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Surreal scene Manchester was a real trip
Posted: Thursday January 27, 2000 08:37 PM
The highway from London to Manchester was clogged Wednesday night and not only by the local traffic as we made our way to the site of the fight. Both Mike Tyson and his Saturday night opponent Julius Francis were on the road as well and arrived in Manchester within minutes of each other after a five hour ride. We arrived at the same time as the fighters did and were immediately swept up into a almost surreal scene. Tyson was engulfed by well over 1,000 fans who had waited hours for his arrival. As he disappeared into his hotel, we waded into the crowd to get their reaction. Then Julius Francis suddenly walked around the corner, almost unrecognized by the fans until our camera lights caught him and that created another mad rush of people his way. Francis was forced to get on top of a police van and was alternately booed and cheered by the pro-Tyson crowd. Then as Francis motored off, Tyson appeared at his hotel room window with a bull-horn and thanked the crowd for waiting and politely asked them to go home so as not to cause a riot.
On Thursday the buzz continued here in Manchester as the two fighters held their official news conference. Tyson was relatively upbeat and promised the usual destruction of his opponent. Francis meanwhile, literally tuned out Tyson and everyone else at the news conference by wearing headphones listening to music because no one was asking him any questions. We caught up with the British champion and asked if him if his stare down with Tyson did anything to conquer his nerves. Tyson has beaten half of his opponent purely with intimidation. But Francis, who was wearing dark glasses [Tyson was not], tried to assure us that when he looked into Tyson's eyes, it only fortified his belief that Tyson is only human and not Superman. Meanwhile as the countdown continues, Tyson has vowed there will be no sightseeing or any other activity on his part because he's saving his energy and focus to make the upcoming bout a short one. We'll talk with you again from Manchester on Friday and tell you how the official weigh-in went and what the mood is like one day out from the opening bell. Nick Charles is the senior correspondent for CNN/SI, the 24-hour sports news network from CNN and Sports Illustrated. "Page One with Nick Charles," a show investigating the most current and compelling topics in sports, can be seen at 7:30 a.m. ET Sundays on CNN and at 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday on CNN/SI.
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