Duel san fuel

The Jakarta Post, Sept. 5, 1995, carried with gusto the re- started hype about Tyson, meant to reverberate around the world, and to fatten the calves. This time the foil for Tyson is Frank Bruno; who became a champion recently and attributed it, like a sissy, to a dream come true.

Frank is special, indeed a paradox. A hulk, but made of glass. His chin is reputed to be made of extra-fragile glass, that would shatter at touch, not necessarily by punch. Saddled with such limitations but bugged by dreams, he is one of those who is ever hopeful, but never confident. Frank fought Tyson about five years back. Those who saw that fight will recall that he was knocked out cold, if I remember right, in the fifth round. It was due to a nowhere-else-to-go desperation that he stayed in the game thereafter.

Now, he has achieved something unexpected, if not, unbecoming. He has taken away the WBC championship belt -- thrown into the dustbin sometime back by Bowe from Oliver McCall -- a fight not considered good enough for screening, live or recorded in Indonesia. Going by write-ups, Bruno, fearful that a punch may be countered by a punch, delivered only jabs. McCall, who scored a controversial victory over Lewis and took the belt, and whose forte is taking punches, counted on Frank falling like an overripe piece of fruit if he was made to exhaust himself with his jabs, never went for Frank's soft chin. The result was a fight utterly bereft of any sensation. Sadly, it was left to Frank to beat his own drum and post-fight dramatize his performance with his utterance; saying that McCall was a rock. Indeed, too much of a rock and no head. However, the upshot: Frank has stumbled into big-time. He is a champion now.

The boxing world can live with such an accident. They are not uncommon. Such champions are derisively called "one-time-bums."

Then there's Don King, the non-fighting, box office champion and title maker. He deems Frank's victory as epoch-making; making Frank, who would now like to call it quits, a contender to fight Tyson, again. This raises the question: Why Bruno, when there are others who have not been defeated by Tyson?

If King is as shrewd as he is reputed to be, there should be a catch, something more than what meets the eye. Perhaps, he is convinced that Tyson is a quenched volcano, and the best he should do is not going about proving Tyson's fighting abilities but shake the money-laden tree before the comeback Tyson is discovered.

That ought to be the reason, otherwise, why would King, to whom modesty is no virtue, meekly call the proposed fight "A Due", and not, given his penchant for hyperbole, brashly call it "A Duel in the Sun?"

Watch out, the Tyson-Bruno fight is going to be a strange fight; as a duel without fuel, it ought to be.

G. S. EDWIN

Jakarta