King Gets Off Canvas

The heavyweight crown may move from head to head, but there really is only one King in boxing.

Don King, striking in the dead of night, reestablished his dominion over the heavyweight division by getting the new champion, Hasim Rahman, to agree in principle--at 3 a.m. Friday--to a deal that could pay Rahman $70 million for four fights.

Rahman, who knocked out Lennox Lewis last month in their World Boxing Council-International Boxing Federation title bout in South Africa, already has accepted a $5-million signing bonus. He took that Friday morning, $500,000 in cash and a $4.5-million check.

If he signs the contract, Rahman is supposed to receive:

* A $5-million purse for fighting unranked heavyweight Brian Nielsen, a 36-year-old native of Denmark, on Aug. 4 in Beijing. Rahman-Nielsen would be the co-main event, sharing the billing with World Boxing Assn. champion John Ruiz’s defense against Evander Holyfield.

* A $15-million purse to fight the winner of Holyfield-Ruiz.

* A $20-million purse to fight Lewis again.

* A $30-million purse to fight Mike Tyson.

The contract is contingent on Rahman’s continuing to win, and on the WBC and IBF, both of whom have been sued since Rahman won their heavyweight titles, not stripping the new champion of his crowns, and thus much of his appeal.

It also is contingent on King’s delivering Lewis and Tyson. Tyson, who broke with King after claiming the promoter had stolen money from him, has vowed never to step into the ring with a King fighter.

And finally, the contract is contingent on the King-Rahman alliance surviving an anticipated wave of legal attacks.

Lewis filed suit Friday, claiming he is contractually guaranteed a rematch with Rahman within five months. Promoter Cedric Kushner, who believes he is still contractually tied to Rahman, is expected to sue in the next few days. And Shelly Finkel, Tyson’s manager, promises a lawsuit of his own.

Dan Goossen, Tyson’s promoter, says King might finally have gone too far.

“[Wrestling promoter] Vince McMahon is brilliant but he knew when to pack it in with the XFL,” Goossen said. “This is Don’s XFL. This signing could be the anchor around his ankle. Hasim Rahman’s value has been diminished everywhere but in Don King’s wallet.”

Said Gary Shaw, Lewis’ promoter: “Hasim Rahman wins the heavyweight title, he could fight Lewis or Tyson and he signs to fight Brian Nielsen? I don’t think so. The heavyweight champion doesn’t do that. What Hasim Rahman did is not very smart. You don’t turn on your promoter like he did on Cedric Kushner.”

Finkel advises, don’t buy your tickets for Rahman-Nielsen just yet.

“I don’t believe the fight will happen,” Finkel said. “Which network will be able to [legally] show it? Look, Don is a gutsy guy, and he did what he had to do, but there are a lot of problems with this. That contract is a joke. I could offer big numbers like that too, but it doesn’t mean anything. It will be very hard for Don to escape the litigation.

“I am shocked he would have done this.”

Rahman is maintaining he can break his contract with Kushner because he never signed an extension offer and because Kushner, who had promised Rahman a $75,000 payment before the Lewis fight, didn’t give him the money until after the fight.

Kushner, who refused comment Friday, should have seen this one coming. He is already in litigation with King over previous interference with Rahman in a case headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

When Rahman, largely unknown until now, even in his hometown of Baltimore, knocked out Lewis as a 20-1 underdog in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, the bidding for his next fight began even before Rahman returned to American soil.

HBO, contractually tied to Lewis, offered $11 million for a rematch. Showtime, tied to Tyson, increased the ante for a match against their fighter. By the middle of this week, Rahman, with Kushner in his corner, was looking at $16-17 million to fight either Lewis or Tyson.

Rahman seemed to be leaning toward HBO. Indeed, Kushner and HBO officials were at a boxing writers’ dinner in New York on Thursday night, expecting Rahman to join them and OK a deal. According to one source, an HBO official had a check with him for presentation to Rahman.

But Rahman didn’t show.

Instead, he was meeting with King, working on negotiations that secretly had begun earlier in the week.

Even beyond the legal questions, the business sense of King’s offer must be questioned. How much public appeal will there be for the China fights involving Rahman-Nielsen and Holyfield-Ruiz? Most boxing fans had never heard of three of those four--Holyfield being the obvious exception--until last year. King will have paid heavily to regain all three pieces of the heavyweight title.

And what of Lewis and Tyson now?

Should Rahman be allowed, legally, to go ahead with his King deal, and should he beat Nielsen in August, that would put him back in the ring against either Holyfield or Ruiz in November.

And that would rule out a Lewis or Tyson fight until next spring.

But how about Lewis-Tyson in the near future? Rather than wait around, why wouldn’t handlers for Lewis and Tyson put together a match that would have far more appeal than Rahman against any of King’s fighters.

“That,” Finkel said, “is certainly possible.”

As was shown again Friday, in boxing, contracts aside, anything is possible.