14
Wednesday, February 4, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Knockout
No sparring for No.1 Mike Tyson
United Press International
The trainer, Kevin Rooney,
explains that at age 20, Tyson is the youngest heavyweight champion
who he fights all out, six
days a week.
CATSKILL, N.Y. - The secret of Mike Tyson's phenomenal success is simple to his trainer.
Tyson, 28-0 with 26 knockouts, won the World Boxing Council heavyweight title with a second-round knockout of Trevor Berbick Nov. 22.
'I'm not here to kill anybody, or hurt anybody. If I take them out in one round, I'm not going to learn anything. I'll go as hard as they can take it.'
He trained at the Catskill Boxing Club on Monday, his last workout before traveling to Las Vegas to train in seclusion for a March 7 fight with World Boxing Association champion James "Boncerus" Smith, 19-5.
— Mike Tyson Heavyweight champion boxer
"Our gym workouts are fights, so he's fighting every day. There, the cat's out of the bag. That's the secret," Rooney said, adding that by fighting his hardest during every workout, Tyson gained the experience he needed to win the WBC title.
All this is no secret to the men who soar with Tyson.
'It's like being in the worst fight
you can be in," said Tyrone Armstrong, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound fighter from Winsboro, S.C. "One word explains it all—rough."
By all accounts, there are two Mike Tysons: the gentleman outside the ring and the destroyer inside.
After an hour of interviews with area television stations Monday, Tyson jumped rope vigorously for about 12 minutes. That was all it took to change his demeanor from casual, shy and friendly to something no mother would want her son to face in a boxing ring.
Armstrong, 24, sat out because of an eye injury he sustained training with Tyson Sunday. The day's work was left to Oscar Holman, 28, and Mike Jameson, 32, who both agree Tyson spars harder than anyone else with whom they have worked.
Holman, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound Philadelphia native with a 13-7 professional record, was suffering from a concussion. He also would have liked a day off.
"How'd you get out of it?" Holman
assumed Armstrong. "You could have
gone."
Even at $1,000 a week with expenses paid, it's hard to find sparing partners for Tyson, who is listed at 5-foot 11 and, according to Rooney, currently weighs 227 pounds.
"There's been three or four guys he's gone through," said Jameson, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound from San Jose, Calif., who has a 20-13 lifetime record for the loss to Tyson. "If you can't carry your stick in the ring, you're gone."
Holman was the first offering Monday. He went two rounds left-handed because he was unable to punch with his sore right arm and thought a left hand would be the chance of keeping Tyson at bay. It was a slim chance and it didn't pay off.
Next Jameson stepped into the ring. He went four rounds, taking
rights, lefts, hooks, uppercut and leaving with a bloody nose.
"That's just Michael, that's the way he fights. He keeps coming at you," Jameson said, looking down at the blood on his yellow sweatshirt.
Throughout the sparring session, Rooney urged the chonp on, praising his jab and combinations, and pleading with him to move more.
"That's it, hit 'em when they least expect it." Rooney called out.
Holman was satisfied to complete his two rounds in one piece.
"I was holding it (his left hand) back, and just trying to avoid getting hit with the left hook," Holman said. "If he had thrown that left hook, it probably would have gone boom."
Although his sparring partners say Tyson only fights one way - hard, Tyson said he spars to learn and train and sometimes that means holding back.
"I'm not here to kill anybody, or hurt anybody," Tyson said. "If I take them out in one round, 'I'm not going to learn anything. I'll go as hard as they can take it."
It's unlikely that Smith, who has said he will dispose of Tyson quickly, will be offered the same leniency when the two champions clash in Las Vegas. Tyson admits that Smith can throw a more mean punch, but he will need more than one punch to win the fight.
"If he doesn't land that punch, I can't consider him the hardest puncher. Tyson said "If that a tough opponent with what plans on the fight is already mine."
Although he admits Smith and Michael Spinks, the International Boxing Federation belt holder, also does not consider them in his class.
"They're not my equal. There's no man that's my equal," he said.
Sports Briefs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs have withheld contract offers to two veteran players recovering from surgery but have submitted offers to 11 other players whose contracts expired Sunday.
KC withholds offers to 2 veterans
General Manager Jim Schaaf said offers were not extended to linebackers Gary Spani and Ken McAlister because they would have been unable to pass physical examinations.
Spani, 31, who played at Kansas State, is the Chiefs' all-time leading tackler with 990 since being selected by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Spani said he had a disk removed from his back last week and understood the Chiefs' reasoning.
McAlister, 26, underwent major knee surgery in 1986 for the second straight season after missing all of 1985 because of torn knee ligaments.
The Chiefs submitted qualifying offers and retained rights to offensive lineman Rich Baldinger; quarterback Todd Blackledge; defensive backs Sherman Coelord Greg Hill and Mark Robinson; running back Greg Sullivan; and wide receiver Cock defense linemen Eric Holle and Pete Beech; and linebacks Whitney Paul and Scott Radecie.
Cherry receives defense honor
Other players winning a committee award were Miami quarterback Dan Marino, AFC Offensive Player of the Year; San Francisco wide receiver Jerry Rice, National Football Conference Player of the Year, and New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, NFC Defensive Player of the Year.
