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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Boxing Promoter Rock Newman

Aired June 01, 2002 - 07:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The fight boxing fans have been fighting for is now just a week away. Mike Tyson will try to reclaim his heavyweight title when he and current champ Lennox Lewis go at it in Memphis, Tennessee June 8.

Joining me from New York now is boxing promoter Rock Newman. Good to see you, Rock.

ROCK NEWMAN, BOXING PROMOTER: Thank you, good to have you -- good to be with you.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: We're together, yes. All right, so watching, you know, part of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" and listening to this interview, it's just so hard for me to understand why this guy is such a role model. Or maybe we don't say he's a role model. This guy just knows how to get people's attention by these things he says, vulgar or not.

NEWMAN: Well, I think by Tyson's own admission that he doesn't consider himself to be a role model. He said time and again that Charles Barkley did several years ago, school teachers and parents should be role models. He's a fighter. He never really claimed to be a role model.

What he is is he is an extraordinarily exciting. He's totally unpredictable. There is a sense of savagery about Mike Tyson. At the same time, he's a guy that collects pigeons and treats them ever so tenderly and gently. He's a multi-faceted person that is riveting to us right now. This is going to be the biggest fight in the history of boxing. It has very little to do with Lennox Lewis, who's frankly a big, 6-foot-6 defensive-minded boring champion. The excitement and the attention that is being paid is specifically to see what is going to happen with Mike Tyson.

PHILLIPS: All right, so Mike Tyson is this big mysterious creature. How confident is he?

NEWMAN: Mike Tyson's boxing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have certainly eroded significantly through the years. The way I see this possible fight is, you know, on paper you have to be Lennox Lewis. He's fought the better competition, he's looked better, he's had consistent and great training in Emmanuel Stewart. However, Mike Tyson still has that proverbial old puncher's chance, and Lennox Lewis has a chin of blast. That's been proven twice before in his career. If Tyson lands the bomb, the lights will go out on Lennox, and you'll have Mike Tyson as heavyweight champion of the world again.

If it goes the distance, if it goes into the later rounds, Lewis has to be favored.

PHILLIPS: All right. You look at that video that we just showed just now, OK? A lot of critics -- there is a lot of critics surrounding boxing. They say it promotes violence, and physically it destroys your brain, your body. Why is it so popular, and why do you think it should be promoted?

NEWMAN: I think that boxing continues to be the essence on one- on-one competition, and there is something about our human nature that is attracted to the drama of serious competition -- whether it's football, whether it's guys in hockey hitting each other upside the head, great basketball games that you've seen -- you know, serious competition we are drawn to, and the ultimate of that is mano-o-mano, one man in the ring, stripped down to just some boxer shorts, you know, not covered up with pads or anything like that, you know, going at one another. There is something, as much as it is criticized, what the sport of boxing continues to be very, very popular, and a true worldwide sport.

PHILLIPS: Yeah, we can all relate to being a fighter, can't we? One way or another, Rock, we're always fighting, aren't we?

NEWMAN: That's right.

PHILLIPS: All right. Rock Newman, boxing promoter, thanks so much.

NEWMAN: Thank you.

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