After a brief but vigorous workout Tuesday, Mike Tyson sat on a stool and uttered a favorite expression that has been used to describe his career and his life.
"Old too soon, smart too late," he said.
Tyson desperately hopes that it is not too late.
Facing his 39th birthday June 30, after serving a prison sentence for rape and after pitfalls that have included declaring bankruptcy, biting off a portion of Evander Holyfield's ear, and marrying and divorcing twice, Tyson is trying to resurrect his career -- again.
Needing a victory to restore his credibility as a heavyweight contender, he will face the unheralded Kevin McBride (32-4-1) Saturday night at the MCI Center.
Though he no longer dominates in the ring and despite his many transgressions, Tyson maintains a magnetism that leaves sociologists struggling for explanations. Promoters said that more than 13,000 tickets had been sold for Saturday's bout, and it could be a sellout by the time Tyson enters the ring. Many thousands more will spend US$44.95 to watch it on pay-per-view.
Love him or loathe him, it remains difficult to ignore him. But Tyson insists he has changed, that he has begun a long journey toward becoming a better person, and not just a better boxer.
"I don't want to be that guy anymore," Tyson said, talking calmly about his past while sitting in the locker room of Burr Gymnasium on the campus of Howard University. "I liked to humiliate people, because I had been humiliated. I wanted other people to feel the pain I felt as a child.
"There's another fight after this fight, the fight of life. I'm almost perfect in the fighting business, 50-5. But in the fight of life, I'm a pug. I'm a palooka."
Tyson was the palooka in his last fight, knocked out by Danny Williams in the fourth round last July 30.
"I was embarrassed to lose to a gentleman of his stature," Tyson said.
That fight exposed Tyson's lack of stamina and his defensive shortcomings, but with a new trainer, Jeff Fenech, Tyson said that Saturday would be different.
"I'm equipped to beat Kevin McBride," Tyson said.
After 10 weeks of training in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he lives, Tyson appears to be in decent shape. He moved well in the ring Tuesday; his heavily tattooed body had definition; his hand speed was evident as he threw crisp punches; a puddle of perspiration formed under his stool after he sat down. Those around Tyson hope that when he steps into the ring, he will look more like the Tyson of old, rather than an old Tyson.
"He likes Jeff, so he has trained," Shelly Finkel, Tyson's promoter, said. "At the beginning, he was throwing up, and he was horrible. But as the weeks went on, we saw it coming together. Hopefully Saturday, we'll see it. Hopefully he'll get some fights under his belt; he looks good; he takes care of his debts, and he ends up with something out of this sport. It's not the greatest heavyweight division right now. While we're in a division that has more than one champion, he can pick someone and maybe be champion again."
That is Tyson's plan, to beat McBride, to win another tuneup fight or two and to fight for a championship belt within two years. But how badly does Tyson want it? He certainly has motivation. After squandering almost US$300 million, and declaring bankruptcy in 2003, Tyson will be paid US$5 million for this bout, and the more he wins, the more opportunity he will have to erase his debt.
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