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Sideshow Tyson-Lewis is not a contest so much as an exhibitionPosted: Wednesday June 05, 2002 12:15 PM
There are three most unusual aspects to the Mike Tyson fight this Saturday. First, although Tyson is fighting the heavyweight champion of the world, this man is never mentioned. Do you know who Tyson is fighting? For $600 in the Double Jeopardy category of Famous Nobodies, the answer is ... Lennox Lewis. OK, we not only have one fighter nobody knows, we also have an event where hardly anybody cares about the outcome. Essentially, people are buying tickets to see if Tyson will come apart at the seams and do something sad or sick or merely outrageous. In a very real sense, this is not a contest so much as an exhibition. Finally, it's also one of those rare events where, uh, sensitive fans, have to justify their ticket purchases. Sales are lagging. But hang on. This bout reminds me of the old circus sideshows, where once you paid to get inside the tent, you were asked to fork over an extra half-a-buck to see something especially freakish -- the two-headed baby or the half-man/half-woman, whatever. People always waited until the last moment before they'd plunk down their 50 cents -- embarrassed to seem too enthusiastically kinky, wrestling with their conscience and their good sense, knowing it was both obscene and a case of throwing good money after bad. But, in the end, I and all the other creeps would fork over the half-a-buck. I'm sure that'll happen with the Tyson fight. At the last, come Saturday, a lot of us will have our mean-spiritness rise from our depths and we'll pony up $55 dollars so we can watch the man stand on the ledge and see if he really will jump. Of course, maybe all the real -- all the real and good -- things going on in sports have tamped down the hype enough to reduce the crowds, live and pay-TV. The fact that the World Cup is occupying fans all over the world, and the NBA and NHL playoffs have the attention of people in North America, and War Emblem is going for the Triple Crown, and French Open tennis is on, and U.S. Open golf is coming up -- mercifully, even Tyson screaming his most nauseating and vulgar rants has had to scratch for attention. But, have no fear, in the end, nobody ever went broke underestimating our worst instincts. If nothing really awful occurs, at least there will be a fight to see. And suppose Tyson loses? Just asking. The question then is not so much what happens to that poor, beknighted soul as what happens to boxing. The heavyweight division is the only one that attracts broad interest, and the bald fact is that since Muhammad Ali's heyday a quarter century ago, Tyson has been the only boxer to make a dent in the public consciousness. In many respects, like it or not, Mike Tyson is boxing, and if whatshisname, Lennox Lewis, beats him, Tyson is, at last, kaput. Not even Don King could renew that reality show again. Oh boxing won't go away, any more than will pornography, cigarettes, cell phones, adultery or oil dependency. But boxing certainly will sink much, much further from the prying eyes of the more discriminating citizens of the 21st century. Hmm. One more excuse to shell out my $55 bucks and be a witness to history. Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His new novel, The Other Adonis (Sourcebooks Landmark), is available now at bookstores everywhere. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer |
