Word: fighting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Amato, the manager who stood up to the fight mob in the '50s, who defied the murderous Frankie Carbo and helped break the monopolist Jim Norris, died in 1985 at 77 and left Tyson in his will. "More than me or Patterson," says D'Amato's other old champion, the light-heavyweight Jose Torres, "Tyson is a clone of Cus's dream. Cus changed both of us, but he made Mike from scratch." In Brooklyn, Tyson had drawn the absent father and saintly mother, the standard neighborhood issue. "You fought to keep what you took," he says, "not what...
...John Lester Johnson," Tyson yawns. "No decision. Just ten rounds, I think. Dempsey wasn't a long-fight guy. He would break you up." A puzzlement curls his eyebrows. "When you're a historian, you know things, and you don't even know why you know them." Preparing for the day's sparring, greasing himself like a Channel swimmer and admiring the reflection in a long mirror, he sounds almost bookish, until Rooney turns up a copy of Plutarch's Lives and Tyson inquires archly, "Who wrote that? Rembrandt...
...training-camp workouts and at ringside on fight night, the cauliflower reunions fill in another piece of the picture. They are bittersweet delights. Few of the usual suspects favor Spinks. Jake LaMotta thinks Tyson "is gonna go down as one of the greatest fighters of all times, and he's gonna break all records, and he's gonna be around a long, long time, and he's gonna make over $100 million. I could be wrong, but that's my opinion." Billy Conn, the patron saint of overblown light-heavyweights, says, "I think Tyson will...
According to Patterson, "When you have millions of dollars, you have millions of friends." The Tyson camp's slice of this fight is $22 million, bringing his bundle so far to more than $40 million. "I originally picked him, and I still do," Patterson allows, "but now I give Spinks a chance." Torres looks at it the other way: "Who knows? It could be good. After all, doesn't he come from turmoil?" A little overwhelmed, Tyson says, "When I'm out of boxing, I'm going to tell everyone I'm bankrupt." In a sepia mood again, he adds...
...corner!" Lott exclaims. "To be in the dressing room! In that room before the fight, just the four of us, our heartbeats are deafening. When it gets really quiet, it's almost a despair. I don't know what it is. Maybe we don't want it to be over." Coming to life on the subject, Tyson says, "That's my favorite time, just before. I'm so calm. The work is over. You fight and you go home. Before or after, I don't respect any of them more than another. What they look like doesn't really matter...