Columnist Dean Juipe: Norris fails as fighter and as actor

Dean Juipe

Monday, Oct. 25, 1999 | 10:37 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

There is no underestimating the power of suggestion.

Told by his handlers that he had a knee injury and couldn't continue, Orlin Norris suddenly had a knee injury and couldn't continue. Just like that, his Saturday fight with Mike Tyson at the MGM Grand Garden was cut short after a single round, one that ended with Norris taking a stiff left that came a second after the bell.

While he looked perfectly fine walking back to his corner after the round, Norris, once he got there, was subjected to a plethora of bad advice that resulted in him nursing the knee and becoming increasingly creaky. Within a matter of minutes he was reduced from able-bodied fighter to a man with a progressively noticeable limp to a feeble huckster who required a stretcher.

Good thing his cornermen didn't tell him he had a headache, or ol' Orlin would have just laid his noggin on a chopping block.

That $800,000 he received will spend well, yet Norris will never live down the fact he talked a good game and then failed to deliver as promised in a fight with the former heavyweight champion. When the opportunity arose, he bought into his handlers' out-of-whack spiel and left the ring the intimidated man he said he wasn't and never would be.

While many in the media put the onus on Tyson for this latest blemish to boxing, it's Norris' reputation that's shot. He's the one who failed to grasp the age-old warning given to both fighters by the referee as they meet in the ring prior to every fight: "Protect yourself at all times."

Norris didn't and Tyson hit him a fraction late with a punch that can easily be likened to a linebacker perhaps recklessly driving a ball carrier out of bounds in a football game: Sometimes one man's momentum results in a blow that merits a penalty, yet not a disqualification.

And Norris' people were hoping for a DQ when they played their "sit tight" scam, although they would have had a better chance of pulling it off had Norris feigned that he was knocked out by the late punch. But once he got up they went to a "Plan B" that looked disturbingly fake and laughably phony.

The actual final verdict of a no-contest had the potential to incite the crowd, yet those in attendance took it surprisingly well and only one man was arrested.

If arrests could be made for bad acting, Norris and those around him would be incarcerated today. Yes, the doctor said his knee looked swollen, and yes, Norris used to wear a light brace on the tricky joint, but he really wasn't severely injured and he certainly could have continued with even a token, halfhearted effort befitting a man being paid such a huge sum.

Instead he has embarrassed himself and put Tyson in the unenviable position of having to defend himself and rethink how badly he wants to extend his career. Truth is, it was easy to feel sorry for Tyson at the postfight press conference and it's still easy to feel sympathetic for him today in the aftermath of the ruse pulled by Norris and his cohorts.

That's a new one: Sympathy for the devil, some would say.

But give the devil his due: He came to fight and he knew the dangers, while his opponent came to pick up a big check and retire to a quiet life in Southern California.

Enjoy yourself Orlin. Despite 14 years and 50 wins in the sport it's your legacy that lives on forever, and yours is indelibly tainted.