Latest Boxing Events Are No Knockouts

On Friday night in Las Vegas, Oscar De La Hoya defends his World Boxing Council welterweight championship against Julio Cesar Chavez in Las Vegas.

On Saturday morning, two-time former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is scheduled to go before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to ask for his license back.

And, Saturday night in Atlanta, World Boxing Assn., and International Boxing Federation champion Evander Holyfield defends his title against Vaughn Bean.

Big week in boxing?

Unfortunately, yes. Unfortunately for boxing fans, this is the best the sport has to offer right now. There’s a rematch of a mismatch, a rematch in search of a mismatch and a mismatch to replace a previous mismatch.

THE REMATCH

De La Hoya gets his rematch against Chavez, a pairing that proved to be a mismatch two years ago when Chavez, now 36, was already considered too old.

De La Hoya says it has to do with respect. He’s still fuming because Chavez used a cut as an excuse for his 1996 loss. De La Hoya wants to knock out Chavez and thus get his boyhood hero to finally admit that De La Hoya is a superior fighter.

There’s a danger in that, slight as it might be. If De La Hoya is so desperate for that knockout that he abandons all caution, he could dumbly walk into a lucky punch and find himself on the canvas.

The most likely scenario is that Chavez, his skills eroded but his toughness intact, will weather the 12 rounds, abandoning any slim chance of a victory in favor of survival. Then he can claim a moral victory and deny De La Hoya the respect he craves.

But then, this fight isn’t about respect anyway. It’s about revenue. Promoter Bob Arum was convinced that the many Chavez fans in the Hispanic community, refusing to accept that their man’s time has passed, would be willing to throw their financial support behind a rematch.

So far, Arum’s calculations appear to be correct. Early projections indicate that the fight will be a financial, if not an artistic, success.

THE REASSESSMENT

If a cooler head prevails, obviously meaning someone other than Tyson, his scheduled appearance Saturday will be postponed.

Or, at least, his expectations will be lowered.

Tyson appeared to do everything right in the 12 months after he bit Holyfield on both ears in their heavyweight title rematch, causing Tyson to be disqualified and to have his license revoked by the Nevada commission.

Tyson resisted offers to fight outside this country, honoring the sentence slapped on him in Nevada. He attempted to cut his legal ties to Don King, he rid himself of his controversial handlers and he even politely signed autographs at a public appearance.

But since he became eligible to reapply for his license in July, Tyson seems to have reverted to his old, unstable self.

First, he was going to apply in Nevada. Then he applied in New Jersey, but withdrew that application when it appeared he might not have the necessary votes.

Now he’s reapplying in Nevada with a new cloud over his head because of a recent traffic accident in Maryland which resulted, according to allegations, in Tyson again becoming violent.

If Tyson indeed follows through on his rematch with the Nevada commissioners with the hope of eventually getting a third fight with Holyfield, Tyson will find a much more hostile audience than he would have had a few months ago because of his end-run to New Jersey and because of the new charges of violence.

At the very least, he should ask only for his license to be returned in 1999, allowing the commissioners to say that they didn’t rubber-stamp his return after one year.

That would be the smart move. But when was the last time Tyson made a smart move?

THE MISMATCH

When Henry Akinwande was forced to withdraw from his scheduled heavyweight title fight against Holyfield last June because he had contracted hepatitis B, boxing was spared another embarrassing title mismatch.

But only temporarily.

Holyfield said he is only fighting the unqualified Bean, the IBF’s mandatory challenger, Saturday in order to keep his dream of unifying the heavyweight title alive.

The best way to do that, Evander, would be to fight Lennox Lewis, the man who has the other piece of the heavyweight puzzle, the WBC crown.

QUICK JAB

Super bantamweight Jesus Salud (57-9, 34 knockouts), the former WBA champion, faces David Vazquez (13-3-2, eight knockouts) in tonight’s 10-round main event at the Great Western Forum. Also on tonight’s card is a North American Boxing Organization welterweight title fight between Santos Cardona (36-7, 25 knockouts) and Willy Wise (23-4-4, seven knockouts). First fight is at 7:15.