When Opposites Collide

It was early 1987, at a Reno hotel. At a pre-fight news conference for the Evander Holyfield-Henry Tillman fight, the fighters, trainers and promoters were trying to be serious.

But Riddick Bowe, slouched over three chairs in the audience, cracked wise.

His quips were at first quite funny. But he was young then, and didn’t know how to wrap up his act. Finally, someone said: “Riddick, shut up.”

And he did. But that great smile stayed--a smile so real and unaffected it drew you to him, and made you want to ask him what was so funny.

Riddick Bowe was a 19-year-old, 185-pounder then, a hotshot New York amateur who was one of Holyfield’s sparring partners. The Holyfield-Tillman match was for a piece of the cruiserweight (195 pounds) championship. Holyfield won.

That was more than five years ago. It would have been difficult to imagine then that the careers of two of the athletes in the room would collide in the fall of 1992 in what will be one of boxing’s richest bouts.

Holyfield, 30, and Bowe, 25, meet Friday night at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, in a bout to be available on pay-per-view. It’s one of those rarest of boxing attractions--two heavyweights, both undefeated, both in the prime of their years, meeting for the richest prize in sports, the heavyweight championship.

The card will also feature the WBC welterweight championship between James (Buddy) McGirt of Brentwood, N.Y., and challenger Genaro Leon of Mexico, and the USBA super-middleweight title bout between champion Tim Littles of Flint, Mich., and John Scully of Marlborough, Conn.

Holyfield (28-0), in his fourth defense of the championship, will earn roughly $18 million. Bowe (31-0) will make just over $7 million.

Their careers intersect at this junction for three reasons:

The King is in Irons.

Mike Tyson’s Indiana conviction and sentencing (six years) last spring for rape has taken him out of boxing, at least temporarily. An appeal is pending. Tyson was indicted two summers ago in Indianapolis after negotiations had been completed for a long-awaited, fight-of-the-decade showdown--Tyson vs. Holyfield. It was to have been Nov. 8, 1991. Were Tyson still around, there is no way to imagine Holyfield and Bowe divvying up $25 million.

Holyfield became a heavyweight.

When Evander Holyfield was on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, he was a light-heavyweight. He turned pro at light-heavy (175 pounds), then moved up to cruiser (195 pounds). At six feet, it was then hard to imagine him ever growing into a true heavyweight (some say he still hasn’t), much less a champion. But he did. His upper body began to take on that muscular, sculpted look you see in his shirtless magazine ads today.

Bowe became a heavyweight.

And how. At 6-5, Bowe can become one of history’s tallest heavyweight champions. And at the rate he’s going, he can make the top five in tonnage, too.

He weighed 245 pounds when he beat South African Pierre Coetzer last July and was more than 250 when he went to training camp in mid-October.

Bowe’s manager, Rock Newman, alarmed at Bowe’s weight, brought in comedian-nutrition activist Dick Gregory to supervise Bowe’s meal-preparation during training camp. Presumably, this means Holyfield--who always seems to weigh 210 to 212 for his fights--will counter by hiring George Foreman as his nutrition adviser.

The experts are making a big deal over the weight difference in this one. A major case for Bowe goes like this: The challenger is a true heavyweight, and a very good one. Holyfield, so it goes, is a puffed-up cruiserweight who will disappear the first time Bowe tags him.

Simple physics.

Or will simple courage carry the day for the champion?

The gym rats picking Holyfield sneer at the opponents Bowe has knocked over lately (Coetzer, Everett Martin, Conroy Nelson, Elijah Tillery and Phillip Brown). They question Bowe’s courage, since he hasn’t needed much to this point.

Holyfield, even his detractors concede, has fought with bravery against Foreman, Bert Cooper and Larry Holmes.

The present heavyweight champion is almost universally liked by everyone in boxing. If it is Bowe’s destiny to win, few will enjoy seeing Holyfield lose. He does not have a compelling personality, and seldom has much to say. It’s as if some dark secret is locked up behind that solemn, often sad, Mt. Rushmore-like face.

But he is a good and decent man. And every time, he’s fought the good fight.

But if Bowe becomes the champion--look out.

This guy can not only fight, he can talk. He’s one of the best interviews in sports. He can be hilariously funny, and he also does serviceable impressions of Ronald Reagan, Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Eddie Murphy.

He’d be, by a wide margin, the most compelling figure to rule the sport since Ali.

And like Ali, he’d bring that world class smile--in a sport that could use one.

The Holyfield-Bowe World Heavweight Championship airs Friday at 6 p.m. on pay-per-view. The suggested price is $35.95 through Thursday and $39.95 on Friday. Check with your local cable sy s tem for availability and price.