The Last Golden Age of the Heavyweights

Published

10 years ago

October 21, 2014

With Riddick Bowe’s recent nomination to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, it seems like a perfect time to reassess the extraordinary era in which he fought. Not since the time of Ali, Frazier, and Foreman has there been such a superior group of fighters in the heavyweight division at one time. From the moment Mike Tyson blitzed Michael Spinks in 91 seconds on June 27, 1988 to Lennox Lewis’ very technical knockout of Vitali Klitschko on June 21, 2003, the marquee division in boxing was blessed with extraordinary depth.

Even the lesser lights of the era held genuine merit. Fighters like Rahman, Golota, Mercer, Morrison, Moorer, Douglas, Bruno, Ruddock, and remarkably, George Foreman (again!) are worthy of mention. If we’re being honest though, when the boxing time capsule gets opened in 100 years, there will be four men who will dominate the discussion by a deep and wide margin. The aforementioned Lewis, Tyson, and Bowe as well as the fearless Evander Holyfield.

So let’s get down to it. How do we sort them out? What shall follow in the remaining body of this article will probably induce fits of anger and potential hate mail–or at least some nasty comments for me to read later in abject terror—by those that should peruse what they find below.

But what the hell. Here we go. Let’s (and by “let’s” I mean “me”) rank the four standard bearers of the last golden age of the heavyweights.

Here. We. Go.

/Lennox_Lewis

1) Lennox Lewis

This should be the least controversial choice. The massive ( 6’ 5, 245 pounds) and ridiculously skilled Brit had a remarkably dominant record sullied only by two shocking knockout losses to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman—both later avenged. Lewis became the WBC heavyweight champion in December of 1992 when then titleholder, Riddick Bowe, refused to face him. Aside from the two upset defeats to McCall and Rahman, Lewis wasn’t just winning fights during his peak, he was outclassing and surgically brutalizing his opponents. Blessed with a long left arm that housed an anvil on the end of a pristine jab and a massive right hand that could shake foundations, Lewis went 19-2-1 after becoming a belt holder with 13 wins by knock out.

While Bowe ducked Lewis, Tyson and Holyfield did not. Both paid for it.

In their first bout, Lewis out landed Holyfield 348 to 130. Somehow, in a decision so egregious it makes Pacquiao-Bradley 1 look like it was judged by sages—the fight was scored a draw. Oddly enough, when the two fought again just eight months later, Holyfield acquitted himself better, but lost a well-reasoned unanimous decision. In truth, neither fight was particularly close statistically or by the eye test. Holyfield’s indomitable will may have kept him upright, but it didn’t keep him from getting beat up. Holyfield was never the same after their rematch, finishing his career 8-6-1, against often less than stellar competition.

Tyson fared even worse. After seven rounds of what commentator, George Foreman (he’s everywhere!), called “batting practice,” Lewis finally dispatched Tyson in the final minute of the 8^th round with a vicious right hand up the middle. With that menacing blow, Lewis didn’t just end the fight, he extinguished Tyson’s relevance. Tyson became a shot fighter as soon as he hit the canvas.

Lewis didn’t just beat two great fighters, he effectively ended them.

While Lewis may have been the best of the four fighters, he may have been the least popular. His often gentile English manner seldom played well in the most macho of athletic endeavors, and his occasional passivity could frustrate even the most dogged of skill loving fight fans. Who can forget his trainer, the late, great Emanuel Steward, all but threatening to put a hit on Lewis if he didn’t exit his stool in the 4^th and knock Rahman out in their rematch? Which Lewis did, with malice.

Still, as bland a personality—if you don’t believe me, just recall his days commentating for HBO (better yet, don’t)—as he may have been and the lack of aggression he at times exhibited in the ring, Lewis is the clear, if not personally popular, top of a very impressive heap. Bowe dodged him, Holyfield was well handled, and Tyson was crushed by him. Throw in a number of exceptional performances against next tier fighters and there is no logical argument I can think of to counter his pole position. It’s also worth noting that of the four champions on this list, Lewis was the only one who left the game at just the right time. Holyfield and Tyson undoubtedly stayed too long and Bowe most certainly left too early.

EvanderHolyfield

2) Evander Holyfield

Perhaps the biggest heart and the truest warrior of the bunch. Evander Holyfield is the only one of these great heavyweights to fight all of the other three. Besides Holyfield’s two bouts with Lewis, he had an epic triptych with Bowe and two memorable—and how—skirmishes with Tyson.

