HBO Comes Close, but Tyson-Tucker Isn’t Tyson-Spinks

HBO executive Seth Abraham had a simple plan. Backed by his company’s money, he would stage a heavyweight unification boxing tournament and eliminate the alphabet confusion. No more separate WBA, WBC and IBF champions. Just simply a world champion.

Nice idea, but no way would it ever work, said people familiar with boxing. It’s impossible to get the fragmented world of boxing to unify on anything, they said.

Still, a deal was signed on Jan. 17, 1986, that brought together the top heavyweights for a series of fights that supposedly would yield one heavyweight champion.

But the tournament, of course, didn’t go according to plan. If it had, Mike Tyson would already have fought Michael Spinks for the unified title. And HBO would have scored a tremendous coup by cornering the biggest heavyweight fight of the decade.

Instead, Tyson will fight Tony Tucker in the culmination of the tournament Saturday night at Las Vegas.

But, still, there are those who are amazed the tournament went this far.

“Through nine fights, we survived the bickering, the lawsuits and the in-fighting,” said Abraham, who oversees programming operations and sports for HBO. “I’m quite satisfied. The winner Saturday night will be the champion of all three of boxing’s sanctioning bodies.

“I’m not trying to kid anyone. We would surely have preferred Tyson-Spinks to Tyson-Tucker. But we’re still ending up with what we set out to accomplish, and that is staging a unified championship fight.”

Tyson, who has a 30-0 record and 25 knockouts, is the World Boxing Assn. and World Boxing Council champion. Tucker, 35-0 with 29 knockouts, holds the International Boxing Federation title.

Spinks lost his IBF title when he bolted from the HBO tournament to fight Gerry Cooney. HBO went to court to stop the Spinks-Cooney fight and lost, but has appealed in an effort to collect damages.

HBO’s coverage Saturday night will begin at 6:30, with the fight set for 6:53. Both fighters will be profiled before the fight, and the tournament will be reviewed. The announcers will be Barry Tompkins, Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Add boxing: Presuming that Tyson beats Tucker, as he is favored to do, a Tyson-Spinks fight may still be a year away. Tyson plans to pick up some pocket change with a world tour before fighting Spinks. He has already been offered $10 million to fight a yet-to-be-determined opponent in Japan, according to Abraham.

When and if Tyson and Spinks do get together, the fight will be shown on pay-per-view television and in closed-circuit establishments, and the take may be close to the $60 million Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler drew in April.

Channel 2 is apparently very close to a deal with Jim Lampley.

A New York source said Thursday that the deal was complete, but Channel 2 spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said: “That news is premature.”

Sporkin added that a decision on Jim Hill’s replacement probably will be made early next week.

The New York source said Lampley will start at Channel 2 on Oct. 1 and will also take Hill’s spot as a National Football League play-by-play announcer for CBS, meaning he will be teamed with Ken Stabler.

Hill’s debut on Channel 7 Monday had its rough moments. During a live remote interview with Tom Lasorda on the 4 o’clock news, the Dodger manager’s earplug malfunctioned, but not before he got in a dig.

“Jim, I knew you when you were poor,” Lasorda said, referring to Hill’s big-bucks contract with Channel 7.

Said Hill: “Tommy, as you know, you can’t believe everything you read in the papers.”

On the 11 o’clock news, after reporting that a three-way tie at the U.S. Women’s Open had forced a playoff, Hill said that “tomorrow’s playoff will be televised live at 1 p.m. right here on Channel 2 .”

It was only a matter of time before he made that understandable mistake. But, in this case, it was a double error because Channel 7 wound up not carrying ABC’s coverage of the playoff.

A New York source said that CBS has signed Billy Cunningham to a one-year contract and that he may replace Tom Heinsohn.

The source said that Cunningham may be the network’s No. 1 NBA commentator next season, then Julius Erving, if he’s ready, would take over. Cunningham would be ineligible to continue because of his involvement as part owner of the new NBA franchise in Miami, which will begin playing in 1988-89.

Another source said that CBS is still trying to hire NBC’s Marv Albert as its No. 1 play-by-play man on the NBA, but not until 1988. Albert has a year left on his NBC contract, and his current employer is negotiating to extend it.

TV-Radio Notes NBC, as expected, announced this week that Dick Enberg will be the network’s venue host during the 1988 Summer Olympics, meaning that he will be reporting from various sites. It was earlier announced that Bryant Gumbel would be the studio host during the prime-time hours. A daytime host and a late-night host will be announced later, but Bob Costas figures to fill at least one of those roles. . . . It was assumed by many, including Enberg, that he would be the studio host. But he says he is pleased with his role. “I think I’ll do better being at the events than I would sitting in a studio,” Enberg said. . . . Although NBC will have most of its announcers in Seoul for the Olympics, Vin Scully will remain in the United States to do baseball. “Keep in mind that we’ll be doing the World Series in 1988, and baseball is very important to us,” said Michael Weisman, the executive producer of NBC Sports.

ESPN’s decision to carry the John McEnroe-Boris Becker Davis Cup match live last Friday turned out to be a good one. The network drew about 300,000 viewers more than normal. And Sunday’s Becker-Tim Mayotte match drew a 2.6 Nielsen cable rating, ESPN’s highest ever for tennis. . . . ESPN’s new sports anchor and reporter, Karie Ross, is 27 years old and came from a television station in Columbus, Ohio. . . . Jim Lampley has been hired by Showtime to announce the Aug. 15 cruiserweight title fight between Evander Holyfield and Ossie Ocasio. He will be joined by Ferdie Pacheco and Dave Diles. . . . Al Trautwig has replaced Lampley as ABC’s lap-by-lap auto racing announcer. Trautwig will work with Sam Posey and Bobby Unser on ABC’s coverage of Sunday’s Michigan 500, which Channel 7 will show delayed at 1 p.m. . . . Len Berman’s annual Sports Fantasies will be televised on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday. Channel 4 will carry the show at 3 p.m., while most other West Coast NBC stations will carry it at 2.

Attention, Arena Football fans: Arenabowl I, the indoor league’s first championship game, will be televised by ESPN Saturday night at 6. Pittsburgh will play Denver. . . . For basketball fans, Prime Ticket will televise Magic Johnson’s benefit all-star game live from the Forum Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. . . . For college football fans, the best players in the Big Ten will be profiled during a special on Channel 4 Saturday at 2 p.m. . . . America’s top cyclists will be profiled during a special on Channel 4 Saturday at 2:30. Eric Heiden is the host. . . . Cazzie Russell is among those being auditioned to replace Keith Erickson as Laker commentator. . . . FNN/SCORE will televise a race every weekend from Del Mar during this year’s meeting. Co-hosts of the hour-long shows, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., will be John Loesing and Alan Buchdahl, with Trevor Denman calling the race. Former jockey Ken Church and turf writer Jay Hovdey will also appear. FNN/SCORE’s schedule begins with Saturday’s Osunitas Handicap. . . . ESPN is scheduled to televise the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar Aug. 15.