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November ghost haunts Iron Mike
You see Mike Tyson flinch and his eyes glaze over, his swagger becomes a stagger.
You see Mike Tyson bleed. You see Mike Tyson fall and the crowd rise to their feet. The tape rolls and the ex-champ's head hangs in defeat.
No matter how many times the tape plays, the watchers stand in silence with eyes focused. As if the whole thing might not be real but instead be just one big Disney movie, complete with happy ending.
A ghost from Mike's past emerges from the shadows. Buster Douglas, once a 42-1 longshot chump, walks around in a natty purple suit speaking in his soft-spoken voice.
"I'm leaning to (Evander) Holyfield," he smiles shyly.
The only other man to put Mike down. A reminder to all Tyson is human.
So, folks, now it's time.
The people begin to fill the MGM Grand again. To get close. To buy a Nathan's hot dog, eat a slice of pizza or gather with the rounders and the roustabouts at the hotel's Betty Boop Bar. To taste, smell, see and hear.
To corral anyone with a media tag and ask: Is Holyfield going to win this time? The voices always seem to plead for the answer to be Yes.
On this morning the people come, almost like the pilgrims in the days of old, to seek out the special place where the November miracle happened.
And to see it happen again.
It's at the moment you look in their expectant eyes you realize this is Mike Tyson's last stand.
We all know if Mike loses, he can go on to fight another day. He can make a pot of gold fighting George Foreman.
But, if Mike goes down again, it's not the same and will never be the same. The mystique surrounding this fighter who cares for nothing will evaporate into the air of this place with no love for losers.
Mike, the bully, is now in an unfamiliar role.
He's a desperate man. He must conquer and he knows it.
Odd, how a few months changes everything in this strange world of mortal combat. Just before the last fight, Mike wondered if Holyfield would even live through the bout or whether the God-fearing man's heart might explode in front of all the world.
Instead Holyfield's heart prevailed.
Now, as we come again to the time where only two men decide it all, we're left with odd pictures, sad ones in a weird sort of way.
Team Tyson's Crocodile reduced to shouting at giggling teenage girls waiting for Holyfield's autograph.
Mike's manager, John Horne, pleading in a high-pitched whine for the ref to be changed while the fighter's trainer, the larger-than-life Richie Giachetti, gruffly slams doors and drives off in a black Caddy when he doesn't get his way.
The champ, Holyfield, still plays the role of underdog to the very end. Still not as respected as the bully.
"I will be aggressive and do what God wants me to do," he says in a final word. " I don't want to make Mike Tyson bigger than he really is."
And, you know, at that point Evander prays for the November miracle to happen all over again.