Tyson, Holyfield come out talkin’

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Here's how tough boxing can be on the participants: Even with Evander Holyfield's hand raised in victory, Mike Tyson thought he had won their Nov. 9 bout.

It took his co-manager, John Horne, to convince Tyson that he had, indeed, lost by 11th-round technical knockout.

"I thought I'd knocked him out," Tyson said Monday on Roy Firestone's Up Close television show on ESPN. "(Horne) told me I hadn't. He said 'trust me' and told me to sit down and relax."

And after reality set in?

"I thought, 'What the hell?'" Tyson replied, the cobwebs having been replaced by a sense of disbelief.

Tyson and Holyfield are rematched June 28 at the MGM Grand Garden and each man was recently taped for a profile on Firestone's show. Tyson was seen at his Las Vegas home, while Holyfield was captured on camera at his Houston training headquarters.

Holyfield, the WBA heavyweight champion, said he'll take the rematch as well.

"I won't lose," he said. "I can fight and I can protect myself."

He also said Tyson wasn't his most difficult opponent -- Riddick Bowe was -- although he acknowledged the book isn't closed on the subject.

"That fight wasn't my toughest fight," he said of facing Tyson. "But what difference does it make what I did? I've got to go do it again."

Holyfield is due in Las Vegas later this week for final preparations for a fight that long ago sold out the 16,331-seat Grand Garden and promises to be a pay-per-view bonanza for everyone involved. Each participant is guaranteed $30 million.

Leave it to a wily troublemaker like George Foreman to suggest Tyson vs. Holyfield was postponed from its original May 3 target date not because Tyson was cut while sparring, but because he was unhappy with his money. Initially, Tyson was down for "only" a $20 million payday for the rematch.

"I don't think there was anything legitimate to it," Foreman said of the supposed cut near Tyson's left eye. "It may have been to get more money, to get his money straight."

Foreman, appearing in a brief segment of Firestone's show to promote himself as a possible opponent for the Tyson-Holyfield winner (or loser, for that matter), said he believes Tyson will keep fighting regardless of next week's outcome.

"I think he's got a lot of years ahead of him," Foreman said. "He's still the greatest attraction in boxing. It's like the bearded lady; we're curious about Mike Tyson.

"Holyfield is a great individual but nobody's curious about him."

Holyfield said he won the first fight in part because he wasn't intimidated by Tyson's menacing presence. He also said that same factor will help him win the rematch.

"The fight is sometimes won or lost when you're walking to the ring," he said. "You realize it's just you and that guy. The biggest thing I have going for me when we're first standing in the ring is that I can say 'You did it to them but you didn't do it to me.'"

Holyfield will even try a little intimidation of his own.

"I'll try to look into his pupils and see the back of his head," he claimed.

Holyfield, 34, is 33-3 with 24 knockouts. Tyson, 30, is 45-2 with 39 KOs. He'll turn 31 two days after the fight.

He's also newly married, confirming an April report, and his wife is pregnant with what will be Tyson's fourth child.

"I'd like to believe I'm a better individual now," he said, although he admitted to momentary outbursts, perhaps the result of growing up in New York City "with a mother who was an alcoholic and a father who was a pimp in the streets." As for his own indiscretions, Tyson said "At times I'm upset. (Then) I'll strike somebody; I may do worse than that. I'm uninhibited. I don't get embarrassed."

He wasn't embarrassed to close the show with an expletive, although Firestone certainly blushed. The topic of conversation was Tyson's circle of friends.

"If someone's not smart enough to be my friend, f--- 'em," Tyson said with the conviction of a man who has earned in excess of $100 million since his release from prison 27 months ago.