Mike Tyson was more eager to show off the new tattoo on his face than to show off what kind of shape he's in.
The tattoo looked real enough, but Clifford Etienne's camp wasn't so sure about anything else.
PHOTO: AFP
The circuslike atmosphere surrounding Tyson moved Wednesday to the string of casinos along the Mississippi River, where the former heavyweight champion worked out behind closed doors before emerging to give the world a peek at his new tattoo.
Tyson had a bewildered look on his face as he headed quickly toward an elevator and the sanctuary of his hotel room.
His trainer said later that Tyson was discouraged about his return to training after a week out of the gym and still feeling the effects of flu-like symptoms.
``His mind seemed to be in the right place,'' trainer Freddie Roach said. ``I'm just worried about his body.''
A day after Tyson woke up and decided to fight, it was Etienne's turn to wake up and change his mind about getting into the ring. Etienne decided nearly US$1 million was too much to pass up.
``I'm a fighter, not a coward,'' Etienne said. ``I thought about it all night. I didn't work all these months to get in shape without going out and being able to do my thing.''
Etienne's manager, Les Bonano, said he doubted Tyson was ever sick and said he believed the former heavyweight champion had been working out all along. The claims of illness, he said, may have been just a ploy to make Etienne let his guard down.
``I don't ever believe Tyson was sick,'' Bonano said. ``I don't believe the training rumors.''
Tyson didn't arrive in Tunica until shortly before 3am, after one of two jets chartered by his manager arrived from Las Vegas. Media showed a man believed to be Tyson hiding his face with towels, but it wasn't him.
Tyson actually flew in later, part of a plan to keep him from the expected media barrage.
``He had the worst plane,'' trainer Freddie Roach said. ``He told me his plane didn't even have any food on it.''
Tyson might do well without eating much, with Roach expecting him to come in heavier than he wants for the fight because he hadn't trained in a week before Wednesday's session. After getting his tattoo Feb. 11, Tyson blew off training sessions for the next three days and then said he had the flu.
Heavyweights usually stop sparring a week before a fight and then taper off, but Tyson sparred four rounds in a ballroom at the Grand hotel-casino and then went six rounds on the speed bag.
As if to prove Tyson was actually in the area, promoters stationed a cluster of about 40 reporters and photographers in a tiny hotel lobby to watch Tyson walk to the elevator. He did it without speaking, but gave a glimpse of the large tattoo partially hidden under a ski hat.
Tyson was a 7-1 favorite a week ago to beat Etienne, who began boxing while serving 10 years in prison. He was hand-picked to be Tyson's comeback opponent because of his straight-ahead style and his tendency to get knocked down.
Those odds dropped in half, though, as word of Tyson's illness got out to bettors.
They also might have wondered what effect the new tattoo that covers a large portion of Tyson's temple around his left eye might have on the fight. A ringside doctor for the New York Athletic Commission said if it has healed properly it won't be a factor.
``I don't think it's the wisest thing to do, but there's no greater risk for a laceration or anything else if it has healed,'' Dr. Gerald Varlotta said. ``If there's any crusting of the skin or any infection, though, it would put him at risk.''
Dr. Robert Weiss, however, an assistant professor of dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said skin normally needs a month to heal after a tattoo, which involves hundreds of needle punctures and insertion of dye.
"A blow to that area, which ordinarily wouldn't be a big deal, might suddenly cause him some problems with swelling, as if it had been a much bigger punch," Weiss said. "I think there is an increased risk for bruising in that area and the skin might be more fragile and could shear off. A few good punches there and the tattoo ink could smear. I think with some blows to that area, he could be out of the fight prematurely."
According to Manuel Jordan, the African art curator for the Stanford University Center for African Studies, Tyson's new tattoo isn't African, as suggested by his trainer. "It's one of the so-called tribal tattoos that are taken from traditional Maori and/or Dayak forms of New Zealand," Jordan said. "They are abbreviated from full-body tattoo designs that were found among these ethnic groups."
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