EYE TO EYE
evil-eye attitude at least two minutes.” Moore went on to score a knockout at 1:19 of Round 3, flattening Olson with a double left hook. Had Moore’s stare softened Olson up? Or had Olson’s 15-minute encounter with Gavilan taken too much out of him? Moore, of course, knew every tactic of psychological warfare and even invented a few, so he undoubtedly understood the effectiveness of a good, mean stare. He glared at opponents, in the words of Budd Schulberg, “like some South Sea emperor staring down an unruly subject.” Moore’s staring technique had a particular impact on a fighter he trained for a while: George Foreman. “Archie had taught me that if you could get your man to turn away first in the staring contest, then you’d won the fight,” Foreman wrote in his memoir. Foreman also explained Moore’s method. “You look at him right in his eyes,” Moore had said. “You look right there until you find yourself in his eyes.” Under Moore’s tutelage, Foreman developed his own ice-cold gaze. Norman Mailer once described Foreman’s stare as “A big look, heavy as death, oppressive as the closing
I know I have him. And then he comes to the center of the ring, he still looks at me with his piercing look, as if he’s not afraid, but he already made that mistake when he looked down for that one tenth of a second.” Perhaps Tyson’s most galvanizing staredown was in his first post-prison bout against handpicked journeyman Peter McNeeley. During the instructions, as the amiable McNeeley rocked from side to side, Tyson followed him with his eyes, looking very much like a hungry cat staring at a bird. Cameras caught the chilling moment. Yet as the years passed and Tyson’s career ebbed, his staredowns dissolved into buffoonery, especially on podiums. It was as if Tyson knew his stare was no longer enough, and he had to resort to nutty behavior. When challenged with describing the stare of Sonny Liston, sportswriters of the early 1960s brought the word “baleful” into the American vernacular. Liston’s ominous look said that his opponent’s fate was already decided. Liston’s gaze seemed unbeatable, that is, until he lost a couple of fights to Muhammad Ali. The vaunted Liston stare, apparently, had stopped working.
his own, though it was almost always accompanied by talking.) A remarkable staredown took place in November 1979 involving Sugar Ray Leonard and Wilfred Benitez moments before their welterweight title bout. Though the staredown with Benitez became part of Leonard’s legend, he played it down at the time. “That wasn’t anything,” he said. “It was just for TV.” But when Leonard recalled the moment in his autobiography, he wrote that Benitez caught him off guard. Leonard immediately thought back to similar staredowns from his youth. According to him, standoffs in his old Palmer Park, Maryland, neighborhood could last as long as 30 or 40 minutes before someone threw a punch. Leonard wrote that Benitez got the best of the stare- off, and that he’d needed a few seconds to shake off the effect of Benitez’ eyes drilling into him. Leonard went on to win the bout by TKO in the 15th. Leonard enjoyed gamesmanship. He admitted that he liked to throw an intimidating stare at opponents right before a fight as a sort of “last- ditch psych job.” One of the rare times he didn’t was his 1987 bout with
or see the fear in their eyes. Dr. Adam Gallenberg of Premier Sport Psychology of Minnesota has worked with many fighters and appreciates the importance of a staredown. “At first glance,” Dr. Gallenberg told The Ring, a staredown “might seem like it’s for the camera, and sometimes it is. However, under the surface, these moments can absolutely impact the fighter’s confidence.” Gallenberg will sometimes meet with a fighter after a podium staredown and use “mental imagery techniques to simulate the fight plan.” This is effective, Gallenberg believes, since a fighter who has stared deeply into a rival’s eyes can create a more vivid mental image of how a fight might play out. “Although the experience
Archie Moore (right) and his wilting gaze beat Harold Johnson four times.
