Maybe Tyson is just a nice choir boy getting a rough shake?
Is that what you think, Scooby? If so, I disagree.
Most importantly, I separate the wrongdoings in the ring from the wrongdoings - true and alleged - outside the ring. On this thread, and in my being a Tyson fan, I only concern myself with what goes on while he's wearing gloves.
While I find the earbiting inexcusable, I understood why he did it in the same way that, for example, I understand the public's aversion to vigilantism but understood, as a lifelong NYer, where Bernard Goetz was coming from back in '84.
As a fighter, getting bluntly fouled without the ref taking action isn't the same as many of the "injustices," real or perceived, we face in our daily lives.
Without getting into the specifics of Holyfield's headbutting, let me say this, referring to boxing and professional athletics on a grand scale: most of us go to work every day, and if we have a bad day, there's always tomorrow, or a day off, or a new job, or a career change. As a pro fighter, you have two or three chances per year, which are ranked, to do your thing. One mess-up, failure to rise to an occasion, or blind referee, and your career is set back 2-3 years. Two or three mess-ups, and your chances of ever wearing a belt are gone.
As for in-the-ring offenses, the one that turned me off the most was his attack of Savarese after the bell, and his ignoring of the referee - that, above all else done in the ring, I thought was worthy of an at least one, and perhaps as long as two or three year suspension.
LPS5 |
