May 04, 1986

It looks as if boxing will have to wait a few more fights for its savior, a curious block of muscle known as Mike Tyson, 215 pounds of promise that as yet remains unfulfilled. He's still undefeated after 20 fights and still the hope of a desperate division. But he is not, as James (Quick) Tillis demonstrated, a finished piece of work.

In fact, Saturday, in an Adirondack arena hard by his Catskill camp, the boy wonder of boxing suffered some growing pains.

You could see it in his eyes as he stalked the ring afterward, looking uncertainly upon the Civic Center crowd. It wasn't that the decision, yet to be announced, would be close, a freak knockdown being the difference between a victory and a draw on two judges' scorecards, but that it was a decision at all. It was his first in 20 amazing fights, after 19 knockouts, and he didn't like it and the crowd didn't like it.

And you can be sure that the larger world of boxing, which is waiting somewhat impatiently for Tyson to grow into a credible champion and restore respect to the heavyweight division, didn't like it either.

Tyson had never needed more than six rounds to dismantle his opponents, and 12 times he did it within one. The sight of this compact hulk moving across the ring, his gloves held tightly in front of his lips as if to hide a bone-chilling smile (it is actually cherubic), has been impressive enough that you wonder why some of those one-round knockouts lasted so long.

So how could it take 10 rounds to defeat, and narrowly at that, a warhorse like Tillis, a man who had lost every important fight he'd been in? What gives?

Later, Tyson would explain his failure to take Tillis out by saying he "was laying for one punch, an uppercut, and (I) wanted to take him clean. I never got that opportunity." Later, Tyson's co-manager, Jimmy Jacobs, would say that the lapse was a most positive experience. "It's simply marvelous for the fighter," Jacobs said. "Now, he knows he can go the distance."

But neither Tyson nor Jacobs could cloak the disappointment in the air. It's as if nobody thought that Tyson, after all, just 19, would ever have any trouble in a man's game. Expectations have been high. But of course, they have been unrealistic as well.

Anybody would have had trouble with Tillis, 27, a promising contender until Mike Weaver sent him into decline five years ago. At 207 3/4 pounds, he was in the shape of his life. And though clearly an "opponent," an upgraded stiff meant to provide some quality to Tyson's list of victims, he was certainly of a mind to fight back. He had his own plans.

And if not for a wild left hand that Tyson easily evaded in the fourth round, Tillis might have had his own future. But Tyson stepped around and delivered a crisp left hook of his own, and Tillis, off-balance, spun down. Until that exchange, which came within 10 seconds of the bell, Tillis appeared to be winning the round. Had he won the round, the scores on two of the cards would have been 5-5 instead of 6-4, Tyson. Even with the third card, which favored Tyson, 8-2, the decision would have been a majority draw.

But what happened, happened. People ordinarily fall down when Tyson hits them. Tillis didn't fall down as most had, but once was enough.

Tyson tried to shrug off the disappointment, saying: "I'm moving up in class. For people who don't understand, if a fighter doesn't want to get knocked out, he won't get knocked out."

Not that this punching prodigy was without visible effect. In the first round, Tyson delivered three right hands to Tillis' body that resonated throughout the hall. And again in the fifth, he delivered several smacking rights to the body. He also opened cuts inside Tillis' mouth in the sixth round and ripped a small tear above his left eye with a staggering right hand that Tillis, amazingly, recovered from.

The question, thus, was to Tillis: Did he hurt you? "I'd say he hurt me," Tillis said. "You could see he was hurting me. . . ." Tillis, the Fighting Cowboy from Tulsa, went on to recommend that Tyson hereafter keep company with Earnie (Acorn) Shavers when hard hitters are evaluated. "He punches harder than the Acorn," Tillis said, "and the Acorn can crack."

Still, Tyson did not do as much damage inside as he normally does, and he was strangely inactive in the final three rounds. He said he was waiting for an opportunity to send Tillis back on the horse he rode in on. And Tyson got hit with some open shots, contradicting any possible notion that he can't take a punch but still encouraging some other heavyweights in the division.

There is plainly work to be done. But in his amazing two-fights-a-month career, he has hardly shirked that. Since he has plans to fight again May 20 (Mitch Green) and again June 13 (Reggie Gross), you can be sure that he will get that work. But now, he doesn't have to knock them out to win. He just has to win.

(Los Angeles Times)

"Cus had wanted me to beat him so bad," he said.

He explained how D'Amato took him and Jay Bright, a longtime member of the inner circle, from their home in Catskill, N.Y., to Albany to watch on closed circuit as Holmes retained the title in a 1981 destruction of the faded Muhammad Ali. He even recalled the exact date: Oct. 2.

"I was offended by how bad he beat up Ali," he said. "When we drove home to Catskill [about an hour from Albany], nobody in the car said a word, we were all so upset. The next morning, Cus was on the phone with Muhammad Ali after taking this shellacking from Holmes. He said to Ali, 'I have this young black kid who is going to be heavyweight champion someday and I want you to talk to him.'"

