He so crazy?

Former champ Holyfield says Tyson isn't a mad man

MEMPHIS -- Conventional wisdom has Mike Tyson wanting no part of Lennox Lewis. If you buy the talk, Iron Mike is s-c-a-r-e-d. That ugly news conference in January where the menacing ex-champ nibbled on Lewis' left thigh? Well, that was just Mike being crazy.

Just hold on a second. Before labeling Tyson a crazy chump, let's turn to Evander Holyfield -- a man more qualified than anyone to speak about either pug. He's battled them both twice. And, hey, when Tyson's bitten a chunk out of your ear, you're supremely qualified to speculate on the guy's mental makeup.

And, well, Holyfield doesn't believe Tyson is so crazy. Afraid of Lewis? Please, if anything Holyfield says it is the other way around.

"People think Tyson is scared because Lewis is bigger,'' Holyfield says. "So why did [Lewis] bring a bodyguard to a press conference? He might be first boxer ever to bring a bodyguard, and tell the bodyguard: 'Stand right here and make sure he don't get to me.' The bodyguard pushed Tyson, and Tyson swung at the bodyguard. [Lewis] is so scared he jumped in and hit Tyson in the head.

Holyfield Q&A
Four-time heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield recently sat down with CNNSI.com senior writer Mike Fish to discuss Mike Tyson and Saturday night's Tyson-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight.
CNNSI.com: What's your take on the way Tyson handles himself? Holyfield: He's not crazy, cause a bully always knows who to mess with and who not. The bully wants to fight people who won't fight back. He wants to make lot of news and scare you. See, nobody really wants to get in a fight, cause everybody who truly knows about fighting knows you don't know how you're gonna come out. Maybe you'll win, but you don't know. CNNSI.com: Is Tyson good or bad for the sport? Holyfield: People want to force Tyson out of the boxing business. But you know what? The promoters and [pay-per-view] cable people -- they need him. That is money. When he fights everybody watches. CNNSI.com: Was the melee at the January press conference contrived or the real thing? Holyfield: They let it get out of control. You know why? 'Cause they realize if you show this side of Tyson -- the bad person -- it ain't gonna hurt the fight. I've been at press conferences before and they tell me, "You need to talk up. You need to say something. Ain't nobody gonna be watching two good guys fighting.'' CNNSI.com: How do you explain Tyson's struggles in and outside the ring? Holyfield: You have your run, but nobody is invincible. He got hurt in the fight with Bonecrusher [Smith]. After Buster Douglas beat him, he started tearing everybody else up. Then he was the only guy ever to go to jail broke and come back out with a $130 million contract. They got helicopters, cameras chasing him. What is a person supposed to feel? You're heavyweight champ of the world, young, and Sports Illustrated is writing that you're the baddest man on the planet. You're worth more than a football franchise. You get in trouble, go to jail, come back out and you are the man.

"The media wants to blame Tyson. He's cussing them all out and they're calling him a crazy rapist and all this. He just cussed. That ain't near crazy. If he's crazy, he'd have beaten them up. He would have hurt somebody.''

Thank goodness the ex-champ didn't turn physical on the scribes.

But what's the fair-minded press to think? Is Tyson just boxing's version of a foul-mouthed Lenny Bruce? Does he really want to eat small children? Is it schtick? Just cheap shock value? Or is this a madman who's a threat to himself and everyone who steps into his world?

His rap sheet is already a mile long and well-chronicled. The jail time in Indiana for rape, the bizarre behavior during his marriage to actress Robin Givens, the street brawl with boxer Mitch Green, the Neanderthal instincts around women and the driving of his BMW into a tree (one NYC tabloid called it a "suicide attempt"), just to mention a few. Amidst all this, he's also been diagnosed as manic depressive.

But as Holyfield says, "Bad press ain't never hurt boxing." And besides, he argues, Tyson isn't really such a bad guy.

"If Tyson were here, he'd be 'Yes, sir,''' Holyfield says. "But if you curse him out, yeah, he gets upset. You never heard that Tyson jumped on somebody. You heard he retaliated. You can push me and I'll go about my business. You push Tyson and he's going to knock the daylights out of you.''

Holyfield can talk the talk, having tamed the tiger. The first time, he stopped Tyson in the 11th round for the WBA title. In a 1997 rematch, Tyson was disqualified in the third round for biting Holyfield's ear. Tyson claimed it was retaliation for a head butt.

Right now, Holyfield arguably has a vested interest in a Tyson victory, which could possibly produce Holyfield-Tyson III -- affording him a huge payday and a shot at a fifth world title. But after the first victory in 1996, he's sensed that Tyson has wanted no part of him.

"That second fight, he was very fearful,'' Holyfield recalls. "I don't usually feel sorry for anybody, but he couldn't even look me in my eyes. He was looking down and all that. This is at the start of the fight. I'm tearing him up and he didn't fight with no courageousness or anything.''

Instead, Tyson did what he could to escape. Refuse to come out from his corner? Cry about a bum shoulder? No, he chewed on Holyfield's right ear until referee Mills Lane cried foul.

Holyfield believes it was a spur of the moment act, an instinctive thing on the defrocked bully's part.

"People like that can't carry out a plan,'' he offers. "They do whatever comes to them.''

No formal apology followed, but Holyfield has forgiven him. The two crossed paths twice in the months after the fight, once at Madison Square Garden and another time in Atlantic City.

"I can accept people the way they are,'' says Holyfield, who wears his religion on his sleeve. "He wouldn't ever come up and say, 'I am really sorry for what I have done.' He would never do that. But he did this, this little wave, this nod. That tells he was wrong.''

OK, let's fast forward to Saturday night in Memphis. You could argue no match has been more over-hyped for two good but flawed fighters. You assume folks are throwing down $54.95 for the pay-per-view for the sideshow, the potential train wreck, as well as the boxing match. And so the entertainers are each set to walk away with nothing short of $17.5 million.

With Tyson in the building, you can expect the unexpected. And that, Holyfield says, could well be a crushing victory.

"I think even as short as Tyson's arms are, he fights tall guys better than guys shorter,'' he says.

"You get down with him, he doesn't have the leverage. But he's one of those type guys that tend to fight good coming up.

"The only way Lewis beats Tyson is if he hits him with short punches, holds him out. Be sharp. Lewis ain't gonna do that. He's scared. He's gonna get clocked, try to hold him off and back off with his head. And he's gonna get hit one hard time, and he ain't gonna get back up. He is so scared this guy is gonna hit him.''

That in itself is news for all those shaken scribes -- Tyson may once again be feared in the ring.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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