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Fighting back Tyson deals with bout, loss of friend
Posted: Thursday June 22, 2000 08:53 PM
By Nick Charles, CNNSI.com LONDON -- Mike Tyson finally came out of hiding Wednesday in London. Tyson left the confines of his upscale hotel and ventured to North Kensington to train at a place he pronounced "a real gym," he seemed happy to be in this element and spoke publicly for the first time since coming to Great Britain. Tyson, who is said to be in great shape for Saturday's bout against Lou Savarese in Glasgow, Scotland said he's ready to get in the ring. "Well I'm just ready to fight." Tyson said. "I'm hanging in there. I'm just ready to get it going." The heavyweight fighter has been on edge since his late arrival into the country last Sunday. He had attended the funeral of a close friend who was shot to death in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Tyson grew up. The incident threw Tyson into a dark, angry mood that has affected his fight preparations.
"He was dear friend of mine who died tragically," said Tyson, "and I guess I'm still in mourning because I never had a friend closer. He was my only true friend in the whole world and we came from a world for which our lifestyle is like that. That's what we are." Tyson's trainer, Tommy Brooks says his fighter will get past the loss. "The guy was real close to him (Tyson)," Brooks says. "He's human. It takes awhile, but he's a professional athlete. He signed on the dotted line. He's here to take care of hia business." Business is Savarese, a 34-year-old journeyman who hasn't fought in a year. Saturday night's fight was already postponed twice by Tyson and was jeopardized most recently because of Tyson's use of the anti-depressant Zoloft, a prescribed drug he's stopped taking because British law prohibits boxers from fighting while on medication.
Meanwhile Savarese's camp believes Tyson is not right mentally and the strategy is to exploit his negative psyche. "I don't know Tyson inside of him," says Jesse Reid who is Savarese's trainer. "But I can see the turmoil and confusion and the anger. We want to get him in that stage." Savarese contends Tyson isn't the fighter he used to be. "You look at Tyson, he had probably on track to be one of the greatest fighters ever. He had all the attributes. Mentally tough he had good fundamentals. Now he's his own worst enemy." Such comments are not surprising to Brooks. "I've been expecting that from (them). I told (Tyson) that. It's gonna be the same thing as the (Francois) Botha fight. They're gonna try everything in the book. Mike's aware of what's gonna happen so he's ready for it."
Members of Tyson's team told CNNSI.com that it's been a rough camp, filled with lost training and lost focus. Tyson though has a job to do and after sparring eight rounds in London on Wednesday, he traveled to Scotland to begin final preparations for the fight. His physical preparation is over. But given his state of mind, he's added a specialist to the corner. His psychiatrist has flown over from Arizona to handle Tyson's mental and emotional fine tuning.
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