Holyfield-Lewis Fight Is Fit for a King

Saturday night, the final bell tolled for Michael Moorer.

Sunday morning, the opening bell tolled for Lennox Lewis.

With Lewis in one corner and Evander Holyfield in the other, promoter Don King in one corner and promoters Dino Duva and Panos Eliadas in the other, with HBO in one corner and Showtime in the other, the battle has begun to put together Holyfield-Lewis, the fight that would produce an undisputed heavyweight champion. Holyfield would bring to the table his World Boxing Assn. title and the International Boxing Federation championship he took from Moorer via an eighth-round TKO Saturday night. Lewis is the World Boxing Council champion.

Lewis’ handlers would like to complete negotiations within three weeks and stage the bout in March or April.

If not, they say they will probably strike a deal to fight former heavyweight champion Buster Douglas, whose claim to fame is pulling off the biggest upset in boxing history by handing Mike Tyson his first defeat.

The news that Lewis might take his crown elsewhere and fight Douglas elicited a big chortle from King, who will serve as Holyfield’s promoter.

“That’s what they should do, fight Douglas,” King said. “I made that mistake, too.”

Don’t plan on seeing that matchup on a marquee near you any time soon. The boxing world is not clamoring for a Lewis-Douglas matchup.

But then, the boxing world isn’t exactly clamoring for a Holyfield-Lewis fight either. Holyfield is obviously the bigger draw of the two and yet, despite his presence on Saturday night’s card, coming off wins over Tyson in two of the most memorable fights of the decade, only 13,200 people paid to watch the fight in the 18,000-seat Thomas & Maack Center. And the final pay-per-view numbers are not expected to be overwhelming.

Lewis is considered to be the only bona fide challenger for Holyfield at this point and Lewis brings with him the only credible heavyweight belt missing from Holyfield’s waist.

But, at least on this side of the Atlantic, that is hardly going to be enough to send the fans scrambling for their wallets to watch the English fighter in action.

For this bout to come about, two matters have to be resolved:

* The fighters may have to accept the kind of payday they would think unworthy of a unification bout.

Holyfield has made $64 million in his last two fights, including $20 million Saturday night.

Even though Duva has said his side would be willing to take the short end of a 60-40 split, Holyfield may fight for a purse below what he has become accustomed to.

“If one guy wants $40 million,” King said, “and the other guy wants $20 million, that’s $60 million. What if nobody comes to see the fight but me? I can do something better with my money than that.”

King will say anything to cut down on the amount of money he has to pull out of his pocket. But in this case, he may actually be telling the truth.

* A pay-per-view outlet must be chosen.

It would seem that choice would be HBO since Lewis has a contractual agreement with that network. Although Holyfield has fought on Showtime because of King’s connection with them, Holyfield is not legally bound to fight on that cable outlet again.

King, who has feuded with HBO after leaving there, says any talk of a pay-per-view deal is premature.

“I don’t think the TV will be a deal-breaker,” he said. “If Lennox Lewis has contractual obligations with HBO and can’t make the match, that’s Lennox Lewis’ problem. I’ve got Evander Holyfield. The marbles are on my side of the table. When you are powerless, you can’t play the game of the powerful.”

Despite all the talk expected to come from both sides, they know they are operating in a short time frame. Each of the sanctioning bodies will push for mandatory challenges next year, with the IBF coming up first in May. If any of those bodies was to strip the heavyweight title from Holyfield or Lewis, the angle of fighting for an undisputed championship would be lost.

And this fight needs all the angles it can get.

Look for it to happen by the spring. Because neither side will find anything better out there.