Tyson-Holyfield Fight Draws Somewhat Closer

The long-awaited Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield heavyweight championship fight might be closer than Tyson’s promoter, Don King, has recently indicated.

In a TV interview taped by Showtime for showing during Holyfield’s Nov. 4 fight with Alex Stewart, King said he and Tyson, the heavyweight champion, want Holyfield “in the very near future.”

King said, according to Reuters, that “there are only two pay-per-view dates to go on--June or November--and so Evander Holyfield certainly will be one of them, preferably June.”

Both Tyson (37-0) and Holyfield (22-0) have November fights. Tyson will defend his championship Nov. 18 in Edmonton, Canada, against Razor Ruddock.

During a Beverly Hills news conference in August, King indicated that Tyson-Holyfield might not take place until 1991, adding that Tyson might fight Michael Dokes, Ruddock, Buster Douglas and George Foreman before Holyfield.

Many, however, saw it as a King ploy, an attempt to drive a wedge between Holyfield and his manager, Ken Sanders, on the one hand, and Holyfield’s promoters, Dan and Kathy Duva, on the other. That way, King wouldn’t have to share the promotion’s revenues with the Duvas.

Some observers believe that a Tyson-Holyfield pay-per-view showdown could be boxing’s first $100-million fight.

“Tyson-Holyfield is going to be a rich fight, but it’s not ready yet,” King said Aug. 3 in Beverly Hills. “Just to say they got an undefeated fighter . . . that’s not enough. You’ve got to develop it, promote it, and that’s what we’ll be doing over these next few fights. The Holyfield people, they don’t know how to do that.”

In recent weeks, a possible thaw might have begun in the King-Duva feud. In another long-awaited matchup, King’s Mexican superstar, Julio Cesar Chavez, and the Duvas’ Meldrick Taylor were paired, after months of acrimonious negotiations, for a March 17 junior-welterweight unification title fight at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Also, King may have been nudged toward a Tyson-Holyfield bout by the World Boxing Assn., which ruled two weeks ago that Tyson, if he beats Ruddock, must defend his championship against Holyfield within 120 days or be stripped of his title.

A Tyson-Holyfield fight probably would be held in Atlantic City, N.J. Donald Trump, who owns the Trump Plaza Hotel, has first-refusal rights on the bout, obtained as part of his deal with King when he paid $11 million for the Tyson-Michael Spinks fight in June of 1988.