EA SPORTS WRITER GABE LEON MIXES IT UP WITH MILLS LANE

• Knockout Kings™ 2001 Official Site

Q: How did you contribute to Knockout Kings 2001?

A: I did the voice over for the referee just like I did last year.

Q: After the release of Knockout Kings 2000, did you ever sit down and play the game?

A: I never played the game myself but my boys have a PlayStation and they play the game all the time.

Q: What was the reaction from the boxing world when they first found out that you were going to be a part of a video game?

A: I didn't really get a reaction plus or minus from anybody inside the boxing world-it's the people who are watching the sport, the boxing fans, who are saying positive things to me about it. They'll come up to me and say, "Hey, we heard you in the game," or, "You're the ref in Knockout Kings." So I know the game is very popular and I know a lot of people are playing it because I hear comments like that all the time.

Q: "Let's Get It On!" is your personal trademark. How did that evolve?

A: Before I refereed the Larry Holmes/Gerry Cooney fight In 1982 there was all kinds of hype in the newspapers: age vs. youth; the puncher vs. the boxer. The media was just blowing it up. So the night of the fight, I didn't think that I could just say "good luck" or "let's shake hands" or anything like that. I felt I had to say something more.

Now I didn't have anything planned but this is how it went down. The fight is about to start and I'm in the ring giving both fighters last-minute instructions. I looked at both fighters, and said: "Alright. We've been through all the instructions before in the dressing room. Any questions from the challenger? Any questions from the champion? LET'S GET IT ON!" The crowd gave a loud cheer and I've been saying that ever since.

Q: When your name is announced moments before a fight starts, you tap the side of your nose a couple of times and then give a ’thumbs up.’ Explain that signature.

A: I was doing an interview with a sports writer sometime during the early 80's and he asked me if I was going to say "hi mom" or something like that when my name was announced. I said "no, I'm not going to say hi mom, I'm going to tap the side of my nose." That would be my way of saying hello to about 500 people who were watching the fight that night.

The ’thumbs up’ was for a friend of mine who was dying of cancer. I knew he was watching the fight on TV, so I looked at the camera when I was introduced and gave a ’thumbs up.’ He called me later that week and he asked me what that was all about. I told him that the ’thumbs up’ was for him.

Q: Speaking as a former professional fighter, what are some attributes that every great boxer needs to have in their repertoire?

A: You've got to be willing to accept pain, because you will feel a lot of pain in this sport. You'll also have to be in top condition; that separates the champions from the second-runners. Finally, you'll have to have a great ticker, a great heart. All of the great ones have great hearts.

Here's something else to add. In most sports, if you put a guy with great, natural talent against a guy who has no talent but has great character and discipline, the guy with great talent will win every time. He just has more tools to get the job done. But in boxing, that's not always the case. Sometimes the guy with the great natural talent may not be able to hold off the guy with great character and heart. The guy with the character, the will, the drive will keep coming after you and he won't quit. Sure, he might get out-boxed in the early rounds but he'll keep coming and coming, and after a while, he'll start winning the fight. Take Ray Mancini for example: Here's a guy who did not have great talent but he had great character. He was one of the hardest workers in the ring and he reached the top by out-gutting you. He's the perfect example.

Q: Throughout your 40-year career as a referee you've had the best seat in the house for a number of great fights. Were you ever able to step back and enjoy the fights as a fan?

A: No. And I feel lucky that I can say that. I'm a fan of boxing and I like watching great fights, but when the bell rings and I'm in the ring, I'm a referee and that's it. Now I can easily imagine somebody becoming a fan and starting to watch the fight but that has never happened to me and I feel lucky about that.

Q: What were some of the best fights that you refereed?

A: There are four great fights that stand out to me: The Larry Holmes/Ken Norton heavyweight championship in 1978, the Salvador Sanchez/Danny "Little Red" Lopez featherweight title fight in 1980, Marvin Hagler and John Mugaby when they fought for the middleweight title, and the last one is a fight that not many people remember: the Evander Holyfield/Carlos De Leon fight at the cruiserweight division.

