The post about fights in school made me think about Mike Tyson, and all of his various turmoil.

ESPN Classic shows marathons of his fights occassionally, and there was no boxer you'd want to face less than Mike Tyson in the mid 80's. Guys went in the ring only to get their brains mashed up against the back of their skull within seconds. I'd rather face Muhammed Ali, at least he'd mess with you for a few rounds.

Then there was the ear biting incident. I first heard about it when I was on the beach. My dad couldn't stop laughing... apparently he'd listened to an account of the whole thing on the radio. It was simultaneously very funny and disturbing. The man chewed off a peice of his opponent. That seems to me like some sort of brain abnormality that would cause old Iron Mike to do such a thing.

Now, he's come full circle in his spectacle... boxing just to pay his bills in exhibition matches in Las Vegas and holding public workouts like some zoo animal that tourists can gauk at.

I'm an avid boxing fan among other things, and I must say that Mike tyson's story is a very sad one indeed. I actually watched the ear biting fight live on PPV, as well as many of tyson's other fights that i have on tape at home. Granted, most of his situation now is his fault, because of bad personal choices he made, but I can't help but often feel sorry for the guy for all the people that used him when he was in the prime of his career. Don King literally stole MILLIONS of dollars from this kid when he was only 19/early 20s. He was poised to be THE greatest fighter of ALL TIME until he was forced to sit out because of prison time during the prime of his career. People continued to leech off of him until he was basically bankrupt, and i think that put him into a further disturbed mental state. I can only imagine what going through life never knowing who your real friends are can do to damage a person's mental health, not giving consideration to the fact that Mike Tyson wasn't the most mentally stable of people to begin with. Now again, I don't excuse him for the rape charges, and feel he deserved the punishments he has received over time, but I can't help but wonder how he may have turned out if the right people had surrounded him in the early part of his career.

Wow, that was quite a lengthy response. I guess I have a lot more to say about the guy than i thought.

Well, I was gonna leave a nice response, buy Shaqdaddy pretty much said it all. He could have been the greatest boxer ever, but bad choices and bad "friends" made that impossible.

i predict that the NES mike tyson's punch out game will have a longer lasting legacy than tyson himself... he will be someone who is a footnote in a hundred years.. unlike the GOAT.

Don King actually killed someone when he was younger... I couldn't believe it because he always seemed so gregarious that it couldn't be a possiblility. I guess its not just a stereotype that boxing attracts some pretty shady characters.

The ear biting incident...I was 10 years old and on vacation in Washington DC and my mom turns on the TV, I'm still in my bed sleeping. I hear something about "Tyson-Holyfield" and I originally thought they said "Tyson Holly Farms" (Tyson chicken was called that back then). I was like "was the chicken finallly recalled?" (I had a close friend who had gotten very sick on that chicken earlier that year)

Then I found out that it wasn't Tyson chicken at all, but a boxer who had bitten off another guy's ear. Keep in mind, this was 1997 when there was nothing else worth reporting about (no war, gas prices, stupid global warming, etc) so it made big headlines. It's been some time since 97.

Sensationalist stories like that will always get coverage (until our brains all collectively evolve past the urge to stare at car crashes and the like.)

I'm a big fan of Mike's facial tatoo, however, I plan on getting the same one next week.

Mike Tyson was one of two sports icons in the 80's that were unstoppable( Michael Jordan. He was the most amazing thing I had ever seen back then and when you take about scaringyou opponent before even fighting them he did. He was on top of his game in the 80's a prue brute beast he was. In the 90's it changed two major things happened to him. The first the wrong crowd and not willing to change your environment. 2. He lost the heart of a champion, the heart to win the killer instinct. Right now if he made a comeback it would be to late the killer is gone.This should be a lesson for all young kids out there. When you make it to the top don't lose what made you get there.