Don't be fooled. Mike Tyson's win over Lou Savarese Saturday night was nothing. Not even a competitive contest much less a fight.
What a joke!
If you didn't see the mismatch and only read about it and/or saw highlights on the numerous sports TV shows, you might think Tyson is back to the "old Mike Tyson" who could blow opponents away with his limited skills and intimidation. Not so ... After a ring entrance with all the smoke and appropriate flashing lights - which took longer than the fight - former heavyweight champion Tyson entered the ring to do battle with Savarese, who said he came to fight but didn't.
Once the first bell rang, Tyson charged out, hit Savarese with a so-called left hook to the head and down went Lou. I must tell you that punch didn't really do much damage as Savarese partially blocked it with his right glove and the punch appeared to graze the top of Savarese's temple as it whizzed over his head.
It sort of reminded me of that punch Tyson threw against Bruce Seldon a few years back that barely touched Seldon's hair as he went down and then a few seconds later ... out!
And while Savarese got up from that knockdown, all he did was try to grab and hold Tyson unsuccessfully as Tyson threw wildly, but connected with a legitimate left to the jaw that staggered Savarese back as the referee jumped in to stop the fight.
He wasn't very good at doing that, though, as Tyson was still trying to hit Savarese with the referee in between them and one of Tyson's wild shots knocked referee John Coyle down before the fight could be stopped. The total time for all this was a mere 38 seconds, and Tyson's hand was raised in victory.
Big deal! Savarese, who turns 35 in two weeks, didn't come to fight and he lost that fight before the first bell ever rang. He was a beaten fighter before he entered the ring.
So, don't be fooled by all the hype and talk that followed. Remember, Tyson only beats up guys who don't fight back. Savarese only threw a couple of pawing left jabs in the whole fight and none of them connected.
Tyson did knock out inept Julius Francis in his previous fight, but that guy was there only to be knocked out, too, and didn't put up much of a fight at all. In fact, even in his win over Frans Botha, Iron Mike lost every minute of every round until that one punch that knocked Botha out in round five, If old Frans had ducked that punch, he probably would have won the fight.
Bottom line is, anyone - read Evander Holyfield or Buster Douglas here - who goes into a fight against Tyson and actually fights him instead of running or fainting, stands a good chance of winning. So look for a lot more "non-fights" by Tyson until he gets a title shot and loses against Lennox Lewis.
-- I do want to note a couple of things ... Tyson did look good. He came in at 222 pounds (Savarese weighed 241) and that's a good fighting weight for him. Also note that since he split with Don King - and this is no endorsement of King - Tyson isn't on pay-per-view TV and he no longer gets $20 or $30 million for a fight. This fight was on Showtime and it's reported that Tyson was paid $8 million for his short nights work but I don't believe that. Even if it's true, that's quite a drop for Iron Mike, who turns 34 years old on Friday.
One last note ... Let's hope Tyson keeps fighting those stiffs overseas and doesn't bring his worn-out act back to Las Vegas or even to the United States.
-- The Showtime telecast opened with Zab Judah defending his IBF junior welterweight (140-pound limit) title against Junior Whittier. That was a boring 12-rounder that saw Judah win a unanimous decision to remain undefeated at 24-0-1 with 17 KOs.
Probably the most exciting event of the night came when a streaker ran through the stands to the delight of the fans, although the Showtime announcers only told us about it and didn't show the streaker ... Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.
-- Because I wanted to watch the Tyson fight I didn't make it to the Peppermill in Reno for its Saturday night fight card so I watched it on Univision instead.
First want to say that Univision does a great job with its fight telecasts. Very professional and even though I don't speak Spanish and understand just enough to get by, the telecast had enough in English to understand and keep up with what was going on.
One thing they do different is, they open with the main event. That was the fight between Cesar Soto and Oscar Larios. A very good, action fight that saw Larios win a unanimous decision in their super bantamweight (122-limit) 12-rounder. Carson City boxing Judge Keith Macdonald and Gardnerville Judge Doug Tucker worked the fight and Carson City's John McSweeny worked some undercard fights.
After the main event they only showed one prelim fight because the main went the distance. In that fight, junior welterweight Jose Celaya won a four-round decision over Ismael Quintero. In a fight that didn't make TV, Yerington's Jesse Brinkley improved to 10-1 by taking a unanimous six-round decision win over Roger Flores, who is 11-12-1.
South Lake Tahoe's Jose Torres pulled out of his fight against Mexico's Cesar Bazan about 30 minutes before the bout claiming he had numbness on his left side and some vision problems. Also on the card, heavyweight Kelvin Davis won a 4-round decision over Brad Rone to improve his record to 10-0.
-- On Sunday night, FOX Sports showed Ramon Garbey and Pres Oquendo in a heavyweight fight and Robbie "The Bomber" Peden going against John "The Beast" Brown in a junior lightweight (130-limit) fight.
I'm not going to tell you the results in case you didn't see the card. Fox has scheduled a rerun of those fights tonight starting at 7 p.m.
-- I will tell you the results of Friday nights ESPN2 main event. Two undefeated light heavyweights (175-limit) fought in that fight when Antonio Tarver (16-0, 14 KOs) and Eric Harding (18-0-1, 9 KOs) went at it from Biloxi, Miss. In a cautious, take-no-chances type of fight, Harding won a unanimous decision.
This Friday on ESPN2 the main event features Ray Oliviera (38-7, 17 KOs) going against Isaac Cruz (16-9, 13 KOs) plus they'll show the Glenwood Brown fight against Scott Pemberton and Brian Dumas goes against Tommy Attardo during the 2 1/2-hour live telecast.
Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.
