Mike Tyson looked fit and ready for Saturday night’s title fight against Lennox Lewis, but he wanted no part of the reporters who showed up to check him out.
“You guys irritate him,” trainer Ronnie Shields told the assembled media representatives at a makeshift casino gym Tuesday after Tyson offered them a brief glimpse at his physique and dexterity, then left without saying a word.
“Mike doesn’t want to talk. He doesn’t want to answer questions. He’s in a good mood for this fight.”
Tyson’s 18-minute workout consisted of short flurries with the speed bag and bobbing and weaving under a slip bag suspended from an overhead bar. The only words came from Steve “Crocodile” Fitch, his fatigues-clad cheerleader, who was uncommonly laconic in his return from a brief absence.
“Three days and a wakeup! It’s fight time!” was the most Fitch could muster.
Shields said Tyson wasn’t deliberately avoiding reporters, but that he had not been told to expect them and was not prepared for their presence. Weeks ago the media horde that packed the Fitzgerald’s Casino meeting room had been told Tyson would be available Tuesday at the Tunica County, casino 20 miles south of Memphis, where he will try to depose heavyweight champion Lewis on Saturday.
Once Tyson and adviser Shelly Finkel left the room, Shields and co-trainer Stacey McKinley took turns answering or fending off reporters’ questions.
They said they didn’t know if Tyson was still taking the antidepressants prescribed for him years ago. McKinley dared anyone in the room to ask Tyson that question, but it was a moot point with him not in the room.
Shields replied tersely when asked whether any part of training dealt with avoiding Tyson’s past fouls: biting Evander Holyfield’s ears, knocking down Orlin Norris after the bell and twisting Francois Botha’s arm at the elbow.
“If Lennox kicks him, Mike will bite him,” Shields said.
“This is why he won’t come out here. You all irritate him.”
A bit calmer later, Shields said he was not concerned about “Mike doing anything illegal in the ring,” but acknowledged that Tyson is aggressive and has one style. “He’s been like that for years, and he’s always in a fight with that big punch.”
Can he win without landing a haymaker?
“Absolutely. Mike can win a decision if the fight goes the distance,” Shields said. “We’re training for a 12-round fight.”
McKinley predicted Tyson would knock out Lewis within five rounds. Cornerman Michael McCallum, a former middleweight champion, predicted Tyson by third-round knockout. Shields would not pick a round but said, “At some point, you do have to go for a knockout.”
Tyson has been cautious with his public comments since arriving in Memphis this week, having said only that he is in “the best shape” of his life and the most energized he has been in a decade to realize “my destiny” by regaining the heavyweight title.
“On Saturday night I am going to do what I do best and put a world of hurt on Mr. Lewis in a devastating and spectacular manner,” he said this week.
Such delicate phrasing is in sharp contrast to his recent crude remarks about wanting to kill Lewis, wanting to “stomp the testicles” of reporters’ children so “you could feel my pain” and suggesting women reporters would be granted interviews only in exchange for sex.
In the most potentially volatile situation he faced this week, Tyson showed sensitivity.
As the ex-champion stepped from his sport-utility vehicle Sunday outside the health club where he trains, he encountered three gay-rights activists protesting what they believed was the fighter’s disrespectful remarks about gays and lesbians. Tyson walked over to the sign-toting protesters and hugged Jim Maynard, assuring him, “I’m not homophobic.”
Maynard, a member of Equality Tennessee, said he was not scared because Tyson was “friendly and smiling. I’m not sure if we will protest more, but there will be protests from women’s groups and peace activists on fight night.”
