Tyson’s Biggest Failing With Fans Is That His Talent Level Has Slipped

Rust or ruin?

Was Mike Tyson’s disappointing performance against Francois Botha last Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena indicative of a man slowly making his way back uphill after 19 months of inactivity or a man rapidly heading downhill after years of self-destructive behavior?

Rival promoter Bob Arum says there are 15 current heavyweights who could beat Tyson.

A more objective observer, boxing announcer Jim Lampley, says there are only 10 heavyweights who could beat Tyson.

Even a man in Tyson’s corner, trainer Tommy Brooks, will say only that the former two-time heavyweight champion belongs among today’s top 10 heavyweights.

The public has also spoken and it’s not something Tyson, 32, wants to hear. In an arena that seats 16,000, only 11,000 paid full price, from $1,200 to $200, to watch Tyson-Botha. About 1,500 additional seats were filled by employees of the hotel who were allowed to purchase tickets at less than 10% of face value.

The story wasn’t much better for Tyson on the home front. The pay-per-view figure was 750,000 buys, less than half of the 1.6 million who purchased Tyson’s previous fight, the infamous Evander Holyfield title rematch in 1997. Tyson’s first appearance in the ring after his incarceration for a rape conviction, a match against the lightly regarded Peter McNeeley, drew 1.4 million buys.

Those figures coupled with Saturday’s buy rate show that the public has finally had its fill of Tyson. Fans were willing to put up with his outrageous public behavior early in his career when he would sneer at the media and make it clear he was the antihero.

Fight fans were willing to welcome him back and shell out money to watch him after he served time in prison.

What finally turned them off was not the ear-biting incident against Holyfield in their second match, but what it symbolized: That Tyson could no longer fight and had resorted to animalistic behavior because he saw no alternative.

That, it appears, was the unforgivable sin in the public’s eyes, losing his talent. The rest could be overlooked.

So has he lost that talent?

A week after the Botha fight, Brooks, although giving Tyson a C-plus grade, insists his student is still capable of A’s.

“I was a little worried the first couple of rounds,” Brooks said. “He came out and was the Mike Tyson who fought Evander Holyfield, not the Mike Tyson that I had worked with the last couple of months.

“He came back to the corner and told me he needed a little bit more time. He was locking in on Botha. He readjusted. I was impressed with the jab, although he could have used it a little more. That comes in time. I thought he could have put his punches together a little bit better. That also comes with time. I think it was just that he hadn’t been in the ring for such a long time and had to get a feel for it again.”

Where was the confidence and arrogance Tyson once carried into the ring? Did the two losses to Holyfield destroy it?

“I wouldn’t say Tyson’s confidence was shaken by Holyfield,” Brooks said. “Inactivity shakes your confidence. Tyson is a warrior. He’s a fighter. He’s looking forward to being one of the top contenders again. He has to reestablish the confidence within himself.”

Although he stands to make a lot of money by remaining in Tyson’s corner, Brooks insists he’ll do so only as long as Tyson stays on his good behavior.

“If I thought Tyson wasn’t trying,” Brooks said, “and was just there for a payday, I would walk. If I didn’t think that he had the potential to be the heavyweight champion of the world, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t have time to waste, and I wouldn’t waste his time.”

Tyson has already wasted much of his career. The question is whether his time has passed.

MAINTAINING HIS INNOCENCE

Portraying himself as an innocent victim of his celebrity status, Oscar De La Hoya said charges of rape and false imprisonment filed against him have caused him emotional pain.

“I’m just hurt,” De La Hoya said. “That’s it. I’m hurt.

“It can happen to anybody. Anybody can be a target if you have money and fame. I’m keeping focused on boxing.”

De La Hoya has been accused in a civil suit by an unidentified 18-year-old woman of raping her and keeping her prisoner in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 2 1/2 years ago. The woman is asking for $10 million in damages in the suit, which has been filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court.

“One hundred percent of the people are behind me because they know that’s not me,” De La Hoya said. “I have no worry whatsoever. My fans have no worry whatsoever. The only thing I’ve lost sleep over is Ike Quartey.”

De La Hoya will defend his World Boxing Council welterweight title against Quartey on Feb. 13 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

DOCKING IN A NEW BAY

Caesars Palace has long been the sponsor of De La Hoya’s fights. But it is stepping aside, at least temporarily, with the arrival of the new kid on the Vegas block, the Mandalay Bay hotel.

The Quartey fight is being co-sponsored by the Las Vegas Hilton and Mandalay Bay.

Still under construction, Mandalay Bay is expected to open in the spring. When it does, it will include a new arena that will be the site of De La Hoya’s next fight, scheduled for May 22. If he beats Quartey, De La Hoya will face the winner of the Oba Carr-Frankie Randall match, which will be part of the Feb. 13 undercard.

QUICK JABS

Shane Mosley, the International Boxing Federation lightweight champion, was named fighter of the year by the Boxing Writers Assn. of America. Mosley (31-0 with 29 knockouts) is from Pomona. . . . Forum Boxing opens its 1999 season Monday night at the Arrowhead Pond with a pair of 10-round co-main events. Rodney Jones (22-2, 13 knockouts) takes on James Lerma (25-7, 18 knockouts) in a battle of junior-middleweights, and Agapito Sanchez (25-7-1, 15 knockouts) faces Jorge Munoz (19-9-2, 13 knockouts) in a featherweight match. First bell is at 7:15.