Sunday night, in Canastota New York, Iron Mike Tyson was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. It was a moment that, like very few others in his career, Tyson shied away from, if only slightly. He expressed some concern beforehand about how he would be able to make it through his speech without his emotions getting the better of him, without the emotional weight of the moment at hand overpowering him. And the emotions did take over, but that doesn’t mean that the moment proved too much for him. Appropriately (which is a strange word to use when saying anything about Tyson), he took on the moment in much different a way than he did any big fight or even any other occasion he found himself in front of a microphone.
Think of it as Britney vs. the music, only with more face tattoos. We want to see Tyson bare his soul, more than his muscled torso at this stage of his career, and maybe it’s actually been that way for a while now. Tyson wasn’t a side show at the induction ceremony. He wasn’t the best boxer there that night. Julio Cesar Chavez, who grew up in an abandoned railroad car with nine brothers and sisters, was also inducted into the hall of fame, and he definitely had a more accomplished record as a fighter. But this isn’t to suggest that he was there for reasons other than boxing.
Now Sylvester Stallone, he was there being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for reasons of accomplishment outside of the scope of pure boxing.
But despite Tyson’s phenomenal genesis as a pro fighter, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion of all time, knocking out almost everybody who dared to get into the ring with him, the trajectory of Tyson’s career is marked by perplexing and terrifying moments. Even if we limit the discussion to what happened in the ring during his career, the legendary 90-seconds it took Tyson to finish off Michael Spinks takes a back seat in our attention to the match in which he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. And then, in one of the strangest moments in sports I can remember watching, Tyson ends his last fight ever sitting down on the mat, just unable to go on, having no more drive to even protect himself. He then speaks in his post-fight interview about an incommensurate pain he can no longer medicate with fighting.
As a fighter he was both amazing and terrible, at different times. And I think that, as much as we want the insanity explained for us (the hatred, the horrific insults, the face tattoo) we also want this dichotomy explained, so that it’s easier to understand Mike Tyson even just considered as a boxer. He’s not Muhammad Ali. He’s not going to be remembered as the ultimate icon of the sport of boxing, the way that Ali frequently is. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t iconic. He’s etched in memory.
There might not, however, be an explanation. At least not one that surpasses what Tyson offered in his speech at Sunday’s induction ceremony. An obviously nervous Iron Mike says, barely even having begun his speech, that he just wanted to be a great fighter. That was all. And at that, the emotion and the weight of the moment take over, or at least take the spotlight. Just watching Tyson then tell everyone that he can’t say anything more, that it’s too much, makes it seem like everything he’s feeling is palpable.
He had already by this point lovingly evoked his former trainer and one-time legal guardian Cus D’Amato, who died in 1985, about a year before Tyson first became champion. He had already joked about the correctional school Tyson had wound up in, where Cus discovered him. Tyson was at the school because he kept robbing people, he said. And I think someone in the crowd at this point shouts out “allegedly” (in some kind of belated “Free Mike Tyson” moment). No, he says. I did it. He laughs at this, everyone in the audience laughs with him. Despite Tyson’s nerves, it all seems peaceful now. He says sure, they talked about wanting to get all kinds of money, all of that. But they mostly talked about wanting to be great fighters.
For any athlete, the moment of being inducted into the hall of fame is symbolic of the great moments observed within a career of excellence in sport. Tyson, contrary to some impulses I’m certain, made the moment all about boxing itself. Just boxing.
