Final Four Has All Heavyweights and No Spoiler

Harley-Davidson enthusiast Mike Tyson is motorcycling through the streets of L.A., Las Vegas and New York these days, leaving the heavyweight division as competitive and uncluttered as it has ever been.

Lost without Tyson?

Not with Tyson-trouncer Evander Holyfield determined to gather all of the championship belts and avoid no one.

Not with Lennox Lewis risking his title against Andrew Golota on Oct. 4 in Atlantic City, N.J., a talented fighter seeking to add luster to a spotty career.

Not with Don King involved only in the margins, and unable to play hide-and-seek with the title.

As long as King had a competitive Tyson, the master promoter’s machinations and Machiavellian moves came with the territory, and everybody wanted a piece of that action.

But with Tyson’s license under revocation by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for at least a year--and with no apparent plans for Tyson to circumvent the ban by fighting internationally--suddenly, boxing has what amounts to a final four:

* World Boxing Council champion Lewis vs. Golota, who earned his spot by whomping on Riddick Bowe in two fights, only to be disqualified twice for repeated low blows.

* World Boxing Assn. title-holder Holyfield vs. International Boxing Federation champion Michael Moorer on Nov. 8 in Las Vegas.

Will the winners then fight in April for a title that hasn’t been unified since 1992?

“The thing that’s great about Tyson being out of the picture for the boxing business is that Don King can’t control Evander Holyfield like he controlled Mike Tyson,” said Dino Duva, whose company represents Lewis, Moorer, Golota and has promoted Holyfield.

Though Holyfield is fighting Moorer under the King banner--and has signed for at least one more fight with King--it’s clear that Holyfield views King solely as a marketer, not a business partner. And anybody who knows Holyfield knows he won’t put up with anybody’s shenanigans, as Tyson did so often, or be comforted solely by his huge paydays--Tyson again--while ducking tricky contenders.

“Evander’s his own man,” Duva said. “Evander Holyfield’s very clear that, if he beats Michael Moorer, he wants to unify. The great thing about all four fighters in these heavyweight title fights is that they want to unify the titles.”

Tyson’s absence has given the sport a breather from everything that was overheated and over-complicated about the heavyweight division:

He was signed exclusively to Showtime and Don King, Lewis and Bowe were signed to Time Warner. He semi-legitimized such “opponents” as Bruce Seldon and Frank Bruno. And he could earn millions by fighting anybody with two arms and two ears.

“A year off for Mike Tyson? I don’t really call that a suspension, I call that a holiday,” Lewis snickered. “But, yeah, it has opened the door a little. I think people realize there’s other boxers out there that need to have attention, such as myself.”

BUT WHAT ABOUT MIKE?

Oh, he’s not forgotten. Tyson is expected to reapply for his Nevada license, probably in time for a bout in November 1998, possibly in connection with the Mirage in Las Vegas or with Donald Trump in Atlantic City, N.J.

“Look, Don King is about making big fights,” Duva said. “Who knows, down the road, maybe the unified champion will fight Tyson.”

QUICK JABS

Golota’s camp was not amused by Lewis manager-provocateur Frank Maloney’s charges that Golota has used steroids and his demand that both fighters submit to steroid tests before the bout. “The same accusation was made in the [second] Bowe fight,” said Golota’s trainer, Roger Bloodworth. “We took a test, there were no steroids.”

Neither the New Jersey State Athletic Commission nor the WBC has made any move to mandate the test.

Said Lewis: “The only comment I can make on that is that whatever vitamins he’s taking are giving him some kind of chemical imbalance that causes him to lose his mind in the ring. I don’t think that’ll help him anyway--I don’t think that’ll get his chin any stronger.”

Former World Boxing Organization junior-welterweight champion Carlos (Bolillo) Gonzalez has pulled out of tonight’s anticipated match-up against Hector Quiroz at Caesars Lake Tahoe on Channel 9, and has been replaced by Jamie Ocegueda. A victory over Gonzalez could have put a struggling Quiroz back on track and in line to fight for a major title. . . . Featherweight contender Juan Manuel Marquez, hoping to extend a 21-fight winning streak, is also on the Forum Boxing-promoted card. . . . Monday night, the Forum kicks off the Mitsubishi Motors Welterweight Challenge, with the winner getting a new car. The eight participants have a combined 108-11-4 record, with 90 knockouts.

It took almost $30 million more of Kirk Kerkorian’s money, but the MGM Grand is finally contractually free of Tyson and King. Kerkorian, who controls the hotel-casino, bought out the shares of MGM stock transferred to King as part of the six-fight deal with Tyson. MGM sources always have maintained that the hotel-casino made money on the Tyson deal, but Kerkorian got out of it with one fight left to avoid further embarrassment in the wake of the ear-biting incident and ensuing mini-riot that forced an unprecedented shutdown of the casino for more than an hour.

On Thursday in New York, Roy Jones Jr. got some closure, but not a gold medal. He was given special recognition by the International Olympic Committee--an Olympic Order and a silver bracelet--by IOC Vice President Anita DeFrantz. In a gold-medal decision widely considered a hometown call, Jones was judged to have lost the middleweight final to South Korea’s Park Si Hun at Seoul in 1988.

CALENDAR

Monday--Ricky Hesia vs. Edgar Ruiz, welterweights; Alfred Ankamah vs. Oscar Gonzalez, welterweights; Forum, 7:30 p.m.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INFOSTAT

The first 15 years of Forum boxing:

* First fight: Aug. 31, 1982, Gonzalo Montellano vs. Frankie Moultrie.

* Total shows/total fights: 297/1,808.

* Total KOs or TKOs: 865.

* World championship fights: 69.

* Some who have appeared on Forum cards: Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Hector Lopez, Thomas Hearns, Terry Norris, Michael Carbajal, Genaro Hernandez, Jorge Paez, Yory Boy Campas, Virgil Hill, Gabe Ruelas, Rafael Ruelas, Tim Witherspoon.