BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Tyson-Holyfield Belongs in Class of Classics

At last, it’s finally on the calendar. On Nov. 8, Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson. It’s the kind of matchup boxing followers are treated to perhaps once in a decade: Two dominant heavyweights, both in their prime, both of whom fiercely want to be, in addition to rich, the best of their time.

At least on paper, Holyfield-Tyson is the fight of the 1990s, a worthy descendant of the best-remembered fights of recent decades: Joe Louis-Billy Conn (1941 and ‘46), Rocky Marciano-Jersey Joe Walcott (1952), Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson II (1960), Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I (1971), Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney (1982) and Tyson-Michael Spinks (1988).

Not all of those matches turned out to be great fights, most notably Louis-Conn II and Tyson-Spinks, but they all carried a special intensity.

For the 1946 Louis-Conn rematch, promoter Mike Jacobs asked for and got boxing’s first $100 ringside seat. The first $1,500 ticket was for Tyson-Spinks. No word yet on Holyfield-Tyson tickets.

Marciano-Walcott had perhaps the most dramatic heavyweight championship finish, a 13th-round, one-punch knockout by an underdog challenger who was trailing on points, Marciano.

The first Patterson-Johnansson matchup wasn’t expected to be much of a fight, but the Swede stunned boxing by knocking out Patterson, setting up a widely anticipated rematch, won by Patterson.

The first Ali-Frazier fight generated near-hysteria in New York. After the weigh-in on the morning of the fight, police advised Ali to remain inside Madison Square Garden all day--which he did--instead of dealing with the mammoth crowd gathering hourly outside the Garden.

Holmes-Cooney was an intriguing matchup by itself, but because promoter Don King and some of Cooney’s people promoted it largely along racial lines, it grew beyond a mere fist fight. For Holmes-Cooney, there were only 1.5 million addressable cable households in the United States, yet it generated $10 million in pay-per-view receipts.

Nine years later, it remains ninth on the all-time pay-per-view boxing leaders list.

The champion, according to the Pay TV Newsletter, is Holyfield-Foreman last April 19, which earned $48.9 million in pay per view. Holyfield-Foreman cost home viewers an average $35.95, and 1.36 million households bought the telecast.

Holyfield-Tyson is expected to cost the home viewer $40 (some systems charged $60 for Tyson-Spinks). If it’s bought by, say, 1.5 million households (out of a possible 19 million), that comes to $60 million. If it’s bought by 2 million households, a promotional home run, that’s $80 million.

Throw in a projected live gate of $12 million, foreign and delayed telecast rights of about $10 million and there is boxing’s first $100-million fight.

Now, who wins?

We asked Angelo Dundee, the Miami trainer who has handled, among others, Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. Dundee is also the only person who predicted that Buster Douglas would knock out Tyson.

He also predicted that Razor Ruddock would beat Tyson last month, but no one can pick ‘em all.

According to Dundee, the winner will be the one who is the most relaxed.

How’s that again?

“The winner will be the guy who’s most relaxed, at ease with himself mentally,” Dundee said.

“Right now, I like Tyson in this fight, but November is a long way away. A lot can happen. We need answers to a lot of questions. Will Tyson be in the best shape of his life? What’s going to be on Holyfield’s mind that night?

“Remember this about Holyfield: he has two good legs. When Tyson fought Spinks, Spinks had two bad legs and a bad elbow.

“And remember also, Holyfield has had trouble with shorter guys. Look at his fights with (Dwight) Qawi and (Carlos) DeLeon. . . . Ordinary guys, right? But Holyfield couldn’t do much with them guys.

“Now, with bigger heavyweights, Holyfield doesn’t seem to be having as much trouble.

“Now, Tyson, here’s a kid who’s still in transition from his days with Cus (D’Amato, his late guardian and trainer) and Kevin Rooney (his post-D’Amato trainer). Now he’s around new people, and maybe he’s still changing as a person. These are all factors in a big fight.

“Tyson is a bright kid. He’s an expert on the history of this game. But on the other hand, he can’t deal with the outside world--the TV guys, the newspaper guys, the radio guys. And hey, that could be a problem for him in this fight.

“Just imagine all the media guys at Holyfield-Tyson, the biggest in history. . . . If you’re training Tyson, you don’t want him being distracted by anything. . . . You want him mentally prepared to fight, comfortable with everything.”

One thing is for sure: The boxing staff at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace is definitely comfortable with everything. Boxing’s biggest fight has been reeled in.

