Waiting Is a Part of Game

Mike Tyson is back, leaner and meaner. When he punched Alex Stewart in the stomach Saturday night, it was like squeezing a Hostess Twinkie and then watching the filling squirt out. Should Tyson ever pump Gorging George Foreman’s stomach that way, heaven help the people at ringside.

There will be no Tyson-Foreman fight, however--not now, perhaps never. And whose fault is that?

Not George’s.

At any time Tyson held the heavyweight title, he could have afforded Foreman a shot at the championship belt. He did not. He did defend the title 10 times, not counting the night he beat the stuffing out of a turkey named Mitch Green on a Harlem sidewalk, so Tyson was hardly in hiding. But the only chance he ever gave old George Foreman was the chance to get even older.

Now, the new ring king, Evander Holyfield, at considerable risk to his reputation and face, is willing to accommodate Foreman, who intends to let out a few notches in that championship belt as soon as he wins it back. Holyfield, while undefeated professionally, is a boxer whose skull got punching-bagged for 13 rounds by the very same Alex Stewart who just got Tysonized at Atlantic City.

Tyson and his handlers are beefing that their fighter deserves the next shot at the championship, that Holyfield has no right to be ducking him, that Tyson is the obvious No. 1 contender. Well, of course he is. Anybody who could get two eyelids open on the night Tyson lost to Buster Douglas must have noticed that not only was Tyson unprepared, but he still floored Buster and nearly won the fight.

All we can advise Tyson, though, is to be patient. To wait, the way he made Foreman wait.

Tyson is a young man, a couple of decades younger than old George. Tyson is so young, his voice hasn’t changed yet. He has time to kill. Opponents, well, he can maim them later. Or, he can step through the ropes with Donovan (Razor) Ruddock, the way he had contractually committed to a year ago in Edmonton, and stop reneging on Razor, rather than complaining that Holyfield is side-stepping him.

Much of the sporting public wants to see Foreman fight somebody important, while he still can. While some still consider Foreman’s senior-league pugilism a farce, others have been won over by this happy-go-lucky lug who trains on hot-fudge sundaes. George has turned boxing into the Sweet ‘n’ Low Science.

As a former keeper of the crown, same as Tyson, there is just enough touch of boxing royalty in Foreman that we should indulge one last whim. Besides, he is big fun. And anyway, could Foreman do worse than Buster Douglas did against Holyfield? Do worse than Alex Stewart did Saturday? Does Foreman’s advanced age make him less worthy an opponent or attraction than Henry Tillman for a guy such as Tyson?

It will disturb, but won’t kill, Tyson to be kept on hold while Holyfield brings the Foreman comeback to a boil. We have seen George play patty-cake with an assortment of Bozos, yo-yos and morgue escapees, and the time has come to end his career or enhance it. No sense waiting until Foreman is 50 and drinking Geritol from his squirt bottle. Let’s get on with it.

Maybe Foreman will win. Then he can fight Tyson, a bout Don King undoubtedly will promote as “Mike and the Fat Man.”

In the meantime, it is good to have Tyson back, fighting like his old self. He looks hungry again, and scary, and vicious, and eager to reclaim his status as undisputed champion of any dispute. This is the angriest we have seen Mike since he was married.

Tyson should honor his commitment to fight Ruddock. After all, he backed away from that fight because he contracted pneumonia, and unless Tyson can prove that it was Ruddock who gave him the pneumonia, it behooves him to reschedule the fight. Holyfield was available then and Tyson elected to fight Ruddock instead; now the shoe is on the other foot, and Mikey doesn’t like it.

There are people in boxing circles who contend that the contender Ruddock is tougher than the champion Holyfield. Much like Buster Douglas, Holyfield hopes to milk his title for a few months for whatever it’s worth, and that’s fine. It also is to his credit that he is fighting Foreman, although punching one in the snout is a peculiar way of showing respect for one’s elder.

Mike Tyson can occupy his spare hours helping Spike Lee with the film that distinguished director is making about him. It will be a sockumentary, chronicling the rise and fall of one of the most fearless customers ever to give or take a punch.

Tyson will rise again to the title; that’s the safest wager in sports. From whom will he win it? Well, that depends on how Foreman makes out. You know. Survival of the fattest.