KANSAS CITY, Mo — Free safety Deron Cherry of the Kansas City Chiefs was named the American Football Conference's Defensive Player of the Year yesterday by the Committee of 101 — the first Chiefs' player to win such an award in 15 years.
The winners are honored each year in Kansas City at the Committee of 101 Banquet, which is scheduled this week.
The 101 selection committee — made up of 101 sport-swriters and broadcasters in the 28 NFL cities — selected Bill Parecells of the champion New York Giants as NFC Coach of the Year. Marty Schottenheimer of the Cleveland Browns was named the AFC Coach of the Year.
Cherry, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, is the first Chiefs player to win a 101 award since linebacker Willie Lanter was named the AFC's top defensive player in 1971. Cherry is the Chiefs' fourth representative ever selected by the committee for an award. The others were linebacker Bobby Bell, AFC defensive player, and Hank Stram, AFC coach, both in 1969, the first year of the 101 selections.
Sophomore quits Louisville team
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sophomore guard Kevin Walls yesterday quit the Louisville basketball team, a day after refusing to enter a game against South Carolina.
Walls, who never exhibited the offensive agility in college that he showed in high school, turned down coach Denny Crum's request to play in the closing minutes of Louisville's victory over the Gamecocks.
"I told him that as a member of the team that was not a decision he gets to make." Crum said after conferring with Walls prior to the start of practice yesterday. "We can't run a team that way. I told him that he has to follow the same rules as everyone else on the team. He chose not to do so and elected to quit the team."
The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 44 9 points a game as a senior at Camden (N.J.) High School. He was redshirted his first year at Louisville after suffering a knee injury and never regained his high school scoring
Walls played in 16 games this season for the Cardinals, including nine as a starter, averaging 3.8 points, 1.6 assists.
Shoemaker has knee operation
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Jockey Bill Shoemaker underwent arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday and should resume riding in the next few weeks, a spokesman for Centinela Hospital said.
Shoemaker, 55, will miss Sunday's $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita. He was scheduled to ride Ferdinand, who gave Shoemaker his fourth Kentucky Derby victory last year.
Ralph Gambardella, a physician, removed torn lateral cartilage from Shoemaker's left knee.
Shoemaker, who has a record 964 stakes victories, had similar surgery on his right knee in 1981. He decided to have the operation now rather than wait until after the race.
Kelly gets most money in NFL
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A published report indicates that Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills was the highest paid quarterback in the National Football League last season.
The Buffalo News reported yesterday that a salary survey obtained from the National Football League Players Association listed Kelly as receiving a base of $1 million in 1986 and a signing bonus of $2 million.
Kelly, former United States Football League star, signed a five-year contract with the Bills worth an annual salary of $18.7 million.
Big 8 standings, statistics
From Kansan wires
MEN'S BIG 8 STANDINGS
Conference Overall²
W L Pct. 11 3 850
Okla. W 5 1 833 15 7 750
Kansas 5 1 833 15 5 782
Missouri 5 1 833 15 5 782
K-State 4 2 667 14 5 737
Nebraska 4 2 667 14 5 737
State 4 333 13 5 824
Okla. St. 1 5 167 5 14 263
Colorado 1 0 600 6 13 316
**Tuesday's Game**
Missouri at Iowa State
Colorado at Utah State
Oklahoma at Nebraska
Kansas at Kansas State
Saturday's Games
Oklahoma State at Kansas
Nebraska at Colorado
Missouri at Oklahoma
State
Missouri at Oklahoma
Sunday's Game
Notre Dame at Kansas
WOMEN'S BIG 8 STANDINGS
| | Conference | | Overall |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| | W L | Pct. | W L | Pct. |
| Nebraska | 4 | 3 | 571 | W L | 407 |
| Oklahoma | 4 | 3 | 571 | 16 | 480 |
| Kansas St. | 4 | 3 | 571 | 15 | 750 |
| Missouri | 4 | 3 | 571 | 14 | 700 |
| Oklaho. | 4 | 3 | 571 | 13 | 650 |
| Oklahoma | 4 | 3 | 571 | 12 | 700 |
| Kansas | 3 | 4 | 429 | 10 | 476 |
| Iowa St. | 3 | 0 | 700 | 10 | 450 |
Wednesday's Games
Wednesday's Game
Colorado at Oklahoma State
Oklahoma at Kansas State
Nebraska at Kansas
1987 U.S. ice dancing opens on West Coast
United Press International
TACOMA, Wash. — The 1987 U.S. ice dancing championships opened on the West Coast last night the same way the 1986 competition ended in the East — with Rene Roca and Donnie Adair taking first place on the basis of one judge's vote.
Roca and Adair won the '86 Free Dance finale - and their first national championship - over Suzanne Semanick and Scott Gregory at Uniondale, N.Y., by getting top scores from five of the nine judges.
And so it went opening night at the Taçoma Dome during the compulsory dances, which count 30 percent of the score.
Six weeks after last year's nationalists, Semanick, 19, of Bridgeville, Pa., and Gregory, 28, of Skaneateles, N.Y., were the "on" couple. They placed fifth at the world championships, ahead of sixth-place Roca and Adair.
Tied with Semanick and Gregory after performing the Westminster Waltz and Yankee Polka, Roca and Adair moved into the lead by winning seven first-place votes for their version of the Rumba.
When the scores of all three dances were totaled, Roca and Adair were scored first ahead of Semanick and Gregory, five judges to four.
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