcome an identity forever fractured by insecurities. Every couple of years there are interviews, stories and updated films that sift away all the craziness in an attempt to find the “real” Tyson.
It would be nice if Tyson could find that person himself. But the guess is that he can’t, and neither can anyone else. In the ring and perhaps out of it, he always seemed to be plagued by an inability to withstand adversity.
More often than not, he was finished if his innate power didn’t score a quick knockout.
Evander Holyfield understood that about him before scoring an 11th-round stoppage of Tyson in 1996 and before the infamous night in 1997 when Holyfield lost part of an ear to Tyson’s teeth.
Director James Toback, a longtime Tyson friend, said he conducted more than 30 hours of interviews for the documentary.
But Holyfield’s victory in ’96 and Lennox Lewis’ eighth-round KO of Tyson in 2002 say it all.
As a fighter, Tyson is a short subject and not one worthy of the Hall of Fame, although he might get in as easily as he got into Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail.
Tyson will be eligible for the hall in a couple of years, or five years after his last fight – a loss to Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005.
But the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., like the Cannes Film Festival in France, has fallen under the Tyson spell.
Officially, Tyson isn’t in the hall. But pictures of him and his fights are there, anyway. Within the hall’s doors he is more prominent than many of those inducted years ago.
There is bound to be an argument that Tyson is worthy of induction because he was the youngest heavyweight to ever win the title.
But he never fulfilled any of the potential expected after his early triumph. Maybe, there’s a fascinating film in that failure. But if there is any fame in the latest edition of the Tyson tale, it must be fiction.
Valley camp
Despite an ongoing drought of Phoenix fight cards, boxers are still coming to town to train.
Light-heavyweight Shaun George (17-2-2, 8 KOs) of New York worked at Central Boxing before his upset Friday of former heavyweight champ Chris Byrd (40-5-1, 21 KOs) in Las Vegas.
George, who stopped Byrd in the ninth round with trainer Tommy Brooks in his corner, sparred with Antonio Tarver and former International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champ Vassiliy Jirov of Fountain Hills at the old gym on West Van Buren. Tyson once trained there, also with Brooks.
Short shots
Phoenix featherweight Rafael Valenzuela has resumed sparring after suffering a nasty cut in March when a promotional banner for Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in March fell from the ceiling at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay and onto his head.
? And Ricky Hatton returns to the ring Saturday in Manchester, England, against Juan Lazcano in his first fight since he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December. Hatton, who collected a reported $30 million in the Mayweather loss, is as popular as ever. A crowd of 55,000 at Manchester Stadium is expected. Hatton didn’t watch tapes of the Mayweather fight for a while. “It upset me too much,” he said. “But after a holiday, I quit feeling sorry for myself.”
