Wednesday, March 30, 2016

ESPN 30 for 30 Vol 3: Chasing Tyson

Running on the treadmill in January, I watched Chasing Tyson. This is the fourth installment of ESPN's 30 for 30 Volume 3. An episode guide for Vol 3 is here.

This film follows the interwoven careers of Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. Holyfield finally met Tyson in two memorable fights in 1996 and 1997. The second fight may be one of the most bizarre fights in boxing history.

The footage of Tyson's early career is amazing. Tyson looked like a machine in the early fights of his career.

Holyfield had moved up in weight class to fight as a heavywieght. While Tyson was in prison, he fought some bums. Eventually, Holyfield won the heavyweight championship belt an unprecedented four times.

Three random observations... First, in one of his first fights after Tyson got out of prison, the camera starts on Tyson and then pans out. A white guy runs into the middle of the ring as the bell for the first round rings. The first thing that jumped into my head was that the guy looked like me at 35! Tyson floored him in the first round...

Second, while I was watching this documentary, Sharon and I went to see Creed. This documentary made me appreciate the quality of the boxing scenes in Creed.

Third, I was surprised to see Hoyfield in Carl's Jr commercials in January and February.

This film is worth looking for. I am planning to gift a copy to my brother-in-law in the near future.

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