When it comes to knowing when you're over the hill, boxers have more at stake than other athletes. They don't just risk late-career embarrassment (see Michael Jordan) or an awkward departure (John Lynch) — their wits are literally on the line. And so it was that Clearwater's Tyrone Booze, the WBO Cruiser Weight champion in '92, called it quits about five years ago. "I looked in the mirror and decided that I couldn't continue to box," says the affable 45-year-old. "I was physically and mentally burned out. I came out on the losing end of my last fight, and after that it was time to give it up."
Booze then did some work as a sparring partner for heavyweights Riddick Bowe and Shannon Briggs but quickly tired of that. "My wife got in my head," he says with a laugh. "She basically said, 'You ain't fightin' no more."
Even so, Booze still goes through withdrawals, he says, "thinking I can still do it. I look at the fights on TV and think 'I could beat that guy,' when in reality, I'm not 21 anymore. A lot of things slow down — the reflexes, the hands. All the years of running, conditioning your body, after a while the body don't respond. I have aches and pains in my arms. My elbows get sore. My ankles are sore from all that running."
Booze was a mid-level fighter; his most high-profile bouts were with Evander Holyfield, Bert Cooper, Dwight Braxton and Eddie Mustafa Muhammed. He garnered a belt but no major paydays. That made it easier for him to walk away.
A boxer since age 11, Booze learned how to read a little, but during his career was not able to understand his contracts. In '99, after retiring, he concentrated on improving his literacy. Three years later, he and his wife Tina founded the Smart Fighter Institute, a nonprofit agency that provides underprivileged kids with educational resources and boxing training. Booze gets most of his exercise while teaching pugilism to the youngsters in the Smart Fighter program at TBT gym in downtown Clearwater. "I'll hit the bag, or do some exercises with them four days a week," he says. "I'm in decent shape, but not fightin' shape."
You can reach the Smart Fighter Institute at 727-447-4203 or literacy@smartfighter.org.
This article appears in Jul 8-14, 2004.