SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Boxing
COLUMNS
CANADIAN PUNCH
UPPERCUTS
LOOKING BACK
GALLERIES
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Boxing character tilts scales over clout in the ring
Height, weight, fist, ankle, neck, calf and other anatomical data are presented like the dimensions of a battleship. Into the mental hopper they go, presumably to emerge as part of the same type of assessment as is made before a naval engagement.
But think about it. Has anyone ever been knocked out by an ankle? How about a waist? Ever since Jack Dempsey was mowing 'em down 75 years ago, those and other dimensions have been part of the ritual.
Fact is, the only thing that really counts outside of weight is something that figures large in Saturday night's Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson heavyweight fight. The word is character.
Tyson remains a 2-1 favorite despite his decisive 11th-round defeat by Holyfield last November and it is based largely on one factor: Other data considered, oddsmakers are drawn to power. The guys who set the price have done well over the years by backing the bigger banger.
MARCH OF TIME
There is the notion Tyson took the last bout lightly. That ever-present school of cynical thought -- it's Tyson's night and everyone will get rich on the rubber match -- persists. Added to this are the realities, such as the fact that Holyfield is older, therefore more susceptible to the onslaught of time.
That's a legitimate reason to wonder about him. Guys who've been in the ring wars as long as he has can get old inside one fight. Add to all this the fact Tyson absorbed an accidental head butt that just might have made him as woozy as he says it did.
But all that considered, there is something about the comparative demeanors of both camps that keeps intruding on any notions of Tyson reversing the shocking upset of November. It starts with the presence of trainer Richie Giachetti returning to bring a revised approach to this fight.
You don't change styles at this stage. Tyson can't help but wade in pitching. Minor adjustments are possibly but essentially, that's him.
CONFIDENT
Holyfield has been supremely confident in a quiet way. He expects to win. You get the impression he knows better than anyone that he has Tyson's number.
In their first battle, Holyfield surprised Tyson by out-muscling him, blunting his firepower by getting in tight and physically pushing him around. A lot of people were surprised, none more than Tyson.
Holyfield is the superior technician and has been forced, as a once "too-small" heavyweight, to develop the sort of ring generalship Tyson has not. Holyfield knows what to do when he's in trouble, an attribute Tyson has never developed.
But back to that character thing. It occurred to more than one person what people saw in November was a bully taking on somebody who wouldn't run away, no matter what.
He has to know Holyfield will be right there again, with all his skills and all his heart.
KERNEL
Not many Londoners got as close to Queen Elizabeth Thursday as Jeff Glass did just about this time 11 years ago. Glass, now a Toronto lawyer, was a hurdler on the Canadian team designated to sit next to the Queen at an all-nations luncheon at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. "She has a wonderful sense of humor and she's a tremendous storyteller," Blass said, recalling how she erased his initial nervousness with a humorous account of how she got broken glass removed from around Windsor Castle by the local authorities. Her calls as a private citizen didn't get any action. The call in which she identified herself sure did.