Fascination With Tyson Is a Little Freaky

He hasn’t fought in nearly a year and a half. He hasn’t fought for a title in two years. He hasn’t held a title in eight years. He has fought a total of 16 rounds in the last 3 1/2 years.

At 38, his skills have severely diminished. He moves around the ring as if he has gum on the bottom of his shoes, his head movement akin to that of a statue.

His once-menacing scowl, the one that caused opponents to mutter prayers and look for the least painful route to the canvas, has been replaced by the face of a clown, a tattoo covering the entire left side.

It has been nearly 15 years since Mike Tyson was a positive force in his sport. Convicted and sent to prison for rape a decade ago, he emerged to sink to criminal behavior in the ring. He bit off part of one of Evander Holyfield’s ears and tried to break Francois Botha’s arm. He also bit Lennox Lewis on the thigh in a news conference brawl, made lewd sexual threats to the media and could be counted on for at least one outrageous statement before every fight.

He once said he wanted to “eat” Lewis’ children, told a reporter on another occasion that, if he had a lot of children of his own, he would “have killed every one of them.”

Yet through it all, Tyson has remained an object of focus in the public eye, fans perhaps afraid to blink for fear they will miss the next Hannibal Lecter moment in his life.

Preparing for Friday’s comeback against Danny Williams at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky., Tyson held his first-ever public workout Tuesday in downtown Louisville. An estimated 5,000 fans showed up. Eight thousand to 10,000 are expected to buy tickets to the fight against an opponent most have never heard of. The pay-per-view numbers also are expected to be impressive.

“Isn’t it amazing?” said Jay Larkin, senior vice-president of Showtime, the cable network distributing the fight. “Sitting here in my hotel room in Louisville, I am watching all the local channels and they are all showing the public workout. There remains a fascinating level of interest in Mike. He remains one of the most compelling people who has ever participated in sports.

“When Lennox Lewis was the undisputed heavyweight champion, he couldn’t draw crowds like Mike does. Lennox couldn’t get five people to come to a workout, let alone 5,000.”

Dr. Marc Shatz, a Beverly Hills clinical psychologist, believes there are several reasons for this continuing interest.

“People are fascinated with celebrity,” Shatz said, “they are fascinated with the idea that the king has fallen, they are fascinated with the dichotomy between sanity and insanity and they have a morbid fascination with the deterioration of individuals.

“The fascination with Mike Tyson is like the fascination with Michael Jackson. People bring a variety of emotional responses to celebrities like this -- anger, envy, triumph, the wish to see someone defeated, the wish to see someone resurrected.

“Mike Tyson is not just a former heavyweight champion. He is so many other things to so many people. For some, it’s like going back 50 years to when people would go to the circus to see the freaks. The people who think like that don’t see Mike Tyson as one of us, as someone who experiences pain and hurt and sadness. They see someone who has gone over the edge into insanity.

“He has had severe emotional problems, a traumatic history. But the truth is, he is one of us. We’ve all been there to some extent and we can all relate. Who among us haven’t had moments when we have been on the edge? When we see it in exaggerated form, as in the case of a Mike Tyson, we think, ‘Thank God it’s out there and not inside me.’ ”

To Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at USC, Tyson’s appeal begins at the street level.

“It’s like Rasheed [Wallace] said during the NBA Finals, Tyson is the people’s champ,” Boyd said.

“Mike Tyson embodies the characteristics of people who identify with the streets. His credibility grows from that group.

“Then, there are a lot of people looking for the train wreck. You don’t get to see people bite other people’s ears off every day. It’s like watching reality television. Mike was ahead of his time. He’s a walking reality show.”

If so, he has gone from “Fear Factor” to “Survivor,” seemingly climbing back over the edge into sanity. It’s an old act. Tyson has claimed time and again that he has become the kinder, gentler Mike. He did so after his first wife, Robin Givens, accused him of domestic abuse. He did so after emerging from prison. And he did so after being thoroughly beaten by Lewis two years ago.

But the edge was never far away. While preparing for his last fight, in February 2003 against Clifford Etienne, Tyson disappeared, only to surface with the tattoo emblazoned on his face.

Now, he’s mellow again.

“I’m trying to be media friendly,” Tyson said Tuesday. “Two of my kids, 6 and 7, are on the Net. I don’t want them reading about all the crazy things I do. I’m working on being a calm person. I’m trying to be more serene ... It’s time I cooled off a little bit profanity-wise. I can’t prescribe obedience [to his kids] if I don’t behave.

“I’m happier, more content, more cool. Of course, if I make a lot of money, I might become a psycho again,” he added, laughing, “but that is not my intention.”

Are the mood swings a contrived attempt to stay in the public eye?

“Mike keeps reinventing himself over and over,” Larkin said. “Some think it’s a conscious thing, some think it’s natural. I’ll tell you this, if it’s conscious, Mike is the most ingenious marketer and promoter in history. He has managed to create the element of surprise over anything he does.

“I have always maintained that boxing is show business with blood. In sports, there is no more theatrical and dramatic sport than boxing, and nobody is more theatrical than Mike.”

Larkin believes Tyson’s latest transformation is genuine.

“I have known Mike for 20 years and that is my impression,” Larkin said. “I see an entirely different Mike Tyson. He seems much calmer, more introspective, far less suspicious, paranoid, volatile. It’s a Mike Tyson I have never seen before.”

Boyd says there’s a good reason for that.

“Inside, there’s still Mike Tyson, the menacing, threatening, hard street fighter,” Boyd said. “But he has grown over the nearly 20 years we have been watching him. He’s had time to think about things, about his place in boxing history. I think he realizes that he squandered away so many years.”

Many genuinely want to see Tyson make the most of his remaining time in the ring, according to Boyd.

“I think when Americans give somebody a second chance,” he said, “they want that person to succeed. I would like to see him win some fights, pay off his debts and even become heavyweight champion, to be vindicated and prove a lot of his haters wrong.”

But, Shatz said, there also were those rooting the other way.

“There are some who will never, ever fully believe that he has changed,” Shatz said. “He could be a perfect gentleman for his next five fights and there would still be disbelievers. They would say he was just acting, doing it for the money. They will wait for the moment when they can disparage him once again.

“And they want to be there in person so they can say, ‘I knew it all along. He’s done. He’s crazy.’ ”