Boxers Spar for Top Spot in Alphabet

The handlers of cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield, in announcing that their fighter will step up to the heavyweight division, revealed a name for the move at a Friday press conference: The Omega Project.

Say what? Read on.

Omega, you see, is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And Holyfield, insists his camp, is “the last man” with a chance to dethrone the undisputed champion, Mike Tyson.

Yeah, that’s it.

Or, maybe they could label it The Zebra Affair. Because Z is the last letter of the English alphabet and Holyfield, unless he can effectively add bulk to his frame, probably has zero chance of beating Tyson.

Still, in the weird world of boxing, one punch often can turn the most outlandish hype into reality.

Look at Iran Barkley. A couple of weeks ago, it appeared Charles Barkley might have a better chance of beating World Boxing Council middleweight champion Thomas Hearns.

Hearns, although only one member of boxing’s triumvirate of middleweight titleholders, generally was recognized as the champion. The only man to have ever held four world titles, Hearns was looking at new mountains to conquer--namely Sugar Ray Leonard, in a blockbuster rematch.

And Bob Arum, who has promoted for both Hearns and World Boxing Assn. middleweight champ Sambu Kalambay, was considered one of the two promoters in the fight game, along with longtime rival Don King.

One devastating right hand later, however, the whole power structure has been altered, perhaps permanently.

By knocking out Hearns, the lightly regarded Barkley suddenly can call the shots in the middleweight division.

And along with him comes Stan Hoffman, a 56-year-old record producer who formed a partnership in 1986 with Josephine Abercrombie, a wealthy horse breeder and founder of the Houston Boxing Assn.

With Marvelous Marvin Hagler recently announcing he no longer wants to fight and Sugar Ray Leonard indicating he can’t find anybody worth fighting, the middleweight division belongs, at least temporarily, to the new kids on the block--Barkley, Kalambay, International Boxing Federation champion Frank Tate and Tate’s opponent in his next title defense, unbeaten Michael Nunn of North Hollywood.

And right in the middle are Hoffman and the HBA with promotional ties to both Barkley and Tate.

So where do we go from here?

“Hearns’ people have said they’d like to fight us,” says Hoffman, the “us” referring to Barkley. “If it’s within our time frame, we’ll do it. But we’re not going to sit around for a year while he makes up his mind. We’d love it because under the terms of the rematch, we can make no less than Hearns the next time.

“But we’re the champion. People have to come to us.”

Hoffman, however, doesn’t expect Hagler to be among those banging on his door.

“He’s not going to come back,” Hoffman said. “But I think that Hearns will. The loss was a real shock to him. He doesn’t intend to go out a loser.”

A lot of boxing people feel the eventual undisputed champion will be the winner of the Tate-Nunn match July 28th in Las Vegas.

Tate has followed his gold medal performance in the 1984 Olympic Games by winning his first 23 pro fights, 13 by knockout. Nunn, after failing to make the ’84 Olympic squad, has merely gone 30-0 in the pros, including 20 knockouts.

And so, 14 months after the blockbuster Hagler-Leonard middleweight battle of the ages, with both fighters now gone from the scene, a whole new cast of characters has quickly filled the void.

The most sensible scenario for the immediate future would be a Barkley-Hearns rematch. Kalambay, meanwhile, would fight the winner of the Tate-Nunn match. And the winners of those bouts would meet sometime next year to again unify the title.

Unless Hearns retires.

Or Hagler ends his retirement.

Or Leonard fights rather than accept his own retirement.

So how will it all end? Call it The X Factor, X being the third-to-last letter in the alphabet and three men now holding titles they claim distinguish them as the best in the world.