Boxing Notes : Tyson-Ruddock Bout May Have Found a Home

The Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock fight, a “who cares?” matchup that nobody wanted, apparently has found a home at Barron Hilton’s Castle.

Executives at the Las Vegas Hilton, which dropped $4 million on the Feb. 25 Tyson-Frank Bruno fight, were huddling with promoter Don King Wednesday over taking a $2 million plunge on Tyson-Ruddock. Why, you may ask. The answer is: to help give the impression that the 3,000-room White Elephant in the Desert is still a vibrant, healthy property.

For the past couple of months, “The Baron,” as he is known to his loving subordinates, has been trying to sell the place. But since Tyson-Bruno, the hotel has been quiet, with no major marquee events to bring it to the attention of potential buyers. And worse, just down the strip, the new Mirage Hotel is getting plenty of ink as the host of the Dec. 7 Roberto Duran-Sugar Ray Leonard bout.

For those reasons, Hilton management is seriously considering shelving its reluctance to put on any more King-Tyson extravaganzas -- it passed on Tyson-Carl Williams -- and buy Tyson-Ruddock, a second-rate attraction, in the United States at least.

“It’s a good investment for us,” a Hilton insider said. “When you’re trying to sell a property like this, you need to make it appear that it’s business as usual. So you gamble $2 million. You could add as much as $5 million or $10 million to the selling price.”

You also may ask, why not take Tyson-Ruddock up to Toronto, Ruddock’s hometown, and put it into the new SkyDome, where it undoubtedly would generate more income and interest? In fact, there is at least one promoter, Toronto’s Irv Ungerman, who was interested in doing just that.

Well, the answer, of course, lies with King. The promoter has bad memories of the Great White North dating back to when he tried to promote Matthew Hilton-Buster Drayton in Montreal in 1987.

It seems the Canadian Immigration Department frowned upon King’s manslaughter conviction, scoffed at his pardon by the state of Ohio and turned him away at the border. And under Canadian Boxing Federation rules, King would not be allowed to promote Tyson-Ruddock alone, but would have to co-promote with a licensed Canadian promoter.

So, as usual, King is doing what’s best for King -- he will try to scoop up $2 million from the Hilton, which is demanding not only Tyson-Ruddock but an undercard with at least two other title bouts, all of which must be paid for out of the same site fee. Once again, the financial loser is Tyson.

Thursday night is the last regularly scheduled Felt Forum card before it closes for two years of renovations, with Michael Dokes-Wesley Watson on top, and local favorites Tunde Foster, Seamus McDonagh and Kevin Kelley underneath. On Sunday, welterweights Buddy McGirt and Gary Jacobs close the place after a nearly 21-year run that began with light-heavyweight Frankie DePaula and Jimmy McDermott Sept. 21, 1968.

The Forum never was the best place to watch a fight -- the stage was wasted, the seats in the far corners were terrible and the whole room felt more like a nightclub than a fight club -- but it was a spawning ground for a bunch of future champions and it did provide fight fans with a memorable night or two, particularly the one when 4,000 fans rearranged some furniture after Mike Quarry was given a horrible decision over Pedro Soto, causing Garden brass to close the Forum for a few months.

The Forum legacy: Future champs Hector Camacho, Juan LaPorte, Saoul Mamby, Mike McCallum, Marlon Starling, Wilfred Benitez, Iran Barkley and Vito Antuofermo developed there. Mike Tyson, Ray Mancini, Mark Breland and Sugar Ray Leonard -- once as an amateur and once as a cornerman -- put in appearances there.

Troy Darrell, John “The Heat” Verderosa, Jose “The Threat” Baret, Mark Medal, Juan Ramon Cruz and Carmelo Negron were stars there, but nowhere else. Gino Perez and Willie Classen died there. Michael Dokes and Edwin Rosario were reborn there.

On Sept. 14, New York boxing moves uptown to the Beacon Theater, a former moviehouse and concert hall. It won’t be the same.

Wonder how Mark Gastineau will feel the first time he gets knocked down and some guy does a sack dance over his butt?

ABC announcers gushed all over Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker Sunday, but to these eyes -- and a lot of others in the business -- Whitaker resembled nothing so much as a lightweight Michael Nunn. Wouldn’t be surprised if Sleep-Eze Whitaker got a lot less network air time next year.

Carl Williams, still smarting over the quick stoppage of his July 21 challenge to Tyson, has been told by King henchman Al Braverman he will get a fight on the undercard of Tyson-Ruddock. Williams joins a long list -- Michael Dokes, Julian Jackson, Azumah Nelson, Buster Douglas -- who have been promised spots on the card. In the meantime, Williams and his manager, attorney Ira Leibowitz, are alleging Williams was felled not by Tyson’s left hook but by a head butt, and are pushing to get the result changed to a “no contest,” which is what the fight actually was. Ask anybody who was there.