“Our phones are literally ringing off the hook, and we don’t even have tickets to sell yet,” said Rich Rose, vice president for sports for Caesars World, parent company of Caesars Palace.

Holyfield-Tyson will be in the same 15,300-seat outdoor stadium where all of the major Caesars fights since Holmes-Cooney have been staged. A special 32,000-seat arena was put up for Holmes-Cooney, but its construction and takedown costs proved prohibitive.

“We’re extremely excited,” Rose said. “To us, it’s the biggest heavyweight fight since Ali-Frazier I--certainly the most anticipated anyway, more so than Tyson-Spinks.”

After signing off on the Nov. 8 fight with Holyfield, King, Tyson’s promoter, went on TV and implied that he had made the fight at great financial sacrifice for his fighter because: “Mike has made a lot of money from the public, and Mike wants to give something back to the public.”

Nonsense.

King made the fight because he was hearing footsteps.

If Holyfield had signed to fight George Foreman again, Tyson probably would have left King in favor of Harold Smith, the Los Angeles adviser to light-heavyweight champion Thomas Hearns. In the late 1970s, Smith was a flamboyant boxing promoter who later served 5 1/2 years in federal prison for bank embezzlement.

The day after Tyson defeated Ruddock again on June 28, Tyson spent two days in Los Angeles with Smith. Tyson reportedly asked numerous questions about boxing and pay-per-view economics.

It’s believed that Tyson then told King, who has no legal standing with him, that if he didn’t produce a Holyfield fight, Tyson would walk.

King produced and remains in the Tyson business. But should Tyson lose to Holyfield, King would have to go to Dan Duva, hat in hand, to ask for a rematch.

King has built his 20-year reputation by acquiring options to future fights from all challengers to his champions, from Ali to Tyson. For 20 years, in other words, King was a winner no matter who won the fights he promoted.

But this time, he could be a loser.

The official numbers on the Forum’s June 3 venture into big-time pay-per-view boxing, Virgil Hill vs. Hearns, show that Jerry Buss lost about $750,000.

Purses for the two fighters came to $4.8 million, of which $3.5 million went to Hearns. Pay-per-view gross receipts totaled a little more than $4 million, according to the Pay TV Newsletter. The fight was purchased by 136,000 households, a buy rate of 0.8%.

Boxing Notes

The Forum has a decent heavyweight match scheduled for July 22: Bonecrusher Smith vs. Kummuel Odum. Key word: scheduled . Smith is 36. If you are older than 35, you don’t box in California without approval of the California Athletic Commission. Smith must appeal for an exemption in person before the commission next Friday in Sacramento. And speaking of over-the-hill boxers, one-time featherweight champion Danny Lopez, a commission source reported, can forget his comeback. A commission staffer watched a Lopez sparring session and said he looked “pathetic.” Lopez, 39, retired 10 years ago.

Brothers Rafael Ruelas and Gabriel Ruelas will fight Alvaro Bohorquez and Aaron Lopez on a July 30 USA cable show from the Reseda Country Club. . . . Don Muse, matchmaker for the group promoting fights at Bren Center at UC Irvine, reported that he nearly made a fight for Donny LaLonde in Irvine but that LaLonde backed out at the last minute. . . . The sites of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team boxing trials tournament and boxoff will be announced Tuesday during the Olympic Festival. Seattle, Concord, Calif., and Worcester, Mass., are said to be top contenders for the trials tournament, Phoenix and Las Vegas for the boxoff.

Assistant chief inspector Dale Ashley of the California Athletic Commission will be awarded a commendation Aug. 5 for arresting two alleged car thieves in Huntington Park last month. Ashley, on his way to investigate an illegal boxing exhibition in that city, was passed by a car traveling at high speed. Ashley pursued the car until it crashed into a parked truck. The occupants, both injured, crawled out of the windows of the wrecked car and ran down an alley. Ashely, 50, who weighs 240, pursued them on foot, tackled them and placed them under citizen’s arrest. Later, police said the two had stolen the car, pointing a gun at a policeman in the process. Ashley will receive his commendation from the president of the Huntington Park City Council and the city’s police chief.

ABC boxing commentator Alex Wallau, on Mike Tyson’s showing against Razor Ruddock: “Ruddock will always be to Mike Tyson what Kenny Norton was to Muhammad Ali. Norton was never a great heavyweight, but he fought Ali three times, and Ali never looked good against him. All in all, I think Tyson has bounced back very well since the knockout by (Buster) Douglas. I think he’s every bit as good a fighter as he was against (Michael) Spinks and (Larry) Holmes.”