Which Tyson will be on trial Saturday?
Posted: Thursday September 17, 1998 07:35 PM
When Mike Tyson goes before the Nevada Athletic Commission
this weekend to request the return of the license he lost after
biting Evander Holyfield's ear, will it be Mike Tyson the boxer on
trial or Mike Tyson the man?
If it's the former, then fair enough.
Boxing is a sport with rules and regulations, which he must be
willing to adhere to. So no argument there. If it's the latter
however, then that is where I have problems.
Having sat through the excruciating New Jersey hearing last
month, in which interrogators badgered and humiliated Tyson into
an outburst that ultimately forced him to withdraw his application,
I for one have no wish to see a repeat.
What New Jersey officials
appeared to take a perverse delight in doing, with their repeated
references to Tyson's well documented rape conviction and other
assorted incidents, was nothing less than character
assassination. Tyson has paid for whatever crimes he's
committed via the judicial system, and boxing has no right to try
him again.
After all, it goes without saying that Mike Tyson is no paragon of
virtue. He's a man with problems. But there are forums for those
problems to be aired and discussed, with properly schooled
experts to make sense of what they hear.
A boxing license
committee however is not one of them.
To witness the New
Jersey officials sanctimoniously exceeding their brief by several
miles is enough to make anyone see red, let alone a man whose
very livelihood depends on his capacity for the explosive
irrational destruction of another human being.
Let's be honest, if fighters were prohibited from boxing on the
basis of their past criminal activities outside the ring, we wouldn't
have too many fights would we? Most boxers come from the
school of hard knocks, so inevitably some will have taken a fall
in the process. To sit in judgment on these men for their history
is surely a case of double jeopardy.
So when Iron Mike sits down in Nevada, let the men with the
power to restore his license only judge the facts as they relate to
his capacity to box fairly.
No third-rate psychology. No cheap
vindictive shots from behind a desk. In short no re-trial. Can he
make a positive contribution to boxing, as Evander believes he
can incidentally, or otherwise?
Because, when all is said and
done, to the world of boxing, that's his only obligation.
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