Book about Tyson-Lewis 2002 Superfight

This was the last major superfight in boxing, between two major stars. This fight transcended the sport with the good guy vs the villain angle. It was a good fight in the first couple rounds as Tyson went for the homerun, but Lewis settled down and began to dominate, administering a frightful beating on Mike.

The book really goes into deep detail about this super fight. Excellent read.
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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 ****yze what the other guy is trying to ****yze 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?

Heavyweight Armageddon The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle is available at amazon.

 

Lewis vs. Tyson betting odds were close to even 50-50. At the time so many people thought Tyson would land a bomb, and down would go Lewis who was perceived to have a bad chin.

 

Yes Floyd vs. Oscar was considered a super fight but it was perhaps the most boring super fight in history. Looked more like a business sparring session. So bad that it does not deserve to be called a 'super fight" despite how much $ it generated. IMO.