Book Excerpt HEAVYWEIGHT ARMAGEDDON The Tyson Lewis Battle

[montrealsuper]

Interesting...

Just before departing to the arena from his rented house, Lewis was studying a videotape of Tyson's first defeat to Buster Douglas. Lewis's final preparations in the last twenty-four hours before battle were quite interesting and rather unique. "Just before we left to go to the arena, we turned Douglas-Tyson on," Courtney Shand said. "He watched that tape a lot in that house."

I asked Shand what they did in the last forty-eight hours before the fight, to prime Lewis to be at his optimum peak, mentally and physically. "There's a lot of dead time, with idle time on your hands. That's where the mental focus has to be real sharp. There's enough to stimulate you. But you can get bored. And if you start getting bored, sitting there trying to not think about the fight, trying to put your mind in other places, that can be catastrophic. So our main focus on that day before and during the fight is certain points, certain things. We might see him get up and do something. When he does it, you remind him of certain things. If he gets up and starts moving around, okay, remember when you do that? Do this. And as soon as you do that, do that. Positive reinforcement. If you push Tyson a certain way, we know what he's going to do before he resets himself to throw a punch. So capitalize on that. When Mike does things a certain way, expect this. Positive reinforcing. We don't just go in and jump on him. As soon as Lennox shows us that fire, we're on him. Keep drilling it in. Keep drilling it in."

"Again, its when he gets up and turns on the TV, he watches a certain section of the fight, okay, remember do this when you see this. What do you do if?...Sometimes we put questions on him. Okay, you saw what Buster just did right there, okay, what do you gotta do when that happens? When you get him off you, what do you have to do? Just keeping his mind stimulated. 'Cause he has to read it. 'Cause he's like a quarterback in a football game. He gets up there, he sees the defense lining up, just before he huts the ball and they shift...he's got to read that. It's the same thing. He's got to read what Tyson is gonna do. Read from his body language. Read from the way he's setting his feet. Because Tyson's like a deliberate fighter. We watch our fights too. Because we gotta analyze what the other guy is trying to analyze about us. See what things we're doing that they might try to take advantage of. They're smart, and we think we're smart. They're trying to match wits."

"By the time he goes to bed, God bless his sleeping. He does sleep. But I don't personally think he can sleep on Saturday because of all that reinforcement, all the stuff we've worked on the week before the fight. It's a dangerous time. Because all that week you go from training six, seven hours a day to the week of the fight, training maybe an hour, an hour-and-twenty minutes the whole day. There's a lot of dead time that we need to keep him focused."

Shand says Lewis also likes to watch karate movies and play ping pong in those final hours. Lewis says table tennis sharpens his hand and eye speed.

As the team gathered to leave the house for the Pyramid, Lewis showed his sense of humor when it was least expected. "He said, Call HBO, tell them I'm not fighting. Tell them the fight's off," said Scott DeMercardo. Then Lewis smiled and the small entourage climbed into a white Ford Explorer stretch limousine.

Lewis emerged from the vehicle inside the Pyramid looking perfectly relaxed. HBO cameramen were there to greet him. He was wearing a red sweatsuit, black ragamuffin hat, and black shades. He was chewing gum. Tyson arrived just before Lewis in a giant Rolls Royce limo, wearing a tight-fitting blue short-sleeved muscle shirt. He was looking cool too, except for the huge sweat stains on his shirt.

They went straight to their respective dressing rooms. Lewis prefers a quiet dressing room, so he can lay down on a cot and catch a snooze. It is hard to believe that a man could manage to take a nap with such a daunting task so near. But Lewis likes to sleep a little before stretching and getting his hands wrapped. Tyson, by contrast, takes the more expected approach to fight preparation. In fact, it was once reported, before the Tyson-Spinks fight, Tyson punched holes in the concrete wall while rousing himself into a rage. You could imagine the high voltage mood in Tyson's room, with Crocodile hollering and the rap music blaring.

After the final preliminary - IBF Junior Featherweight champ Manny Pacquiao crushed Jorge Julio in the second round - the moment of truth had finally arrived. The ring was empty for a good 30 minutes, as everyone waited for the warriors to arrive. Then Mike Tyson strode out of his dressing room, to the beat of rap music by DMX's What's My Name?



Scoop Malinowski's "Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle" will be available at Amazon this week .

