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POSTED:
Apr 20 2009, 11:45 AM
So I'm a few hours from the premiere screening of the TYSON documentary and last night I was walking around Time Square and the downtown area to just get some thoughts from some people I bumped into and asked the question, "If we put Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali in the ring in their primes, who would win?"
Just for the record, though I say a couple of punches, in detail I think Tyson would win the fight if we're talking about Tyson right before he won his first heavyweight belt when he was big-time in his classic bob-and-weave style that Cus trained him so well to use during the string of over 20 fights in 18 months before winning that championship. The more I watch Tyson during those matches, the more I see how punishing and fearless he was when when he went after people. I would pick Tyson in a KO in 4.
I know I'll get heat for saying so, but man, he's one tough SOB.
POSTED:
Apr 19 2009, 10:38 PM
TYSON Trailer
I
just got off a plane and am in New York for the first time and excited
not only because I’ve never visited the Big Apple, but also because of
the special event that I’ve been invited to attend this Monday night.
EA SPORTS is proud to sponsor the premiere screening of the Sony Pictures Classics’ TYSON,
a James Toback film looking at the roller coaster life of one of the
greatest heavyweight boxers of our generation. A few weeks ago I was
asked to see if I would be interested in blogging and covering the
event and, along with Fight Night Round 4 producer Brian Hayes and EA
SPORTS forums moderators Demetrius (Poetic) Egerton and Robert
(wepeeler) Smith, I enthusiastically jumped at an opportunity of a
lifetime to walk down the red-carpet on Broadway at the AMC Loews
Cinemas among a star-studded invite-list including Joe Frazier, Al
Sharpton, NAS, Moby, Christopher Walken, LL Cool J, Harvey Keitel,
Commissioner Ray Kelly, Rosie Perez and many others.
James Toback and Mike Tyson have been on a whirlwind tour which
began last summer at the Cannes Film festival where the film was first
viewed. After the screening, both appeared on stage and received a standing ovation from the crowd,
and a humbled Tyson spoke of his gratitude for this film and to those
that helped create it along with his appreciation to the crowd for
their heart-felt acceptance of the documentary.
It’s a far-cry from what we’ve come to expect from the off-spoken
pugilist whose life brought about fear for his opponents inside the
ring, fear for people outside it in the public eye, and as seen in some
of the previews of the film, a personal fear that he seems now to be
learning to understand, appreciate, and, ultimately, control. It’s a
film that I’ve been anticipating seeing for quite some time and to have
the chance to view it with him in the crowd along with very special
guests will be quite the honor.
Hosting the event with Tyson and Toback will be director Bennett Miller, and acclaimed boxing journalists Joyce Carol Oates and Gay Talese.
I’ve read a few of Oates articles following Tyson’s career from his
first world championship victory over Trevor Burbick in November 22,
1986 to his fall from grace in the mid to late ‘90s. Her views on the
sports and Tyson in particular go deep into the heart of the sport and
more so into the psyche of a boxer that rarely gave interviews to
female reporters. Gay Talese’s penchant for writing about the underdog
pushed his articles on the sport back in the 60’s to the forefront, as
the sport once dominated and revered by white people, began to see the
minority black people at the top of the ranks. These athletes have
definitely helped paved the way for many other minority boxers who have
broken racial barriers including the influx of Hispanic and European
fighters as well as one of the top pound-for-pound boxer today, and my
personal favorite from my home country in the Philippines, Manny
Pacquiao.
Make no bones about it, boxing is a brutal sport. It cuts to the
heart of our society and continues to be challenged by those less
understanding of the instinctual battle between man and foe. Oates put
it best when she described the sport in Kid Dynamite: Mike Tyson is the most exciting heavyweight fighter since Muhammad Ali:
“(Boxing) is the quintessential image of human struggle, masculine
or otherwise, against not only other people but one's own divided self.
Its kinship with Roman gladiatorial combat—in which defeated men
usually died—is not historically accurate but poetically relevant.” I
know Poetic will appreciate me waxing it old skool here.
Anyway, I’m hoping to get a chance to post some video and pictures
from the red-carpet and get some reaction from some of the guests in
attendance though being a guest myself, I’m very much looking forward
to enjoying the screening and the reception to follow. I’m told I
would be lucky to get some time with Tyson as he’ll be fairly busy with
his more esteemed guests in attendance which I can totally appreciate.
For us boxing fans and gamers in attendance, it’s going to be an unreal
experience that we’ll be buzzing about for the rest of our lives.