The least physically imposing of the four, Holyfield actually began his career as a light heavyweight before moving up to cruiserweight—perhaps the greatest ever at that class—and finally to heavyweight in his 19^th professional bout against James “Quick” Tillis, which Holyfield won when Tillis refused to get off his stool after the 5^th.

Holyfield took the WBC, WBA, and IBF heavyweight titles by vanquishing Buster Douglas with a 3^rd round KO in Douglas’ first fight after his all-time upset of Mike Tyson just eight months earlier. Holyfield then took two less than impressive unanimous decisions over the aging Foreman and a near shot Larry Holmes with a 7^th round TKO of journeyman Bert Cooper wedged in between. There were many who questioned Holyfield’s bona fides as a world champion when he entered the ring against Riddick Bowe on November 13, 1992. He would answer those questions, and then some.

In an extraordinary 12 round slugfest where Holyfield was out landed, out skilled, and at times nearly out period, the champion withstood a brutal barrage from the challenger. The fight is perhaps best known for a 10^th round that rivaled Ward-Gatti (pick a round) in its ferocity and momentum shifts. Bowe dominated the early portion of the round and seemed as if he had Holyfield out on his feet. Then in what can only be described as a full force gale of will power and spirit, Holyfield rallied and had Bowe in deep trouble when the bell rang. While Bowe would go on to win a clear decision, no one you could ever take seriously would again doubt Holyfield’s mettle.

Their rematch just one week shy of a full year later was nearly as good, and better if you were Holyfield. Their second fight was also a classic, going the distance once again, this time with a bit of the bizarre thrown in when a parachutist descended onto the ring in the 7^th round and a melee ensued. Bowe’s wife passed out at ringside and the “Fan Man”–as he became known–took a serious beating in Bowe’s corner from fans, security, and a member of Bowe’s entourage. It’s still the strangest thing I’ve ever seen while watching a sporting event of any kind. Perhaps understandably, Holyfield kept his composure better than Bowe and then fended off a late rally from the champion to take a majority decision and hand Bowe the only loss of his career.

As one would hope, there was a rubber match between the two well-matched pugilists a year and a half later. In the interim, Holyfield had suffered an upset loss by majority decision to Michael Moorer before taking a unanimous decision over Ray Mercer. Their final fight would be the only one to not go the distance. Suffering from hepatitis, Holyfield appeared gassed going into the 6^th when in another incredible moment in their trilogy, he summoned from some ocean deep well of reserve and knocked Bowe off his feet. Unfortunately, Bowe got up and when he did, he took over the fight, closing the show in the 8^th by knocking Holyfield down twice and forcing the hand of referee, Joe Cortez, who stopped the fight after Holyfield just beat the ten count. It was a fine stoppage and one hell of a way to end their journey together.

After three such punishing fights, one might have expected Holyfield to fade. One would be wrong.

A Holyfield-Tyson match was made once Tyson completed his three year sentence from a rape conviction and got back in the ring. Tyson fought four times after his incarceration, going just eight rounds in the process, scoring three early knock outs and one victory by disqualification. Nearly six full years after defeating the only man to beat Mike Tyson–Buster Douglas—Holyfield got his shot at the man himself. Billed as “Finally,” the fight began with Tyson roaring out of his corner and pressuring Holyfield from the outset. There were still many who assumed Tyson would roll through Holyfield. I still recall Sylvester Stallone on Late Night with David Letterman saying Holyfield was “made” for Tyson. Rocky Balboa was not the only one who thought so. Again, one would be wrong.

By the second half of the fight, Holyfield began to dominate in a way that few would have expected–with his strength. Holyfield pushed Tyson all over the ring, seemingly sapping the shorter man of his stamina. While Tyson had his moments through the first 6 rounds, Holyfield owned all that came after. Holyfield put Tyson down in the 6^th and had him reeling in the 10^th when the bell rang. The 11^th offered more of the same and the fight was correctly stopped as Holyfield began to pour it on an increasingly defenseless Tyson. It may be hard to believe this now, but at the time it was considered an upset of historic proportions. It was perhaps Holyfield’s finest moment. Their follow up would be history making as well, just not in the way anyone might have expected.