[Klee Gluckman]

Tyson was shot here. Don't know if the videos influenced the fight.

[Crease]

Just before departing to the arena from his rented house, Lewis was studying a videotape of Tyson's first defeat to Buster Douglas.

He needn't have. The 80s and 00s versions of Tyson were very different in their level of quality. This was a fight that Lewis was always going to win, unless Tyson caught him with a sucker punch Rahman-esque.

[Syntax Error]

This explained Lewis' caution during the fight.

Lewis prepared & fought Tyson as if it was 1986.

I got the feeling that Lewis could have finished Tyson any time after about the second round, but he fought as if Tyson was still the danger man he was back in the late 80s.

Tyson was only there for the payday (evidenced by him angling for a lucrative rematch straight after the fight) & was practically begging his corner to pull him out after seven, but his pathetic cornermen somehow didn't get that.

[Crease]

[quote="Syntax Error"]I got the feeling that Lewis could have finished Tyson any time after about the second round, but he fought as if Tyson was still the danger man he was back in the late 80s.[/color]
Agreed. Lewis could have demonstrated a practically risk-free game plan by just sitting back, inviting Tyson to come at him and utilizing his jab time and time again. It would have busted Mike up even more and punished him utterly that Tyson would have just retired were he stood.

Mike didn't have the ferocity or the speed any more to overwhelm Lennox as he would have done in his younger days.

[Shpati]

Damn, Lewis took that fight very seriously if he was preparing to fight the 86 Tyson lol. He didn't want to get KO'd by Tyson like he did with McCall and Rahman.

2000s Tyson was just a name. There was no chance he was going to win that Lewis fight. Lewis wasn't going to take any chances and was too focused to allow to dumb KO.

Tyson at this stage of his career just looked for that one punch or break an arm while he's at it. It might have been a better fight if Roach was his trainer, but still would've been a domination by Lewis.

It's amazing how much money Tyson was able to make at that stage in his career.

I got the feeling that Lewis could have finished Tyson any time after about the second round, but he fought as if Tyson was still the danger man he was back in the late 80s.

Lewis wanted to beat Tyson bad. I think the reason he waited so long was he didn't want to risk getting KO'd like he did against Rahman and McCall.

There was a joke that Lewis took more punishment from Emanuel Steward in the corner than from Tyson. Steward was hitting and slapping Lewis' chest telling him to just KO Tyson.

[montrealsuper]

This explained Lewis' caution during the fight.

Lewis prepared & fought Tyson as if it was 1986.

I got the feeling that Lewis could have finished Tyson any time after about the second round, but he fought as if Tyson was still the danger man he was back in the late 80s.

Tyson was only there for the payday (evidenced by him angling for a lucrative rematch straight after the fight) & was practically begging his corner to pull him out after seven, but his pathetic cornermen somehow didn't get that.

Tyson tried to win but he knew Lewis was a tough task. Remember, Emanuel Steward alleged that Cotton was favoring Mike and if Mike landed a shot and dropped Lewis, there very well could have been a quick stoppage. Tyson was always dangerous, punchers don't lose their punch. Lewis was his worst nightmare though.

[montrealsuper]

Damn, Lewis took that fight very seriously if he was preparing to fight the 86 Tyson lol. He didn't want to get KO'd by Tyson like he did with McCall and Rahman.

2000s Tyson was just a name. There was no chance he was going to win that Lewis fight. Lewis wasn't going to take any chances and was too focused to allow to dumb KO.

Tyson at this stage of his career just looked for that one punch or break an arm while he's at it. It might have been a better fight if Roach was his trainer, but still would've been a domination by Lewis.

It's amazing how much money Tyson was able to make at that stage in his career.

I got the feeling that Lewis could have finished Tyson any time after about the second round, but he fought as if Tyson was still the danger man he was back in the late 80s.

Lewis wanted to beat Tyson bad. I think the reason he waited so long was he didn't want to risk getting KO'd like he did against Rahman and McCall.

There was a joke that Lewis took more punishment from Emanuel Steward in the corner than from Tyson. Steward was hitting and slapping Lewis' chest telling him to just KO Tyson.

Looked like somebody had money on a Lewis KO ;)

[montrealsuper]

Here is the amazon link. Good read for $12.

http://www.amazon.com/Heavyweight-Armag ... malinowski