20.10.06 – By Scott Frake: Earlier tonight, at Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, 40, fought to a boring lackluster 4-round decision over Corey “T-Rex” Sanders, his one-time sparring partner in the first bout of Tyson’s “world tour.” Moments after it started, Tyson knocked Sanders down with a big right hand. For all practical purposes, Tyson could have ended the fight as soon as Sanders made it up. However, Tyson backed off after that, probably wanting to give the audience their money’s worth. It was visibly noticeable that Tyson was pulling his punches and not putting his full power into each one. What was even worse, Sanders, who looked badly out of shape, offered almost zero resistance, throwing very few punches during the bout.
To me, it almost seemed that Sanders was trying to play his part as a ‘good sparring partner,’ one that wasn’t about to attempt hurt the star fighter, in this case, Tyson. Sanders wore headgear, while Tyson wore none. Just on that alone, it seemed to indicate that Sanders wasn’t planning on trying to land anything on Tyson. Certainly, Sanders, if he had wanted to, he had plenty of opportunities to land shots on Tyson, who was already gassed after the first round.
In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, both Tyson and Sanders looked as if they were fighting in slow motion with neither fighter doing much damage. Tyson did land a couple good shots, with one seeming to slightly hurt Sanders. However, Tyson seemed to have no interest in trying to stop his former sparring partner, and instead, was content to land an occasional pot shot. In the final round, Tyson seemed to fight a little harder, landing some good punches. However, by then, he was far too tired to land anything big enough to stop the 290 lb Sanders. However, many of the fans in the crowd seemed furious that they hadn’t seen more action in the bout.