When the two took to the ring seven months later, what followed was both shocking and embarrassing to the sport of boxing. Frustrated by an accidental head butt in round two, Tyson came out of his corner enraged in round three. He spat out his mouth piece and once in a clinch with the champion, he bit into his ear, taking off an inch of cartilage which he then expelled onto the ring floor. As wild as that moment was, what came next was even stranger still. Referee Mills Lane halted the bout and instead of disqualifying Tyson immediately, he called over the ring doctor who ruled that Holyfield could continue. For his part, Holyfield was basically okay with continuing. Alright, I take it back. I’ve convinced myself. This was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen watching a sporting event. To hell with the parachute.

When the fight resumed, Tyson doubled down on his cannibalistic tendencies and bit Holyfield again. Seeing that Tyson’s hunger for Holyfield’s lobes would continue unabated, this time Lane stopped the fight and disqualified Tyson. They would not fight again, but in two bouts, Holyfield had not only removed Tyson’s aura of invincibility, but accelerated a descent into madness and increasingly extreme behavior.

Holyfield would then go on to avenge his loss to Moorer before his two fights with Lewis ended his peak. Holyfield was by no means the most skilled of the four fighters. Nor was he the biggest puncher. But during his first 11 years as a heavyweight he fought an amazing 23 times against top flight competition and almost never was a second of it boring. He was the toughest of customers. I cannot think of one other real life fighter who better fit Ivan Drago’s description of Rocky Balboa in Rocky 4, “He’s not human, he’s like a piece of iron.” Indeed, he was.

3) Riddick Bowe

mike-tyson

4) Mike Tyson

And here’s where I get into trouble. I’m sure there are many out there who think I’m insane for picking Bowe over Tyson. However, I think the important thing to do when making this judgment is to remove how one might feel about the reign of “Iron” Mike Tyson and examine the record with cold investigative efficiency. For me, it comes down to this, give me the name of the one great heavyweight Mike Tyson ever beat?

I’ve scoured his record and I’ve got nothing. Oh sure, he blitzed Michael Spinks in 91 seconds, delivering unto him the only loss of his career. Spinks was a great fighter…at light heavyweight. Spinks smartly picked just the right time to go up a weight class to fight a fading Larry Holmes, whom he defeated in two close—and in the case of the second fight, highly questionable—decisions. Spinks fought two more times as a heavyweight against the less than memorable, Steffen Tangstad, and “The Great White Hope,” Gerry Cooney. While he scored knock out wins against both, those two victories don’t do much to burnish the legacy. Nor does his deer in the headlights performance against Tyson. No matter how you look at it, Spinks was the smartest match making, puffed up light heavyweight until Roy Jones Jr. fought John Ruiz.

Tyson’s other great “name” victory was over an all but fully calcified 38-year-old, Larry Holmes, whom he quickly and appropriately dispatched in the fourth round.

That’s it. There is no one else. An over the hill champion and a light in the shorts Michael Spinks. Beyond that, we do have a number of wins against world class B+ level fighters like Trevor Berbick, Pinklon Thomas, the Tony’s Tucker and Tubbs, Frank Bruno, “Razor” Ruddock, and Bruce Seldon. Good fighters, one and all. Not one great one. Not a single one.

Tyson did fight two great fighters. Lewis and Holyfield. He went zero for three, not even seeing the final round in any of the bouts.

This is where the argument for Bowe begins to take shape. Bowe also had a number of wins against B+ fighters as well. Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tubbs, and Bruce Seldon were all common opponents. Bowe retired Thomas in the 8^th, defeated Tubbs by unanimous decision, and knocked Seldon out in the first. He also TKO’d former champ Michael Dokes in a single round. Tyson TKO’d Thomas in the 6^th, Seldon in the 1^st, and Tubbs in the 2^nd. You can give Tyson a slight advantage there.

As well, Tyson had more total quality wins over B+ level fighters. So for the moment, Tyson would seem to be in the lead. However, there are two places where Bowe separates himself. First, he has no bad losses in his career. Only Holyfield’s majority decision in their second bout stains his record. Whereas Tyson at his most formidable, lost to Buster Douglas. A highly skilled big man (the type who always gave him trouble), who for one night put his hands into his gloves and discovered magic residing within. As talented as Douglas was, no one will ever confuse him with greatness. Although I will concede he had a great night in Tokyo on February 11, 1990 when he pulled off what was then considered the greatest upset in heavyweight history.