This was before Holyfield moved up to the Heavyweight division and that night, Holyfield had it going on and it was the best I've ever seen him. The Holmes/Norton fight was also a classic. Going in to that 15th and final round, and nobody knew this at the time, the two were dead even on the judge's scorecards. Those two stood toe-to-toe and slugged it out for the entire three minutes and today, that 15th round is now known as one of the five greatest rounds in boxing in the last decade and I was there. I've also worked some other fights that were promoted a lot more and had more hype going in, but these are the four that I remember the most.

Q: You refereed one of the most bizarre matches in the history of boxing-the infamous Mike Tyson/Evander Holyfield ear biting fight. Take us through that night from your standpoint.

A: There were a lot of strange things that happened that night. I didn't notice most of it until I watched the tape later because I didn't have time to put it all together when it was all going down. Everything happened so fast. But now that I had time to reflect back and review the tape, some things, little things happened that I noticed that could have had an effect on the biting incident.

Before the fight started, I remember Mike doing something unusual during the pre-fight instructions. In the dressing room, I noticed that both fighters were wearing their cups too high. The cup covered their ribs and you couldn't land a punch in that area if you wanted to. So once we were all in the ring, I reminded both fighters again about their cups. I remember telling Tyson, "If he hits you right there, I'm not going to call a low blow." And as I'm saying this to him, my finger is pointing to the rib area on Tyson's body.

At that very moment, Tyson looked down and broke his stare. And to me that was odd because Mike never breaks his stare. Now all of this could mean nothing, but to me, it was like Mike was saying to himself, "oh my god, I can't beat this guy." Like I said, this might not mean a thing, but he did break the stare. So now the fight has started. In the first round, after the two exchanged a few punches in the early part of the round, Holyfield landed a hard left punch to Tyson's body and I heard Mike make a wheezing sound. Holyfield then followed with a straight right hand that wobbled Tyson. After that punch, I thought for sure that Tyson was going down. But he held on and he survived the round.

In the second round, Holyfield was again winning the round. And here's where it all started to get weird-the two clashed heads.

It happened when they were fighting in close. Holyfield had his hands up and chin down and after an exchange of inside punches, their heads came together and Tyson got a cut on the top of his head. Right away I knew that an unintentional head butt caused the cut and here's why: Holyfield is 6-2, Tyson is 5-10 ½. If Tyson ducks his head a little, there's no cut. But Tyson was standing straight up at the time and that's why their heads clashed. I called time and Tyson immediately complained to me about it. It was a bad cut but I told him it was unintentional. So the fight continued. Now in the third round, Tyson's getting it on and he's clearly winning the round. With about a minute left in the round, the two got in close again. At that time, I was a little out of position. I was standing directly behind Tyson and I saw his head go down. The next thing I know, Holyfield jumps up, slaps the side of his head, spins around and yells, "He bit me!" Tyson then pushes Holyfield into the ropes and I again called time. After the fighters separated, I went over to Holyfield's corner and looked at his ear. Right away, I could tell it was a bite, you could see the tear.

At that time, I motion for Mark Ratner, the executive director of the boxing commission. I said, "Mark, he bit him on the ear, I can see the bite marks, I'm going to disqualify him." Mark didn't overrule me but then I felt that I didn't know enough to make a decision like that. So I then go to Flip Omanski, the fight doctor. Flip looked at the cut and he thought it was okay for the fight to go on. Now at that time, I don't think anybody realized that a piece of Holyfield's ear was still lying on the canvas. But Flip gave the okay so I decided not to stop the fight.

During the middle of all the commotion, I hear a voice from behind me telling me that it was a punch. I looked over and it was Tyson. I turned around and said: "Bull@*&%, man. You bit him." Mike said, "Okay, okay" and that was it. He didn't even argue with me.

So after a few minutes of sorting it all out, the fight goes on.

The two get back at it and with about 10-15 seconds left in the round, Mike did it again. The two got close and Holyfield starts jumping up and down again. Tyson had bit his other ear. But this time, there was no blood, only teeth marks. As soon as that happened, I said that's it. I walked over to Tyson and said: "That's it. You're gone." He then went berserk and the rest is history.