For Tyson, It’s a Biggs Test Tonight : There’s Skepticism Leading Into Fight at Atlantic City

An Olympic super-hero, his gold tarnished in amateur afterlife, has been buffed for another of pro boxing’s assaults on Mike Tyson, an assault that only skepticism and tradition would tend to encourage.

Skepticism: Tyson can’t possibly be as good as we once hoped.

Tradition: Olympic super-heroes--going back to 1952 gold medalist Floyd Patterson--always win their first heavyweight title fights.

Tradition and a smoldering skepticism about the current world champion, however, are all that favor the unpredictable Tyrell Biggs here tonight at the Convention Center.

Though also undefeated, Biggs is largely regarded as a necessary nuisance in this fight, somebody who will likely block the view as patrons continue to marvel at Tyson’s concussive power. Yet, Tyson needs somebody to knock down for a satisfying performance, and Biggs would seem to fit the bill.

That Tyson, who unified the fragmented division in August, has failed to knock people down with his earlier efficiency, has cheered his detractors and Biggs’ supporters. It has allowed this skepticism to take root and flourish. After 27 knockouts in his first 29 fights, Tyson has since been extended to 12-round decisions in two of his last three fights.

This has led some people in boxing, though not many fans, to reconsider his ring dominance. In fact, the current theme in Tyson literature is that he has flaws. This little backlash, rising after he was hailed as boxing’s savior a year after he first took up the sport, can be traced to several things:

--The East Coast press faces a considerable burden in writing about Tyson, since there must be something fresh about him for each fight. And he fights uncommonly often. Thus the New York Times and Newsday have each issued a kind of revisionist history, sculpting Tyson down from myth to man.

--Tyson has emerged as a celebrity, leaving the land of sports heroes behind. His infrequent forays into Hollywood, a minor Sean Penn-type scrape with authorities, have caused him to be considered for magazine covers other than Ring’s.

There is a constant fear in his camp, it is reported, that Tyson enjoys this role a little too much. And as a celebrity, he is finding that popularity is fickle, although he figures to loom longer than Vanna White.

--Tyson does, indeed, have flaws. Though he has great hand speed and a strong punch when delivered in multiples, he is limited by his height, 5 feet 11 inches, and his reach, 71 inches.

Against tall opponents--the 6-5 Biggs will be the tallest yet--Tyson has often been caught in wrestling matches, eliciting boos. He fails to jab often enough and lately has reverted to head-hunting. This has not rewarded him as he has stepped up in class.

“I got flaws? Then find somebody to beat me,” Tyson has snapped.

Indeed, the pendulum may have swung too far and too quickly.

Said Mort Sharnik, in charge of boxing at CBS and a longtime Tyson watcher: “Keep in mind that he’s just turned 21 and has already done everything he’s set out to do.”

For sure, he has acquired three world titles and established a base fee of some $4 million a fight in little more than two years.

Into this stew of skepticism steps Tyrell Biggs, “the only man on this planet capable of beating Tyson,” according to Larry Merchant, boxing analyst for HBO, which will televise the fight. Merchant does not say Biggs will beat Tyson, only that he has the athletic tools to do so.

Biggs, who won the super-heavyweight division in the 1984 Olympics, is a magnificent specimen at 228 pounds. Unbeaten in 15 pro fights, he is not the heavy-handed puncher Tyson is, but then Tyson is nowhere near the boxer Biggs is. And he can move inside a ring, a skill everybody agrees will be required to beat Tyson--hit him and move, much as Sugar Ray Leonard did against Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

So far, though, Biggs’ style has suited him better as an amateur than as a pro, just as Tyson’s failed him as an amateur but has carried him as a pro.

Biggs says: “I have exhibited boxing as an art form, using the jab, boxing. And I have gotten a lot of criticism for not knocking my opponents out. Then Mike Tyson comes along and knocks out guys barely standing at the beginning and suddenly he’s larger than life.”

Biggs, 26, has at times produced some bad art, if artist he is. Trainer George Benton, who has engineered some classic upsets--Leon Spinks over Muhammad Ali comes to mind--has not always seen his prodigy box within the professional mold. At times it has appeared that Biggs was satisfied to score points, rather than beating up his opponent.

Questionable, too, has been his head. It has been three years since Biggs admitted to cocaine addiction and went into rehabilitation in Orange. Yet not even sporadic urine-testing--which he always passes--has dispelled doubts about him.

“He’s a kid of his times,” shrugged Sharnik, noting the early success, the expensive cars, the drug use.

This has allowed Jimmy Jacobs, Tyson’s co-manager, to bait Biggs’ camp by saying even Biggs’ handlers privately refer to their fighter as a “mental case.”

Biggs responded: “I was never a mental case. I never had self-doubts, if you’re referring to my cocaine addiction. I was doing drugs because I liked it.”

But it is his recent fights, more than his past escapades, that prompt doubt.

Earlier this year, he was badly cut and clearly losing to David Bey when he rallied and knocked Bey out. Before that, he had struggled with Renaldo Snipes. Yet, the man who supposedly quit in the ring, fighting Teofilo Stevenson in 1982, fought with heart when he beat Jeff Sims last year. In that fight, Biggs fought one-armed, his collarbone having been broken in the second round.

Probably, when it comes to skepticism, Biggs outweighs Tyson. He’s an underdog for a reason.

Still, Biggs has endured the buildup with quiet bravado, occasionly referring to Tyson as “our little friend,” or mocking his hit list: “I heard he tried to get a fight with Joe Louis but found out he was dead.”

The other day he listened to Jacobs call him a “mental case” and talk about his Snipes and Bey fights, which Jacobs said “he came within one ten-millionth of an inch of losing.”

Biggs smiled slyly afterward and said, “You know, I might almost lose to Mike Tyson, too.”