I don’t want to make too much of Tyson’s losses in his final two bouts against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. He was but a carcass then. They do exist though.

More importantly, when making the decision between Bowe and Tyson, I come back to the main point. Who did they beat? And when it comes to A+ guys, Tyson has nothing and Bowe has two legendary wins over Evander Holyfield. A man that Tyson fought twice, got hammered by once, and left the ring in disgrace on the other occasion. I simply can’t square away taking a fighter with a loss to Buster Douglas and no truly great wins in his career over a man who has no underwhelming losses and two genuinely special victories against an all-time great.

Obviously, it would be helpful if they had fought each other. While that is not the case, is there anyone who saw Tyson get manhandled by Lewis, strafed by Holyfield, and knocked out by a journeyman named Buster Douglas who would want to place a bet on Tyson against Bowe? I wouldn’t. Not a chance.

I’m sure there are many who would. So many of us (I know, I was one of those guys) got caught up in the Tyson comet that came through burning hot and cleaned up a porous division until other, better fighters came along. But come along they did. They had names. They were called Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and yes, Riddick Bowe. If you remove emotion and sentiment, I simply don’t know how you order the list any differently. In fact, I’m sure you can’t.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 304: Mike Tyson Returns; Latino Night in Riyadh

Published

5 hours ago

November 14, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-301-Mike-Tyson-Returns-Latino-Night-in-Riyadh

Iron Mike Tyson is back.

“I’m just ready to fight,” Tyson said.

Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) faces social media star-turned-fighter Jake Paul (10-1, 7 KOs) on Friday, Nov. 15, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Netflix will stream the Most Valuable Promotions card that includes female super stars Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano.

It’s a solid fight card.

The last time Tyson stepped in the prize ring was 19 years ago. Though he’s now 58 years old there’s a boxing adage that fits perfectly for this match: “it only takes one punch.”

Few heavyweights mastered the one-punch knockout like Tyson did during his reign of terror. If you look on social media you can find highlights of Tyson’s greatest knockouts. It’s the primary reason many people in the world today think he still fights regularly.

Real boxing pundits know otherwise.

But Tyson is not Evander Holyfield or Lennox Lewis, he’s facing 20-something-year-old Paul who has been boxing professionally for only five years.

“I’m not going to lose,” said Tyson.

Paul, 27, began performing in the prize ring as a lark. He demolished former basketball player Nate Robinson and gained traction by defeating MMA stars in boxing matches. His victories began to gain attention especially when he beat UFC stars Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz.

He’s become a phenom.

Every time Paul fights, he seems to improve. But can he beat Tyson?

“He says he’s going to kill me. I’m ready. I want that killer. I want the hardest match possible Friday night, and I want there to be no excuses from everyone at home when I knock him out,” said Paul who lured Tyson from retirement.

Was it a mistake?

The Tyson versus Paul match is part of a co-main event pitting the two best known female fighters Katie Taylor (23-1) and Amanda Serrano (47-2-1) back in the ring again. Their first encounter two years ago was Fight of the Year. Can they match or surpass that incredible fight?

“I’m going to do what I do best and come to fight,” said Serrano.

Taylor expects total war.

“I think what me and Amanda have done over these last few years, inspiring that generation of young fighters, is the best thing we could leave behind in this sport,” said Taylor.

Also, WBC welterweight titlist Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KOs) defends against Arizona’s Abel Ramos (28-6-2, 22 KOs) and featherweight hotshot Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (13-0, 8 KOs) meets Dana Coolwell (13-2, 8 KOs). Several other bouts are planned.

Riyadh Season

WBA cruiserweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez headlines a Golden Boy Promotions card called Riyadh Season’s Latino Night. It’s the first time the Los Angeles-based company has ventured to Saudi Arabia for a boxing card.

“Passion. That’s what this fight card is all about,” said Oscar De La Hoya, CEO of Golden Boy.

Mexico’s Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs) meets England’s Chris Billam-Smith (20-1, 13 KOs) who holds the WBO title on Saturday Nov. 16, at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy card.

Ramirez surprised many when he defeated Arsen Goulamirian for the WBA title this past March in Inglewood, California. The tall southpaw from Mazatlan had also held the WBO super middleweight title for years and grew out of the division.

