Straight Writes and Jabs by Hauser Thomas;

Author:Hauser, Thomas; [Hauser, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORTS & RECREATION / Boxing
ISBN: 2007864
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: 2013-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen years after the fact, this one rewrote history for me.

Evander Holyfield on the Night Before Fighting MikeTyson

It’s part of boxing lore. On November 9, 1996, Evander Holyfield shocked the world by knocking out Mike Tyson. Holyfield, it was said, went into the fight with absolute confidence and total belief in himself. “Tyson might frighten you guys,” he told the media. “But he doesn’t scare me. I’ve been everywhere he has except prison.”

Except it turns out that things weren’t that simple.

On June 8, 2012, I was sitting with Evander when Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley weighed in for their welterweight championship fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Pacquiao tipped the scales at 147 pounds, Bradley at 146. When it was time for the ritual staredown, Tim moved into Manny’s space and postured aggressively.

Throughout fight week, Bradley had carried himself with an aura of confidence. Pacquiao, on the other hand, had seemed a bit somber. Thus, I was surprised when Evander said to me, “I think Pacquiao is more confident.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Tim feels good right now,” Holyfield answered. “But the night before a fight, when you’re lying in bed and can’t sleep, things change.”

“Did you have trouble sleeping before a fight?”

Evander smiled.

“The night before I fought Tyson the first time was the worst.”

Jack Dempsey famously said, “Fighters know fear. It’s like a lump in your chest. You learn how to live with it. You don’t talk about it and you try not to show it. But it’s there.”

This is what Evander told me about his state of mind before he fought Mike Tyson.

♦ ♦ ♦

No matter how much you believe in yourself, there’s always some doubt. The night before Tyson, with all the talk I’d heard about how great he was and how there was no way I could possibly beat him, I must have got out of bed a hundred times.

I shadow-boxed. I read the Bible. I went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep. I got up again. Read the Bible some more. Shadow-boxed again. A lot of thoughts were going through my mind. The hardest fight I’d ever had was against Dwight Qawi. Fifteen rounds. I remember Qawi telling me during the fight, “They sent a baby to do a man’s job.” There was a time in that fight when all I wanted was to not get knocked out and make it to the end. I won but it took everything out of me.

Tyson was bigger than Qawi. Tyson was stronger than Qawi. He hit harder than Qawi. At the Olympic trials, I was a light-heavyweight and Tyson was a heavyweight. He was the only guy there who worked harder than me.

All I got was two, maybe three, hours of sleep, the night before I fought Tyson. The second time we fought, it was better. The whole day of the first fight, I was tired. I had a headache. I felt nauseous. Anybody can win if they don’t get hit, but I knew I was gonna get hit.

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