$100 Million Offered for 12 Tyson Bouts in a Year

Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was offered $100 million today by a British sports promotions firm to make a yearlong world tour that would include a title fight each month.

Winners Worldwide Ltd., which promotes soccer and snooker (a variation on the game of pool) as well as British rock bands, said the tour would start in the United States and move into Europe and Japan before finishing in Brockton, Mass., birthplace of the late Rocky Marciano, who also was an unbeaten heavyweight champion.

Stephen Jones, a spokesman for Winners Worldwide, said the firm has never promoted a world title fight but, “We’ve done a couple of local shows which have been very successful.”

Jones said the company had sent information about its offer to Tyson’s business manager, Don King, and was seeking to interest large American corporations like McDonalds and Burger King in sponsoring the tour.

“If we can pull it off and get some publicity out of it, then that’s no problem,” Jones said. “We are not just out for the publicity. We are serious about this.”

A news release from Winners Worldwide said, “There is no reason why a world champion boxer cannot be taken on tour in the same way as pop groups.

“As the current opposition shouldn’t take up too much of his time, we feel he can eliminate one a month, putting his awesome talents on display across the world.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for King said today in New York that James (Buster) Douglas may be next in line for a shot at Tyson.

Douglas, who outpointed Oliver McCall on the undercard of Tyson’s last title defense, will probably meet Tyson in October, King spokesman Al Braverman said.

“Nothing has been signed yet, but it looks that way, that Douglas is the guy,” Braverman said.

Braverman said he expected the fight to be held in October, but that no exact date has been set. He also said the Las Vegas Hilton has the right of first refusal for the fight.

King is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday, Braverman said.

Tyson is 37-0 with 33 knockouts. His last fight was July 21, when he knocked out Carl (The Truth) Williams in 93 seconds. Douglas, 28-4-1, scored a lackluster victory over McCall on the same night.