Bothered and Bewildered.

The sport of boxing, never tidy, was complicated and confusing during the 1990s. Much of what was not mystifying—for example, Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 bout—was deplorable. People began to compare professional boxing with professional wrestling, an image not helped when Tyson agreed to "referee" a wrestling match in Boston. The state of Washington broke another precedent when it sanctioned a boxing match between a man and woman—she won. It was a decade in which even boxing enthusiasts had a hard time finding positive things to say about their sport. Richard Hoffer, of Sports Illustrated, complained of the "forgettable seasons in boxing" and "unearned dollars for unexciting fights." In a fit of editorial pique, Hoffer wrote, "Holyfield zipped up to New York to meet Akinwande who had earned this title shot by ... well...