“I’m very excited for this Saturday. I’m ready for whatever he brings to the table,” said Ramirez. “I need to throw a lot of punches and win every round.”

Billam-Smith is slightly taller than Ramirez and has been fighting in the cruiserweight division his entire pro career. He’s not a world champion through luck and could provide a very spectacular show. The two titlists seem perfect for each other.

“It’s amazing to be headlining this night,” said Billam-Smith. “He will be eating humble pie on Saturday night.”

Other Interesting Bouts

A unification match between minimumweight champions WBO Oscar Collazo (10-0) and WBA titlist Thammanoon Niyomtrong could be a show stealer. Both are eager to prove that their 105-pound weight class should not be ignored.

“I wanted big fights and huge fights, what’s better than a unification match,” said Collazo at the press conference.

Niyomtrong, the WBA titlist from Thailand, has held the title since June 2016 and feels confident he will conquer.

“I want to prove who’s the best world champion at 105. Collazo is the WBO champion but we are more experienced,” said Niyomtrong.

A lightweight bout between a top contender from Mexico and former world champion from the USA is also earmarked for many boxing fans

Undefeated William “El Camaron” Zepeda meets Tevin Farmer whose style can provide problems for any fighter.

“There is so much talent on this card. It’s a complicated fight for me against an experienced foe,” said Zepeda.

Tevin Farmer, who formerly held the IBF super featherweight title now performs as a lightweight. He feels confident in his abilities.

“You can’t be a top dog unless you beat a top dog. Once I beat Zepeda what are they going to do?” said Farmer about Golden Boy.

In a non-world title fight, former world champion Jose Ramirez accepted the challenge from Arnold Barboza who had been chasing him for years.

“I’m ready for Saturday to prove I’m the best at this weight,” said Ramirez.

Arnold Barboza is rubbing his hands in anticipation.

“This fight has been important to me for a long time. Shout out to Jose Ramirez for taking this fight,” said Barboza.

Special note

The fight card begins at 8:57 a.m. Saturday on DAZN which can be seen for free by non-subscribers.

Fights to Watch (all times Pacific Time)

Fri. Netflix 5 p.m. Mike Tyson (50-6) vs Jake Paul (10-1); Katie Taylor (23-1) vs Amanda Serrano (47-2-1); Mario Barrios (29-2) vs Abel Ramos (28-6-2).

Sat. DAZN, 8:57 a.m. Gilberto Ramirez (46-1) vs Chris Billiam-Smith (20-1); Oscar Collazo (10-0) vs Thammanoon Niyomtrong (25-0); William Zepeda (31-0) vs Tevin Farmer (33-6-1); Jose Ramirez (29-1) vs Arnold Barboza (30-0).

Mike Tyson photo credit: Esther Lin

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Say It Ain’t So: Oliver McCall Returns to the Ring Next Week

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Say-It-Ain't-So-Oliver-McCall-Returns-to-the-Ring-Next-Week

Mike Tyson isn’t the only geezer in action this month. As if one grotesquerie wasn’t enough, Oliver McCall is slated to return to the ring on Tuesday, Nov. 19. McCall is matched against Stacy “Bigfoot” Frazier in a 4-rounder. The venue is a dance hall in Nashville where the usual bill of fare is an Elvis impersonator. The fight, airing on TrillerTVplus, will be historic, says a promotional blurb, as McCall will break Mike Tyson’s record as the oldest former heavyweight champion to compete in a licensed professional fight.

McCall was one of Tyson’s most frequent sparring partners during Iron Mike’s days with Don King. Nicknamed “Atomic Bull,” McCall is 59 years old, sports a 59-14 record, and as a pro has answered the bell for 436 rounds. By comparison, Tyson, 58, has 215 rounds under his belt heading in to his date with Jake Paul.

Stacy Frazier, according to some reports, is 54 years old. Per boxrec, he has a 16-22 record and has been stopped 17 times. In common with McCall, this is his first ring exposure in five-and-a-half years.

The Nov. 19 fight card is being promoted by Jimmy Adams, a former Don King surrogate who has had a long relationship with Oliver McCall. Adams promoted five fights for McCall in Nashville in a four-month span in 1997/98. These were comeback fights for the troubled McCall, coming on the heels of his famous meltdown in his rematch with Lennox Lewis.

