It's a lot like losing your virginity, Mike Tyson told me Sunday morning. There's the fear of the unknown, the insecurity and creeping self-doubt, the thought of trying to measure up to expectations, real or idealized.
"You're nervous and scared, but you want to do it," he said.

Lennox Lewis.
Trust us, when Tyson turns out the lights on the British heavyweight next spring, there won't be a lot of romance preceding it. Tyson will have his way with a very technically flawed fighter, then drop him literally.
That isn't to say the stocky 35-year-old slugger won't be passionate; indeed, Iron Mike's lust for unmitigated ring violence will be the difference. The fight for the undisputed world heavyweight championship won't necessarily be quick or easy. Sooner or later, Tyson will catch up with his retreating, chess-playing, aristocratic adversary.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, the late Joe Louis used to say, but nobody wants to die. Tyson will do anything to vanquish his nemesis in dreadlocks. Hard-core rage and mercilessness will overcome instinctive hesitancy and increasingly unsteady legs.
"I'm going in for the kill I'm going to give it my all," Tyson said from Phoenix, where he's working out for a January tune-up against Ray Mercer, a bout that may be in doubt now that an agreement for a Lewis-Tyson fight appears imminent.
Lewis-Tyson is the only fight in boxing that has mattered for more than 2 years. It appears as if a deal will be finalized in the next few weeks for a record-setting mega bout. Premium cable TV channels Home Box Office and Showtime have stopped bickering about pay-per-view rights. Controversial promoter Don King, being sued by Tyson for alleged financial shenanigans, is out of the way.
"He'll be on the sideline watching me break records and jaws," Tyson said. "Don's a wretched fiend. This will be my first truly liberated fight. You know what it makes me feel like? Like I lived through reconstruction. I feel emancipated. It's a shame I lived so much of my life like a slave without knowing it."
All of this, of course, is contingent upon Mr. Tyson staying out of serious trouble. Ring inactivity leads to boredom, which sometimes leads to allegations by women. Tyson's biggest fight in life remains not the men who stand up against him in the ring, but the person standing in front of the mirror.
"About a year ago, I was psychologically jacked up. I'm so proud I didn't kill anybody," he said. "I never thought I'd come this far. I was looking for a new profession. I'm serious, man. Music, anything. I was almost getting ready to kill people for money. After my friend Darryl died, I got perspective. I realized things were serious out there. It was then that I realized I really didn't want to die, that I wanted to make something of myself."
No one should make too much out of what happened Saturday night. No matter how devastating Lewis was with his one-punch KO of glorified club fighter Hasim Rahman, the titles were on loan since the Baltimorean hit the lotto in South Africa in April. After watching the fight on television, Tyson phoned a friend and remarked, "Lennox better count his days because they're numbered.
"Rahman was intimidated and when you're intimidated, you can't perform," he said. "He stood there like a deer in front of a truck. When someone fights like that, you have to put a performance into perspective. He didn't truly give it his all. He didn't come in looking for a war. I'm coming to make a war out of it."
Lewis has a little too much Gene Tunney in him. He likes boxing, but he doesn't like fighting. Tyson wings punches with homicidal intentions; Lewis fights as if he's maneuvering around a canvas chessboard. You never can be sure which Lewis will show up. It won't matter, provided Tyson is in peak physical condition, listens to his corner and fights in a disciplined manner with constant pressure designed to break down the body and spirit of the 36-year-old champion.
"My advantage over most guys I've fought is that I'm more emotionally stable," Tyson said. "Professionally speaking, that is." After all these years, we can't help but watch him, even as we try to look away.