| Iron Mikes Family Feud! By Tim Smith 10th february 2003 (2 weeks before Tysons fight with Clifford Etienne) Imagine this concept for a TV show: a newly divorced, menacing former world heavyweight champion gets paternal urges and decides to reconnect with his estranged 13-year-old daughter while training for a fight that could make or break his career. Set it in Vegas, toss in a 9-month-old baby, a 16-year-old niece, Wayne Newton as a neighbor, a few cameos by celebrities, typical teenage angst, frequent clashes between father and daughter, and, Voila! Meet "The Tysons." "You can't put this on family television," Mike Tyson said recently following a workout at the Golden Gloves Gym. It may never make the networks, but Mike Tyson is indeed starring in his own personal sitcom as he prepares for a bout against Clifford (The Black Rhino) Etienne in Memphis on Feb. 22. The fight will be broadcast on Showtime. But the showdowns at the Tyson household won't. "It would be more like a 'Sick-com,' " Tyson deadpans. So far in the ongoing drama with his daughter, Mikel, Tyson has sneaked into her room and read her mail; scolded her for trying to become a penpal to the rapper 50 Cent; chided her for keeping a messy room and read her the riot act on who makes the money and is the top celebrity in the house. And she's only been with him for two weeks. "I tell my daughter, "What the hell are you writing 50 Cent for?" She said, "I'm not writing 50 Cent.' I said, 'Yes you are because I'm reading your letters.' And she's screaming, 'What are you reading my letters for?'" "If I don't get my butt together as far as introspection as a father, I'm going to kill my daughter. She doesn't respect me. I'm being real honest. I don't let no one talk to me the way she talks to me. "I want her to stay with me forever. But this is looking very difficult." Mikel is a bigger favorite in this showdown than her father is over Etienne at the Pyramid. Stay tuned. Meanwhile back at the Golden Gloves Gym, the 36-year-old Tyson is sweating away each day under a new trainer, Freddie Roach, whose black horned rimmed glasses, tousled red hair and put-upon look makes him look a beatnik poet. Gone are Ronnie Shields and Stacey McKinley. Still around are Panama Lewis and Jeff Fenech. Roach abandoned his L.A. gym and his fighters to take on Tyson. Mike Tyson is a 24-hour project. "I am bored," Roach said. "In L.A., I got to the gym at 9 o'clock in the morning and worked with fighters all day and I'd go home at 8 o'clock at night. Here I'm working with Lucia (Ryker) in the morning and Mike in the afternoon." Plus, he's living with his mother Barbara, a former amateur boxing judge who scored some of Tyson's fights when he fought in the international Golden Gloves in Holyoke and Lowell, Mass., over two decades ago. Roach was working the corner of a fighter on the undercard of Lewis-Tyson in Memphis last June. He watched Tyson take an eight-round beating. "To me, he showed no effort to win the fight," Roach said. Roach knew he had his work cut out for him. "I said we were going to have to get him in great shape with this fight and hopefully everything will fall into place," Roach said. Tyson, who appears fit at around 225 pounds, knows exactly what happened that night. "I just got the --- beat out of me," he said. "I could have stopped in the second round. I come from the school where you take your beating like a man. ... You should have trained. That's what you get. Stay in there." Stevie Lockett, Tyson's camp coordinator for his last three fights, said everyone got "island rot" from being on Maui for two months in preparation for Lewis. He said Tyson peaked a couple of weeks before the fight and had nothing when he got to Memphis. "We were out there too long," said Lott, whom everyone refers to as Black. "Mike kept breaking camp and coming back. It wasn't good." And what about training at home with a daughter, a niece, a 9-month-old son plus friends? "It's not good and I told him that," Lott said. "I don't like it. He comes to the gym and there are a hundred people in there. He goes home someone comes by and says, 'Mike, let's go hang out.' He says, 'OK, let's go.'" Tyson will be Tyson. No matter where he goes, he can not escape himself. Sitting and talking with reporters recently Tyson was much calmer and less profane than he was in the weeks leading up to Lewis. It seemed like he is trying to understand, and control, his reckless impulses - at least the things that fly out of his mouth. "Black was talking about this Hollywood BS, but nobody in Hollywood wants (a person) like me with records and (who is) going to talk bad to white people if I don't agree with them," Tyson said. "That's not going to work. That's just a lie. That's just to keep me in shape. 'We going to go to Hollywood, Mike. We're going to be big.' I go along with it, but they don't want nobody like me." Tyson is also coming to grips with the fact that his ex-wife Monica, didn't want him either. Their divorce became final last month with the former Mrs. Tyson receiving a judgment of slightly more than $6 million. Some of the money will come from his future fight purses. In the wedding ring, Tyson is a two-time loser. "I love Monica implicitly. I just can't get along with her," Tyson said. "I'll probably will never be with a woman in my life. I'm a difficult person to get along with. I'm like a woman. So, it's very difficult for me to get along with a woman. "It was sad because I have three kids with her. I believe she's a little bitter because she doesn't allow me to see my children. I have to come and have a supervised visit like I'm a child molester. She makes me feel less than a man a lot. Maybe it's my insecurity. But she makes me feel small sometimes. That's why we're not together." With the settlement hanging over his head, Tyson needs to keep his career on track for a couple more years. The pressure is on to look good against Etienne. Lewis will make his determination about a rematch based on Tyson's performance. The mystique of Mike Tyson is hard to destroy. Lewis demolished him in the ring last June, but Tyson is back, and drawing attention for a fight against Etienne, a mid-level contender. Is Tyson, diminished skills and all, still the man in boxing? "More or less yeah," Tyson said. "It's unfortunate but that's just the way it is. They picked Red Grange. They picked Jack Dempsey. Like Red Grange said there were other guys just as great as I was, but pressure decided to pick me." He added: "Those (other) guys can conquer, but they can't rule. I don't even have to be in the ratings. It's not about ruling as far as beating everybody. It's ruling as far as the presence of who you are. The marquee." |
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