Tyson Finds Foe Beyond Words
In a slip of the tongue, Mike Tyson probably defined Bruce Seldon’s perceived role in Saturday night’s heavyweight championship as well as anyone.
“I’m looking forward to fighting Bruce Sheldon,” said Tyson, mispronouncing the name of the WBA champion considered by many people to be just another domino to be pushed over in Tyson’s post-prison career.
Tyson, the WBC champion, is a 22-1 favorite at the MGM Grand sports book to win the scheduled 12-round pay-per-view fight in the Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
“You can only meet what they bring you,” the 30-year-old Tyson said.
“I’m the most athletic opponent Mike Tyson has faced since he’s been released from prison,” the 29-year-old Seldon said. “I have a great style of boxing and fighting. Tyson don’t box.”
Seldon’s main weapon is a left jab that cuts and hurts opponents.
“I’ve fought guys with better jabs than him,” said Tyson, perhaps thinking of James “Buster” Douglas, the only man to beat him, or Tony Tucker. “I’ve never looked at the jab as as big an asset as most guys do.”
Seldon won the WBA title when the fight was stopped after seven rounds because Tony Tucker’s left eye was closed. Before that, Tucker landed right hands that wobbled Seldon in the second and third rounds and twice in the sixth round.
In his first title defense, Seldon dominated Joe Hipp before stopping him in the ninth round, but Hipp hurt Seldon with a left hook in the fourth round and sent him reeling backward with a right-left in the sixth.
“I’ve got to keep my balance and be relaxed,” Seldon said. “I’m not saying I’m going to get in there and run. That, I’m definitely not going to do. Early on, it’s going to be very intense, very fast, a fast pace. Truly I think for the first half of the fight Mike Tyson is coming out there. I think Mike Tyson is training for six round.”
Woman will fight
Christy Martin, whose bloody nose made her a talk-show attraction, will kick off the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight championship card on pay-per-view television Saturday night.
Also performing will be Terry Norris, WBC-IBF junior middleweight champion, and Felix Trinidad, IBF welterweight champion.
“Well, they say you have to bleed for your fame and fortune,” the 27-year-old Martin said of the bloody nose she suffered in outpointing Deidre Gogarty on pay-per-view on the card of Tyson’s WBC title win over Frank Bruno on March 16. “The blood obviously got attention.”
On Wednesday, Martin, of Orlando, Fla., was presented a BMW auto by promoter Don King, and she will get $50,000 for boxing Melinda Robinson of Austin, Texas, in the MGM Grand Garden.
The pay-per-view show will begin at 9 p.m. PDT.
Olympian a murder suspect
Former heavyweight boxer Henry Tillman will be charged with murder today in connection with the death of a man last January, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said.
Officer Don Cox said Tillman, 36, who won an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles in 1984, was identified as a suspect in the shooting of Kevin Anderson outside a nightclub in suburban Westchester on Jan. 10.