But when he met Hagler mid-ring on the memorable night of April 15, 1985, Hearns’ oft-used glower amounted to nothing. Not that Hearns didn’t try. “It was a wonderful stare,” wrote Joe Hamelin for the McClatchy News Service. “There was pure malevolence in it.” Hamelin went on to describe Hearns ogling Hagler during the referee’s instructions, how he “locked eyes with Hagler as if hoping to turn him to stone. Hearns is a Satanic-looking cuss to begin with, with those unsettling eyes and the facial hair that encircles his mouth. And he wore a red robe and a practiced leer that heightened the effect.” The stare, along with his powerful right hand, failed Hearns that night. Hagler stopped him in three. Britain’s David Haye had some memorable staredowns with Nicolai Valuev and Wladimir Klitschko, but when he failed to keep a straight face in a 2008 face-off with Enzo Maccarinelli, he dismissed the importance of the stare.
is different from fighter to fighter,” Gallenberg said, “I’ve often helped athletes recognize when they are being baited emotionally.” Overall, Gallenberg helps fighters “project confident body language” during staredowns, gives them tips on how to not be intimidated by trash talk and flashing cameras, and to manage their reactions in “pressure situations.” What would Evil Eye Finkle think of such modern methods? Finkle claimed his special talent was “a gift” that couldn’t be taught. Finkle also claimed his stare was potent enough to change the course of history. He recalled late in life that the U.S. Army wanted to use his abilities in World War II against the Axis powers. He was never close enough to cast a spell on the bad guys, but he suspected he had done his part for the Allies. “They just shipped me to Paris, where I put the evil eye to work long distance on Hitler, and two weeks later the bum blew his brains away,” Finkle said. “I shoulda got a medal.”
of the door of one’s tomb.” Yet Foreman admitted the stare was sometimes a way to mask his own nerves. As he stared down at Joe Frazier just before their 1973 meeting in Jamaica, Foreman hoped to keep Frazier’s eyes locked on his own, otherwise Smokin’ Joe might look down and notice George’s knees were shaking.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He’d already played his share of mind games in the weeks before the bout, but when it came time for the pre-fight instructions, Leonard avoided Hagler’s eyes. “I looked down at the canvas, not at Hagler,” he wrote. “I was in my zone and did not want to be disturbed.” Leonard won a 12-round split
“You look right there until you find yourself in his eyes.”
“So what if you can stand with someone and look into their eyes without blinking,” Haye said. “It’s not going to stop you getting brutally knocked out the next day.” Indeed, Haye KO’d Enzo the next day. Nowadays, every press conference and weigh-in ends with a staged moment where the fighters stand eye-to-eye for an extended photoshoot. It’s become predictable, even with the occasional shoving matches that break out. Indeed, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all, though Chris Eubank Jr. smacking Conor Benn with an egg before their recent fight was an interesting touch. While the present-day press conference staredown is just a way to create some content for social media, the in-ring staredown may still offer a legit way to get into your opponent’s head
Nerves and the staredown went hand in hand for another of boxing’s great intimidators. Mike Tyson once said that he was usually nervous as he made his way to the ring, but he could calm himself by staring at his opponent. In a way, through intense eye contact, he’d transfer his own insecurities onto his rival. “I keep my eyes on him,” Tyson said in James Toback’s 2008 documentary. “Then once I see a chink in his armor, boom! One of his eyes made a move, and then
Ali later admitted that Liston made him uneasy, but his way of countering the stare was to lean in and make faces or talk a little trash. Years later when confronted by Foreman’s stare in Africa, Ali again shut down the eyeballing game. “You’ve been following me since you were a little boy,” Ali said during the instructions as Foreman tried to intimidate him. “Now you must meet me, your master!” Ali’s talking game was better than Liston or Foreman’s staring game. (Ali had a pretty good stare of
decision, showing that staredowns were hardly necessary. Of course, there was no sense in trying to outstare Hagler, a point already proven by Thomas Hearns. Few fighters packed a deadlier gaze than Hearns, whose grim stare befitted his nickname of “Hitman.” From the earliest days of his career, he’d practiced the ancient art of staring holes into an opponent. “His eyes are so intense,” said his trainer, Emanuel Steward, “like a flame.” Hearns worked the old ploy of making an opponent turn away first.
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