‘I could have sworn I saw that bin Laden dude’

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 10:10 a.m.

When Cliff Couser agreed a month ago to take a late-September fight in Uzbekistan, there was no hint that visiting the former Russian republic -- which borders on Afghanistan -- would pose any unforeseen dangers.

But now that he's back from the world's hot spot, the heavyweight fighter from Las Vegas is fully aware of the explosive situation that envelops that region as the result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in America.

And he may have some information that the Central Intelligence Agency would like to evaluate.

"I could have sworn I saw that bin Laden dude," Couser said this week.

"It was nighttime, but I saw him pretty good," Couser continued. "But I guess it couldn't have been him because this guy was pretty tall, like maybe 6-5."

Informed that Osama bin Laden is known to stand between 6-4 and 6-6, Couser all but gasped.

"Wow," he said. "You never know."

Not to completely make light of the situation, but consider this amusing image as well: The would-be bin Laden could have seen Couser and gone back to his acquaintances and remarked, "Hey, I just saw Mike Tyson."

Couser, of course, is a virtual dead ringer for Tyson, who, he claims, is his half-brother. Whether walking through a mall in Las Vegas or a street in Uzbekistan, Couser is routinely mistaken for the former heavyweight champion.

"A lot of people over there thought I was Tyson," he said. "One group of guys picked me up in the air and held me over their heads. I told them 'Put me down, I'm only Tyson's brother.' "

The case of mistaken identity aside, Couser said he was accorded a handsome reception during his stay in a country that is nestled between Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and is only a day's drive from the besieged Afghan capital of Kabul.

"They treated me like I was some kind of king," he said. "They had posters of me around town and the crowd at the fight chanted my name. I felt like I was in Vegas and fighting for a world title."

Couser's fight -- against Utah native Willie Chapman -- didn't go as he had hoped and he lost a 10-round decision that was scored solely by the referee.

"I lost by one point," he said. "The crowd booed and it was pretty wild, but I told everyone to calm down."

Dropping to 23-7, Couser said he went from being "222 pounds and in shape" when he left Las Vegas, to "208 (pounds) and having no energy at all" by the night of the fight.

"There was nothing for me to eat," he said. "All they seemed to have was dark meat, horse meat, and I don't like things like that."

He was paid $15,000 for the trip but surrendered part of that as a fine for slapping Chapman at the weigh-in. He hopes to rebound from the loss and there's talk of a possible fight with Lamon Brewster in the near future.

While in Uzbekistan -- which is one of the countries that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is touring this week -- Couser said there was no disguising the tension that was in the air.

"They're very aware of what happened (in New York City and Washington)," he said. "A lot of people told me they were sorry, but that they were happy America was going to take control.

"They didn't like what the terrorists did, and they felt it was bringing trouble to their country because you could see people coming over the border from Afghanistan. They hated what happened and there was a lot of security, with volunteer police everywhere."

Asked if he ever personally felt endangered, Couser said yes, but only momentarily.

"At first I thought I was (in danger)," he said. "But the hotel had their own policemen on top of the building and I never saw any trouble.

"Actually, except for the fight it was a wonderful experience."