Holyfield Might Make Tyson Earn His Next Paycheck

And for his next mega-million-dollar trick, Mike Tyson will fight somebody who actually might fight back.

This is the riveting news from Blow-out Central, where the latest shellacking featured Tyson scoring a knockout victory over Bruce Seldon, practically from the moment Seldon shuffled into the arena looking as if he had seen his own ghost.

Pay your $39.95 pay-per-view bill, watch a heavyweight humiliate himself.

Sunday, battle-tested and battle-worn Evander Holyfield calmly spoke of rising above fear and surviving ring battles, and the promoters talked about fate and history and courage.

But the real, unspoken theme of the kickoff media conference for the Nov. 9 Tyson-Holyfield bout was this: No matter how long it lasts, no matter who wins, after it is over, nobody will be demanding refunds, apologies or the end of the sport as we know it.

Maybe.

“Everybody has character checks,” Holyfield said Sunday, when asked what he thought of Seldon’s weak performance the night before. “I’m sure at some point in everybody’s life, they got into the ring and they were afraid. You just have to get through it. I got through it. The only difference in a winner is getting through that fear.”

Tyson did not even try to scare Seldon, who lost his World Boxing Assn. title. It just happened.

But as a measure of how different a challenge even an aging Holyfield presents, Tyson turned up his intimidation level as high as it could go in Saturday night’s post-fight media conference, sending a look of unlimited disgust at Holyfield throughout the brief joint appearance.

Observers say Tyson’s antipathy runs back to the two fighters’ amateur days in the early 1980s, then kept rising through all the times their matchup was scheduled then postponed in the early 1990s.

“Tyson, he feels the way to get to a person is to let a person know he wants them bad,” Holyfield said.

“He had a tough life, I had a tough life. It doesn’t make me a weaker person because I haven’t been through some things. I want to win as bad as he does.”

Emanuel Steward, Holyfield’s trainer for a brief period a few years ago, said that though Holyfield has shown serious signs of wear and tear, he still cannot be written off, even against a Tyson who looks almost as devastating now as he did in his prime.

At the MGM Grand, Holyfield opened as a 21-1 underdog. Tyson reportedly will earn about $30 million for the bout, Holyfield about $10 million.

“Because of Evander’s heart and determination, I think he has a shot,” Steward said. “Even from that press conference up there you could see there’s a lot of emotion brewing in that fight, which hasn’t been in Tyson’s career in a long time.”

The last barrier for the bout is Holyfield’s health. He went through a rigorous battery of tests at the Mayo Clinic, and the results will be examined by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

“I’m healthy, and I’m doing well,” Holyfield said. “Officially, my health will be good when I win Nov. 9.”

Also on the card: International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Michael Moorer against former champion Frans Botha, who was stripped of the title after testing positive for steroids.

The winner of Tyson-Holyfield is scheduled to meet the winner of Moorer-Botha.