Here’s One Man in Favor of a Tyson-Lewis Fight

Put the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson fight right here in Washington, right now.

I can’t believe there are so many moralists running amok, or that there’s even this much debate. If the District of Columbia can’t put on this fight, it might as well stop bidding on the 2012 Summer Olympics right now.

This isn’t a referendum on Tyson; he’s been a disgrace often. Most people agree on that, or at the very least acknowledge his presence anywhere raises legitimate issues, but we’ll return to Tyson later.

This is about Washington’s ability to stage an international event that will generate between $6 million and $10 million for the town’s economy. It’s about putting people to work who in many cases haven’t worked since last September. It’s about showcasing Washington as a place good for something other than being home to congressional hot air and an embarrassing murder rate. It’s about stimulating the local economy by attracting other major events that could put people to work for longer than two weeks.

Maybe the lawyers and journalists and politicians who comprise Official Washington haven’t noticed, maybe their worlds haven’t been particularly upset since Sept. 11, but let’s not kid ourselves; the local economy is in trouble. We’re not a blue-collar town; D.C. needs tourism for its service industry. The people who drive limousines and work in the catering business and work at the hotels need a boost.

A Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson fight can’t solve those problems, but it can jump-start the process. The D.C. Board of Trade ought to be ashamed to have come out against the fight. Maybe some of its members don’t understand the economics of boxing sufficiently to realize an event this large is more than one night of prize fighting in one arena; it’s days of international visitors, of eating and drinking and shopping and riding around. People who come to fights spend huge amounts of money, and if they can’t spend it in a Las Vegas casino, they’re going to spend it somewhere. That’s mandatory in the culture of the fight game. How foolish would we feel to see folks spending that dough elsewhere, like Detroit?

Before going any further, let me declare my personal friendship with Michael Brown of the D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission. This bashing of Brown is wrong. If he hadn’t tried to attract the fight, then who would have? He declined to take commission fees when he joined the commission and isn’t getting paid a cent for trying to bring the fight here. By doing so, he attempts to promote D.C. He’s not going to promote the fight.

If we’re really lucky, staging Lewis-Tyson will beget other huge events, which is important for several reasons. Presuming the city asks Abe Pollin to host the fight at MCI Center, it would continue to make the arena an economic stimulus downtown, which in case you haven’t noticed still isn’t Broadway in New York or Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I’ve had disagreements with Pollin over the years on various issues, but never on his willingness to stick out his neck for the city of Washington. Whether it’s going after an event like the NBA All-Star game (which some folks feared would start World War III), building an arena or sending poor kids to college, Pollin has always done right by D.C.

And Mayor Anthony Williams needs to go to Pollin and guarantee security for Pollin’s building, the one Pollin financed out of his own pocket, then work with pay-per-view television backers’ money and all the resources available to secure the arena and the streets around it. Let’s not be naive; the gangsta nation that often follows Tyson’s fights can’t be allowed to disrupt this town.

Is this a huge challenge? Yes. But it’s nothing compared with putting on the Olympics. And in talking to Olympic insiders over the last week, it’s clear that they feel D.C., if it’s going to be a serious player in trying to secure the bid for the 2012 Summer Games, has to start proving it can stage and secure a series of complex events of international consequence.

As one person with intimate knowledge of IOC interests explained, “The city is going to have to try and attract auto races, bigger NCAA basketball events, more international soccer events, figure skating and gymnastics events. D.C. has to be more creative, in the wake of 9/11, in trying to attract event business. Are the critics of this fight aware of this?”

Either they’re not aware, or so obsessed with Tyson’s part of this equation that they’re ready to let him hold the city hostage. Let’s face it, the objections to this fight are about Tyson. And I’m not going to spend one sentence defending anything he’s done the last 10 years. The D.C. Boxing Commission and whoever promotes the fight has to have one simple conversation with Tyson: If you do anything outside of the rules of boxing, you will forfeit your purse and we’re putting that in the contract.

And you know why Tyson will say yes to that?

Because he needs the payday. The District of Columbia and many of its residents need the payday. It’s time to stop cowering and put on the fight. It’s just a fight. An event we can handle.