Golota Readies For Tyson Fight

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) â€” Andrew Golota was wearing sun glasses while in a stare down for the benefit of photographers. <br><br>Was he hiding something? <br><br>Perhaps he didn't want to look intimidated.

Wednesday, October 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) â€” Andrew Golota was wearing sun glasses while in a stare down for the benefit of photographers.

Was he hiding something?

Perhaps he didn't want to look intimidated.

``That's his problem,'' Mike Tyson said when asked at a news conference Tuesday if he thought his opponent in Friday night's fight was intimidated. ``I don't have anything to do with that.''

He does, of course. When asked how long he thought the scheduled 10-round match at the Palace of Auburn Hills would last, the former undisputed heavyweight champion said, ``I don't know. As long as it takes to kill somebody.''

Maybe Golota, a native of Poland living in Chicago, was masking his fear.

``I'm always afraid before every fight; this is boxing,'' Golota said. It's a risk business.

Also hidden behind those shades was something that didn't surface at the news conference â€” a sense of humor.

While Golota waited in a dressing room for Tyson to arrive, his trainer, Al Certo, said all of Tyson's talking was to cover up his fear.

``Don't be too sure,'' Golota said.

``I wish I was fighting him,'' Certo said.

``So does Andrew,'' a bystander cracked.

Golota laughed.

When Certo, who also operates a tailoring business in Secaucus, N.J., noticed thread unraveling in the right cuff of Golota's sports jacket, he said, ``It's that cheap suit you're wearing.''

Certo then said he could make a better one.

``You can't make me a fighter, but you can make me a suit,'' Golota said.

Tyson snapped at a couple of inquisitors and once mocked Golota at the news conference, but he wasn't the glaring, surly presence he's been at past media gatherings.

Maybe it was the new medication Tyson is taking in place of Zoloft, an anti-depressant.

Tyson claims he does not know what medication he is on and the people around him aren't saying.

David A. Sebastian, chairman of the Michigan Boxing Commission, knows what the medication is, but he said it's up to Tyson to reveal it. Whatever it is, Tyson can fight on it against Golota Friday night in the Palace of Auburn Hills.

``The medication is not performance-enhancing or impairing,'' Sebastian said. He said he talked to various doctors and they ``insured me it was a non-issue.''

When Tyson was taking Zoloft, he was taken off it before fights.

The 10-round fight will be the featured match on a pay-per-view (SET) card beginning a 9 p.m. EDT.

The Tyson-Golota match, expected to start about 11:30 p.m., will be immediately preceded by an IBF junior welterweight title defense by Zab Judah of Brooklyn, N.Y., against Hector Quiorz of South Gate, Calif. Also to be televised is a 10-round lightweight bout between Alex Trujillo of Puerto Rico and Jose Juarez of Mexico and a six-round woman's bout between Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, of Los Angeles and Kendra Lenhart of Lenoir, Tenn.