Back then, Adams promoted most of his Nashville shows at a bar called the Mix Factory. The promoter and the venue factored large in a New York Times story that began on page 1 of the June 1, 1998 issue and spilled over into the sports section. It bore the title “Boxing in the Shadows.”

The gist of the story was that boxing commissions in different regions of the country “had different levels of tolerance for risk” and that Nashville, which had suddenly become a very busy locale for low-budget fights, was an accident waiting to happen. The Tennessee boxing commission, a division of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, was a one-man operation with a budget that penciled out to less than $1,000 per show.

In an article that appeared in the (Nashville) Tennessean shortly after the New York Times expose, promoter Adams scoffed at the insinuation that many of the fighters he used were not true professionals – “I’ve worked to make Nashville the boxing capital of the world,” he said – but Tommy Patrick, the head of the Tennessee Boxing Board, allowed that there was a chance that Adams may have recruited some of his fighters from a homeless shelter.

McCall won the WBC version of the world heavyweight title on Sept. 24, 1994, at Wembley Stadium in London. In one of the biggest upsets of the decade, he knocked out previously undefeated Lennox Lewis in the second round. He made one successful defense, out-pointing long-in-the-tooth Larry Holmes, before returning to Wembley and losing the title to Frank Bruno.

The rematch with Lennox Lewis, on Feb. 7, 1997 in Las Vegas, was one of the most bizarre fights in boxing history. McCall was acting odd before the fifth round when he started sobbing and simply quit trying. Referee Mills Lane disqualified him, but it went into the books as a win by TKO for Lewis. That remains the only time that Oliver McCall, renowned for his granite chin, failed to make it to the final bell.

In the months leading up to that fight, McCall had drug, alcohol, and legal problems.

In some of his most recent outings, McCall shared the bill with his son Elijah McCall. They last appeared together in May of 2013 when they appeared on a card in Legionowo, Poland. A heavyweight, now 36 years old, Elijah McCall returned to the ring in June of this year after a 10-year absence and was stopped in the second round by Brandon Moore in Orlando.

Jimmy Adams, the promoter, was also involved in the careers of heavyweight title-holders Tony Tucker and Greg Page. Both fought at the Mix Factory as their careers were winding down. But he wasn’t able to lock in dates for Riddick Bowe.

In 2005, in a rare burst of rectitude, the Tennessee authorities refused to license Bowe who had returned to the ring the previous year after an 8-year absence at an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.

They based their denial on the transcript of a 2000 court hearing related to a 1998 incident where Bowe kidnapped his wife and five children and forced them to go with him as he drove from Virginia to North Carolina. Riddick’s legal team, led by Johnnie Cochran, argued that Riddick’s erratic behavior was the result of brain damage suffered over the course of his 43-fight professional boxing career.

The “brain damage defense” was just a ploy to keep Bowe out of prison, argued Jimmy Adams, who had arranged two fights for Bowe in Memphis, but the authorities were unyielding and Bowe never fought in Tennessee.

Adams has also been involved in the career of Christy Martin who is listed as the matchmaker for the Nov. 19 show. But the cynics would tell you that Ms. Martin is the matchmaker in name only in the same fashion that Jimmy Adams was a strawman for Don King.

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Boxing was a Fertile Arena for Award-Winning Sportswriter Gary Smith

Published

1 day ago

November 13, 2024

Rick Assad

Boxing-Was-a-Fertile-Arena-for-Award-Winning-Sportswriter-Gary-Smith

Gary Smith is this generation’s most decorated and distinctive magazine writer after winning an unprecedented four National Magazine Awards for non-fiction and being a finalist for the award a record ten times during his more than three decades at Sports Illustrated.

A longtime resident of Charleston, South Carolina, Smith began his career at the Wilmington [Delaware] News Journal followed by stops at the Philadelphia Daily News, the New York Daily News and the stylish monthly Inside Sports before landing at Sports Illustrated in 1982. His job at “S.I.” was to write four longform features a year. Mike Tyson and James “Buster” Douglas were among the athletes that he profiled and he also penned features on Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

Smith said it’s one thing to see an athlete perform but it’s another to know what’s inside.

