Columnist Dean Juipe: If Tyson fights, pity the referee

Dean Juipe

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 9:43 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Boxing referees are accustomed to physical confrontations.

While maneuvering between flailing fighters, they've been known to suffer the occasional nick or cut lip when hit by a wayward punch or errant elbow.

They've also been berated and threatened by losing fighters, as was the case Nov. 2 in Las Vegas when a distraught Zab Judah flicked his glove in referee Jay Nady's face after a fight with Kostya Tszyu was stopped in the second round.

That, my friends, will be nothing compared to how Mike Tyson is going to react if the Nevada State Athletic Commission licenses him and permits an April 6 fight with Lennox Lewis at the MGM Grand Garden. I'll go ahead and predict it right now: Tyson will lose the fight on a stoppage and go ballistic, and the initial target of his rage will be the commission-appointed referee.

Joe Cortez likely would be that referee, as he's the best in the world. But he can't wear a suit of armor into the ring and he can't carry a gun, so his best course of action is to make sure he's entitled to worker's comp and that his life insurance premiums have been paid.

I'm not really making light of this. I think if the commission allows Tyson into the ring, it is putting a man such as Cortez in danger.

Tyson is so unstable that -- short of being knocked out cold -- he's going to rebel the moment his fight with Lewis is stopped. And it'll be stopped at some point, as Lewis is bigger, more focused, sharper and just as strong as the madman who will be in the ring across from him.

Neither Cortez nor the fans in the arena will be able to get out of the building fast enough if this predicted scenario plays through. There will be trouble and Tyson is the one who will bring it on.

The oddity is that the NSAC is obsessed with the safety and health of fighters and just last year published a book -- edited by the insightful Dr. Margaret Goodman -- that outlined acceptable standards and practices for developing fighters and coping with the rigors of the sport. Yet there are no chapters on dealing with an enraged and sore loser, as the increasingly volatile Tyson is and may always be.

Of course there's a solution to this potential problem and it's up to the commission to implement it when it meets Tuesday on the issue of licensing Tyson. Let's see, here are its choices: It can throw caution to the wind and let the man fight even at the risk of absolute bedlam and pandemonium breaking out, or it can choose a prudent and safe course and say we can live without a Tyson fight in Nevada.

It will be unforgivable if the commission does anything but what's noble and proper. And it needs to be held accountable if it licenses Tyson despite knowing full well the potential for violence he brings not only to his boxing opponent but to others around him, the crowd that's there to see him, and the facility in which the fight would be held.

Only because I'm 6-1-1 against the spread in printed predictions on NFL playoff games will I take the next step and give my forecasts for this weekend: Both Pittsburgh and St. Louis win but neither covers the spread. At a minus 9 1/2 and minus 11, respectively, the numbers are just too high.