POSTED:
Apr 07 2009, 02:39 PM
By Brian Hayes, Producer
I was just 6 months old when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met for the
third time at the Araneta Coliseum in the Philippines on October 1,
1975. As I became enamored with boxing many, many years ago and began
purchasing classic fight tapes and DVDs, I purchased an Ali VHS box-set
that included, “The Thrilla In Manila”. I have seen several great
fights over the years, but Ali-Frazier III will always stand out for me
because of the punishment both men exacted upon each other, their
tumultuous relationship outside the ropes, the way Ali slumped back on
his stool after briefly celebrating the stoppage and, most importantly,
the look in Joe Frazier’s eyes when Eddie Futch stopped the fight.
For the HBO video preview, Brian's complete blog, and new FNR4 screens of the fighters in the Manila Arena, go to Inside EA SPORTS Blog: Thrilla in Manila (or why I love Joe Frazier)
POSTED:
Mar 16 2009, 01:14 PM
Check out the video featuring Ali and Tyson gameplay:
It's just a glimpse of the game with much, much more to come over the next few months. Look out for our community first-looks and in-depth producer & feature videos as we near the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year!
POSTED:
Mar 09 2009, 11:03 PM
By Jason Thompson
Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson are the cover athletes for Fight Night Round 4 (FNR4). My first reaction as a Fight Night fan who has waited 3 ½ years for this game was: "perfect choice". In Ali and Tyson, FNR4 has the best two boxers the sport has ever seen on the cover.
MUHAMMAD ALI
What do I think of Muhammad Ali? I think he may be the only boxer that ever really did earn his nickname: "The Greatest". Was there ever a smoother more exciting boxer than Muhammad Ali? If you are thinking about it you can stop. The answer is no. He was mentally tougher than anyone in the game and had more style in the snap of one of his jabs than most athletes will see in their entire career. His bravado made the sport come alive and his interviews were merely a stage for rhymes that were cocky, scathing, poetic, and humorous all at once. Sure they were self-indulgent but he had a right to be because "THE CHAMP IS HERE!" He was the first to make it okay to celebrate being great. For so many athletes that have followed since most have forgotten that Ali earned that right because he was in fact "the greatest of all time."
The Greatest never varied from his game-plan in or out of the ring. To a lot of people from that era he captured uniquely the edge on political, social, cultural, and religious issues and under that microscope and the intense pressure of being at the epicenter of these issues he did something truly great: he remained. Like the eight rounds against George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle", Ali used the "Rope-a Dope" and took every punch that brutal time had to throw only to come-alive in the end, when it mattered most, and win.
Do you really want to know why Ali was "The Greatest"? Just read what he said before that Championship fight with George Foreman in what was then Zaire, Africa:
"I've tustled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And put thunder in jail.
You know I'm bad.
I have murdered a rock,
I've injured a stone, and hospitalized a brick.
I'm so bad, I make medicine sick.
I'm so fast, man,
I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet.
When George Foreman meets me,
He'll pay his debt.
I can drown the drink of water, and kill a dead tree.
Wait till you see Muhammad Ali."
MIKE TYSON
Plain black shorts. Black gloves. No neck. A towel with a cut through the middle for his head. That is what I picture when I think of Mike Tyson. That kid from New York who spoke like a child, was raised by a boxing trainer (Cus D'Amato) and who obliterated opponents with casual brutality. No one had ever seen anything like Mike Tyson; not before or since.
Where Ali was smooth and cool, Tyson was just dangerous. He was dangerous like an unstable stick of dynamite with a short fuse. Watching Tyson fight you knew he was going to explode and someone was going to get hurt when he did. "Iron" Mike Tyson would waddle into his opponent with both gloves chin high, bend left or right at the waste and then... he would throw a punch with the speed, power and violence of a shuttle launch. You measured Tyson fights in minutes and seconds, not rounds. He had been arrested 38 times before the age of 13. He won his first heavy weight title belt at the age of 18 and unified the title at the age of 20.
Events after Tyson's prime have certainly tainted his image. Where Ali seemed impenetrable out of the ring Tyson was fragile. An Ali interview was wildly entertaining. A Tyson interview was awkward and almost painful to watch. Where Ali always had a plan, Tyson had none. If Ali was "The Greatest", Tyson was "The Meanest".
THE BIG QUESTION
Who would win if Ali in his prime fought Tyson in his prime? The Greatest or the Meanest? The Smoothest or the Most-Brutal? The Coolest or the Most Dangerous?
I don't know.
You tell me.