Katie Taylor sharing spotlight with Mike Tyson goes against what she has said in the past and it's hard to accept
Taylor has always talked of wanting to be a role model for young girls and women. It's difficult to think of this as being a positive night for women when Mike Tyson is on the bill. An unrepentant convicted rapist.
On March 1, 1994, Esquire magazine put Mike Tyson on the cover. Little wonder as that edition would fly off the shelves due to an interview with Tyson by Pete Hamill.
Hamill was a special one. A native New Yorker - the son of Belfast immigrants - he made such an impact with his writing that there is a street in Brooklyn named after him.
And Hamill's memoir - 'A Drinking Life' - is one of the great autobiographies. But, 30 years ago, Hamill screwed up. He did so by adding to the mythology of Michael Gerard Tyson.
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Tyson was serving a sentence for rape when he met Hamill for an interview in his prison in Indiana.
The interview is 7718 words long. Tyson spoke at length about the writers he's been reading and about black history.
He told Hamill about his fascination with the Haitian revolution. He talked to him of Voltaire, of Ernest Hemingway, of F Scott Fitzgerald.
Desree Washington's name is mentioned just once in that 7718 word interview, and Hamill makes it clear where he stands.
He wrote of a jury believing that ''it was perfectly normal for a rape victim to spend two more days taking part in the Miss Black America pageant of 1991''.
Hamill wrote of Tyson being ''deprived of his freedom, his ability to earn millions, his pride''.
That interview is one of the most celebrated sports pieces of all, and it has been included in anthologies of great sportswriting.
Hamill isn't alone in being seduced by Tyson's intelligence and his aura. The great Spike Lee called Tyson ''the most honest human being I've ever met''.
Think of the words that Katie Taylor has used to describe Tyson. This was last May - "I've always wanted to meet him. He's an icon, a legend."
This was last week - "I have so much respect for Mike Tyson. He's everyone's icon in the sport, isn't he?''
Well, let's address that question. Why do so many still worship a convicted - and unrepentant - rapist?
Why are so many - Hamill was far from alone among sportswriters - bowled over by Tyson's name-dropping of writers and books he has read while ignoring the savagery of things he has said about women?
The plural is used deliberately. This was what Tyson once said about hitting his ex-wife Robin Givens - ''it was the best punch I threw in my life''.
How often do you see that quote referenced? Yet another line of his about ''everyone having a plan until they get punched in the face'' has got serious mileage over the years.
This is what Tyson said in a 2003 interview when asked about Washington, starting off by calling her a ''slimy bitch''.
"A lying, reptilian, monstrous young lady I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don't know. I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her and her f***ing mother."
Washington had only turned 18 the month before her encounter with Tyson.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Patricia Gifford commended Tyson for rising above his impoverished upbringing but added: "I think from everything I've read, we're looking at two different Mike Tysons.
"As to whether you are capable of committing this crime again, quite honestly, I am of the opinion that you are."
Tyson was convicted of rape, and has always maintained his innocence. He has become visibly annoyed at different times over the years with interviewers who bring up Washington's name.
There will be no escape from Tyson this week. His fight with YouTuber Jake Paul is being broadcast on Netflix on Friday night and looks certain to attract a bumper audience worldwide.
There has been plenty of commentary around the farcical nature of the contest, with a 58-year-old Tyson taking on a 27-year-old.
The card in Texas is an unusual one in that Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano II is being described as the co-main event.
So we've heard plenty about it being the biggest ever audience for women's boxing, and the biggest ever purses for two female fighters.
But it's difficult to think of this as being a positive night for women when Tyson is on the bill. An unrepentant convicted rapist. A man who boasts of domestic violence.
Taylor has always talked of wanting to be a role model for young girls and women. It's hard to see how sharing the limelight with Tyson helps.
Paul, for his part, has been accused of sexual misconduct by two different women. He has denied the allegations.
The rehabilitation of Tyson saw him do everything from feature in 'The Hangover' comedy movie to doing a theatre tour, that included a night at the Helix in Dublin.
Washington has done one interview since the rape trial in 1991, and that was over 30 years ago. She lives a quiet life, and who knows what the toll of the victim blaming indulged in by so many has had on her?
But Tyson is well read and articulate and can name drop celebrated writers, so he gets off the hook. It's unspeakably grim.
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