“I just felt like to really render the human soul in its most honest way, that getting to understand what human beings had been through and what had landed them with whatever coping mechanism they used would be vital so people could understand a person,” said the La Salle University graduate who stepped away from the magazine in 2014. “Some of these people were doing some extreme things and if you didn’t really lay out the soil they sprung from and what brought them to that place, they would seem like aliens or freaks, but you could very much humanize them which was the only fair thing to do. We all want someone to understand why we are who we are, rather than leaving us dangling on the vine.”

Smith’s wife, Sally, is a psychiatrist, and summed up what her husband tried to lay bare in his features.

“He is not satisfied with putting facts together. He wants to understand what is the core conflict that has driven that person,” she offered many years ago. “He hopes to tell a secret that a person might not be aware of.”

It was rumored Smith would interview no less than fifty people for one feature. Smith said that wasn’t always the case, but he wanted to be thorough, which was merely one key in trying to know and understand his subject.

“You needed patience, asking and re-asking questions because you often wouldn’t get the truest or deepest answer the first go-around. Hopefully being comfortable enough in your own skin would engender trust over time,” he explained. “There would be a lot of follow-up questions, even if I had spent a week with somebody poring over the notes and going back and calling them again and again and really taking it further and further, what their interior monologue with themselves or dialogues in some cases. What was going on and felt in each of these pivotal moments in their lives, so you’d really get a feel of what was going on in the interior.”

“That’s why I did a lot of boxing stories,” said Smith. “There was so much kindling, so much psychological tension which makes for great storytelling. No one carried around tension and opposites like boxers did. It’s fertile terrain for any writer.”

A boxer, said Smith, was figuratively naked in the ring. “These are human beings who are participating in one of the most extreme things that any human being can do,” he acknowledged of the manly sport. “There’s a reason why you end up in such an extreme circumstance. You’re involved in a public mauling. You’re risking being killed or killing. To land there is virtually always a real story. You don’t land there by accident.”

Rick Telander, who worked at Sports Illustrated for 23 years, explained what made Smith’s work stand out. “Gary Smith was a unique writer,” he said. “He immersed himself in his topic, in his subject, like no one else I’ve ever read. He used his words to paint a picture that was one thousand times better than an actual photograph. You could feel the mind and the pain and the joy and the resolve and the defeat and the victory of the person he was writing about.”

Telander, who is the lead sports columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, said Smith was a one-of-a-kind talent.

“He used his skill with words to make you feel exactly what he felt, what you should feel, to understand the story of some other person on a journey to some place we all would recognize, foreign though it may be,” he stated. “No matter how long a Gary Smith magazine piece was, you had to finish it. You had to know. You had to read and feel the resolution. It was a kind of magic. And Gary was the magician. He was the best there was.”

Alexander Wolff, who spent 36 years at Sports Illustrated, shared a similar sentiment. “Gary had the ability to inhabit the head of his subject,” he noted. “He did that by relentlessly asking questions, often leading subjects to address matters and themes they’d never before thought about.”

Smith visited Tyson early in his career and said the one-time heavyweight king had multiple personalities.

“He was a bundle of opposites. At one moment, he’s kind of seething about the world and people and the next moment he’s just a puppy dog with his arm around your neck,” he said. “One moment walking away from my introductory handshake and leaving it hanging in the air when we first met and by the end of it, arm literally around my neck….The friction of opposites was always at play.”

Smith wrote his feature on James “Buster” Douglas after Douglas claimed the heavyweight crown from Tyson in February 1990.

“He was a gentle soul for the most part. Less extreme actually than most boxers. Therefore, it took a more extreme situation being in a ring with Mike Tyson to bring out the natural talents. He was God-gifted and a father-gifted fighter,” he remembered. “He wasn’t the kind who had easy access to all that desperation that’s needed to excel in boxing but after his mother’s death and the proximity to Tyson’s right hand, they brought out that desperation to use these natural gifts as a fighter.”

Like so many who were around Muhammad Ali, Smith was often amused by the three-time heavyweight champ.

“Ali was always a lot of fun to be with. He was mischievous and said things that could be striking,” he said. “Most of them were very interesting in a variety of ways. Ali was the prankster, and you might be the butt of his pranks.”

Among the many honors accorded Smith was the Dan Jenkins Medal For Lifetime Achievement in Sportswriting, awarded in 2019. Some of his finest work can be found in his two anthologies: “Beyond The Game: The Collected Sportswriting Of Gary Smith’’ (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000) and “Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories by Gary Smith” (Sports Illustrated Books, 2008).

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