The young black kid got on the phone and told Ali, "'When I grow up, I'll fight Holmes and I'll get him back for you.' He was 14 years old.

When he did meet Holmes seven years later, Ali was a guest at the fight and whispered to him beforehand, "Remember what you said -- get him for me."

When Stanley Ketchel dispatched Mike “Twin” Sullivan in a single round, a man previously stopped by only Joe Gans over 10 and 15 rounds, big brother Jack “Twin” Sullivan tried to restore the family reputation. The business became personal.

“From a fight fan’s point of view nothing better than this Sullivan-Ketchel match could possibly be offered in the pugilistic line. Ketchel, the most spectacular knocker-outer of the current crop, is to hook up with the larger of the famous Boston Twins…the winner of the scrap will be the bona fide champion…to add a bit of spice to this Sullivan will be seeking revenge…to wipe the Ketchel blot off the family escutcheon.” - The LA Herald.

Sullivan entered the ring first, taking up the northwest corner, the sun to his back. Ketchel, arriving moments later, stalked across to his opponent and confronted him. Sullivan moved to the other corner. Ketchel had enforced his right to chose which corner he would take his rest in, having won the pre-fight toss.

They began at a stiff pace. Ketchel set it, fighting directly, determinedly, but missing often. Sullivan broke into a smile and eventually a laugh as Ketchel repeatedly missed him. Ketchel took the first round on his aggressive pursuit of his elusive opponent and Sullivan finished the round as cheerily as he had begun it, seemingly fighting his own fight. Observers noticed a thin trail of blood coming from Sullivan’s nose as he returned to his stool, squinting at Ketchel through the blazing sun.

The second round was rougher, Ketchel rattling Sullivan’s kidneys in a prolonged clinch, Sullivan “lifting Stanley off his feet” with a huge right hand uppercut, blocking well against the punches that Ketchel brought back. By the third Ketchel was already hunting the body with both hands, Sullivan blocking well to the head, winking happily at his opponent when he managed to get one through. Sullivan seemed primed to take over in the fourth. “Ketchel was right on top of his man,” noted the LA Herald, “but was unable to land. Jack mystified Stanley with clever footwork as the later tried with both hands at the gong.” In the fifth Sullivan “laughed again as Ketchel missed yet another left to the body…feinted Ketchel out of position and they clinched.” In the 8th, Ketchel was cut again, this time over the left eye, which “made him vicious” and he drove Sullivan back to the ropes “missing wildly” with two lefts before slipping to the floor and being rattled at the bell by a returning left hook. Ketchel was winning rounds but at a terrible price. Meanwhile, boxing with great economy, Sullivan was tricking his way through the fight whilst Ketchel expended energy on wasted punches and rushes.

Round nine began quietly, Ketchel chasing Sullivan around the ring to little affect, some ineffective punching was exchanged. Half way through, Ketchel caught Sullivan a hard right-hand punch to the jaw and followed it with a left to the body. A genuinely two-handed fighter, he had landed his first flush combination. Sullivan’s response? To laugh once more. But this time he did not manage to escape, did not manage to counterpunch but instead got hit again, hard. And then again. Ketchel’s variety of attack cannot be overstated, he worked body and head with straight, hooked and uppercut punches and he seems in this round to have utterly destroyed the surety of Sullivan’s guard. Sullivan was still landing at the same rate – but Ketchel was no longer missing.

Sullivan finished the ninth staggering Ketchel with a shot to the chin. He ended the tenth with a “hurricane finish” forcing Ketchel back with headshots. He would not win another round. He would never be the same again. He would win only three of his next ten fights. He was being finished as a fighter. “One of the bloodiest contests seen in recent years” was all but settled. “For the next ten rounds Ketchel battered Sullivan about the ring severely punishing him about the head and body,” said The Herald. “He knew he was beaten many, many round before the end actually came but he saw no way he could get out of his predicament gracefully,” observed The San Francisco Call.

Indeed, Sullivan’s grace deserted him. He would be dropped five times in the coming rounds, four times by body blows, and each time he would attempt to claim a foul. Each time the referee dismissed the claims and Sullivan was forced to climb back into the furnace. When the end came in the 20th, it was pitiful. Forcing Sullivan to the ground with a straight left, Ketchel leapt upon the tortured great as soon as he rose and drove him down again with a left-right combination. Sullivan hauled himself up for once last try. Ketchel smashed through the guard with another left hook to the body and Sullivan fell once more. He shook his head. “No.”

When he came to his sense he tried to claim a foul once more. The referee dismissed him out of hand. Sullivan continued to make his case in a post-fight interview. His words were not carried far, likely because they held no truth, but possibly because Sullivan found it difficult to make himself understood -his lips were so grotesquely swollen he found it hard to talk.

(By, and courtesy of, Matt McGrain)

Jan 23rd 1990.
Undisputed heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson sits on the canvas after receiving a straight right to his head from sparring partner Greg Page, a former heavyweight world champion, during a three-round sparring session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Tyson will fight James Douglas in a 12-round title bout Feb 11th at the Tokyo Dome.