COMMENTARY : Tyson’s Fall Keeps Boxing Stumbling

With the world’s baddest heavyweight now in his second day of a six-year prison term in Indiana, the division will have to stumble along without him.

Key word: Stumble.

But Don King, Tyson’s promoter, isn’t stumbling today. He may be comatose.

King, like Tyson, showed no emotion when Judge Patricia J. Gifford sentenced his meal ticket to prison Thursday in the Marion County Courthouse. He simply got up from his seat and walked out.

But King’s is an empire on the edge of collapse. For nearly 20 years, the persuasive and always controversial promoter had exercised iron-fisted control over not only the richest prize in sports, boxing’s heavyweight championship, but the division as well.

He did it by controlling some or all of the championship fights of, first, Muhammad Ali and then George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks and King’s best prize of all, Tyson. King tied up the careers of promising young challengers with multifight contracts and matched them with champions primarily when it best suited King, not necessarily boxing.

And Tyson isn’t the only high-dollar performer unavailable to King. He is without a big-money fighter in the lighter weight classes as well. Julio Cesar Chavez, the junior-welterweight from Mexico thought by many to be the world’s best boxer-puncher, remains ensnarled in a legal battle between King and his Las Vegas rival, Bob Arum.

But even Chavez has never shown that he has been a hot ticket in the United States.

So King’s stable is barren of superstars. He has a piece of Razor Ruddock, beaten twice by Tyson, but there are no prospects now for a Ruddock match with the current heavyweight champion, Evander Holyfield, which brings us to boxing’s new ruling family.

Holyfield is controlled by the Duva family of New Jersey. Lou Duva is his trainer, and his son, Dan, is the champion’s promoter. Is this where boxing wants to be in the post-King era?

This is not an easy call.

Holyfield has yet to show he wants to be a fighting champion, willing to meet anyone. Tyson did, and dominated the division as did few in the history of the sport. He fought the best and beat them all. Well, all except one.

Holyfield is, so far, a champion in title only.

Since knocking out Buster Douglas--who had knocked out Tyson in Tokyo in 1990--and winning the championship, Holyfield was:

--seriously tested by 42-year-old George Foreman, who was so fat that some doctors feared he might keel over in the ring of a heart attack.

--almost knocked out in his hometown, Atlanta, by a man of marginal talent, Bert Cooper.

Recently, Holyfield signed to fight 41-year-old Larry Holmes.

Holyfield could have chosen to fight either Ruddock or Riddick Bowe, the class of the young heavyweights. Too risky, the Duvas advised him.

Instead, Holyfield will fight the softest-looking guy out there who can generate maximum pay-per-view television dollars, Holmes.

It’s strictly a business decision, says Dan Duva. Holmes now for $15 million, Bowe or Ruddock later for $20 million.

And Foreman? He’s still in there, preparing for another fat payday next month against Alex Stewart. Foreman could very well wind up fighting Holyfield in a rematch.

Why are these old guys still on the Las Vegas marquees? Why can’t we see more of Bowe, Ruddock, Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer? The answer is partly that nostalgia sells, and also because promoters have learned that old guy-vs.-young guy promotions work.

The too-many-to-count “governing bodies,” the self-appointed groups that purport to govern boxing, keep the ball rolling by boosting the likes of Foreman and Holmes in their ratings, lending credence to their promotions.

Yet, the matching of Holyfield and Holmes must have embarrassed even them. None of them have Holmes rated higher than fourth, and one of them doesn’t rate him among the world’s the top 10 heavyweights.

Boxing followers almost had the match they’d waited years for, a Tyson-Holyfield fight. It was scheduled for last Nov. 8, well before the start of Tyson’s trial, but the former champion suffered an injured rib in training and the fight was canceled.

Given Tyson’s prison sentence and what has seemed like a flawed Holyfield in recent bouts, it isn’t likely that fight ever will happen. It doesn’t seem possible that Holyfield could hang on as champion until Tyson is eligible for parole in three years. And even if Holyfield does, there is no guarantee that Tyson will be in any shape to fight when he gets out.

In a heavyweight division without Tyson, it’s hard to see any megafights down the road. If you want a good, intriguing heavyweight match and you don’t care if a title is at stake, then Bowe-Ruddock, a bout in negotiation, is an interesting 10-rounder.

They might even call it for the real heavyweight championship and not get much argument.