By admin 
Article content
In 1987, infamous prize fighter Mike Tyson was seen at a fashion designer’s party in downtown Manhattan aggressively interacting with a young model named Naomi Campbell, then 17 and on the cusp of world fame. One of the other guests is the famous English philosopher Sir AJ (Freddie) Ayer76 years old, intervened on behalf of the teenager.
Tyson is said to have spluttered, “Do you know who I am? I am the heavyweight champion of the world.” Ayer is said (by his stepdaughter; warning emptor) to have responded: “And I’m the former Wykeham professor of logic. We are both leaders in our field; I suggest we talk about this like rational men.” The two strolled off to chat, leaving Miss Campbell to escape.
Article content
I thought about that story a lot this past weekend, before and after Tyson took his pathetic final bow in the ring on Netflix against boxer/YouTuber Jake Paul. Did Ayer, in his conversation with that young man, open some kind of strange psychic portal to existentialism? I suppose no one doubts that Tyson, at the height of his combative glory and personal chaos, would become inappropriately aggressive when he first saw Campbell. The surprise was the elder Tyson’s transformation into a strange, unpredictable kind of American sage, as he struggles to put his own unique life – pockmarked with impossible triumph, disaster and absurdity – into perspective. On Thursday, he gave an interview to a precocious teenage interviewer who reminded everyone of his unparalleled unpredictability.
Jazzlyn Guerra couldn’t have known what would happen when she asked Tyson what kind of “legacy” he wanted to leave behind him — but it’s possible, I would say almost certain, that her interview will live in the collective memory longer than the subsequent Tyson-Paul boxing match. Any other retired or quasi-retired athlete would have taken the opportunity to promote a favorite cause, encourage the young, or soothe his own ego. American athletes are certainly expected to worship the temple of “legacy” – the idea that their achievements will ensure some form of immortality, or at least that celebrity power can be used for great good.
Article content
We can be sure that Tyson, now a petrified 58, will be remembered for as long as professional combat sports of any kind exist. (I doubt they’ll continue with the classic form of 20th century boxing for too much longer. The announcer at the end of Tyson-Paul should have just gone ahead and said, “Annnnd the winner is… mixed martial arts!” ) But Tyson was having none of it. He told Jazzy that legacy is “another word for ego.… That’s just a word that everyone clung to. Someone said that word and everyone latched onto that word, now it’s used every five seconds. It means absolutely nothing to me. I’ll just get through it. I will die and it will be over.”
He continued with the looming emptiness in this mind for a few more seconds. The clip circulated widely on social media with endless comments like “LOL, Tyson forgot he was talking to a kid,” but it’s extremely clear he did no such thing. It is much more likely that he spoke this way because he was talking to a young person.
And of course he has an indisputable point. Normal people don’t ask each other about their “inheritances” unless they are probate lawyers. “Legacy” is definitely an empty verbal cue from an interviewer, an invitation for a public figure to performatively wallow. As for the immortality promised to young athletes, that’s a pretty fast-paced bowl of cheese. Even someone who dominates American culture, like Babe Ruth or Muhammad Ali, leaves no more than a small image in the long run.
This is perhaps less true of former Wykeham professors of logic, whose philosophical writings may continue to battle in the arena after they are gone. But I find myself uncomfortably certain that Sir Freddie Ayer was the true philosopher among the guests at that long-ago party.
National Post
Recommended by Editorial
-
Colby Cosh: Of course the Mayweather-McGregor match was a circus. Don’t we like circuses?
-
Colby Cosh: North American professional sports needs to be blown up, and the NBA has the right idea
Share this article in your social network