Big Fight on Menu Still Has No Venue

Sources late Friday said negotiations for a Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson fight at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn., were dead. Those rumors were then denied by Pat English, a lawyer representing Lewis.

Hours earlier, those involved in the negotiations had been optimistic that a deal would be done this weekend.

But only the day before that, a possible financing bank had dropped out of the negotiations.

And on it goes.

At issue is a $12.5-million site fee, a hefty price for a 20,000-seat arena with the average ticket price to be set at $400.

There were many issues to be dealt with before Lewis would agree to defend his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles against Tyson. There was the matter of pay, resolved when each fighter was guaranteed a purse of $17.5 million. There was the matter of broadcast rights, resolved when cable networks HBO and Showtime--HBO tied to Lewis, Showtime to Tyson--agreed to a third neutral pay-per-view outlet for the match.

All that was left was the site. But that has proved to be the biggest obstacle of all.

It appeared earlier in the week that a Memphis deal was at hand, with financing arranged through a Tennessee bank.

But that deal collapsed when bank officials decided not to issue a letter of credit, citing “moral issues.” Tyson has served jail time on rape and assault convictions.

There have been a lot of false starts for a Lewis-Tyson fight since serious negotiations began. Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Hotel agreed to the site fee, contingent, naturally, on Tyson’s getting a boxing license in Nevada.

Promoters for both sides, confident, had a New York press conference in January to announce the fight.

Bad idea. As his handlers should know all too well, putting Tyson face to face with an opponent is like putting a pit bull face to face with a lamb chop.

Tyson initiated a brawl and, according to Lewis, bit him on the thigh. Tyson himself was cut.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission subsequently denied Tyson a license, citing not the brawl but his failure to make good on his promises to clean up his life after having bitten both of Evander Holyfield’s ears in their 1997 title match.

The hunt was on for a new spot, a search that stretched from Staples Center to the MCI Center in Washington to Detroit and Georgia.

It was assumed that, with the Las Vegas casino money out of play, the promoters would have to lower their expectations of a $12-13 million site fee and their hopes of a $100-million match.

Tyson was given a license in Washington, D.C., but the site fee wasn’t there.

The promoters stuck to their figure, however, and hope to get it from an investor group in Memphis this weekend.

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Pointing Fingers

Dan Goossen, formerly a Tyson promoter, blames Shelly Finkel, Tyson’s manager, for the problems of the former two-time heavyweight champion.

“Shelly made one bad decision after another,” Goossen said. “The shame is that Mike has allowed it. The way Shelly has handled Mike’s career, Mike might as well be fighting at Wal-Mart.

“If Shelly was a baseball manager who had started with the Dodgers, he’d be coaching in Pocatello by now.

“I actually think Mike was better off with [promoter] Don King. Why he puts up with Shelly Finkel, I have never, ever understood.”

When Goossen worked with Tyson, Goossen and Finkel constantly feuded over the course of the fighter’s career.

Finkel did not return a phone call seeking response to Goossen’s remarks.

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Boiling Point

Real or manufactured, the feuds between fighters are always tempered enough to keep them on the same stages to promote their matches even if sometimes barriers are needed to separate the fighters.

But the animosity between Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas, who will fight in a welterweight title match May 4 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center, has grown to the point where Vargas doesn’t even want to work with De La Hoya on the promotion.

The fight between the Southern California rivals was entitled “Bad Blood” even before they got into a shoving match at a Los Angeles news conference.

So Vargas will hold his own pep rally Sunday on Olvera Street in the Pueblo de L.A. Plaza beginning at 2 p.m. The public is invited.

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Quick Jab

Goossen, now operating Goossen Tutor Promotions, has a card April 7 at the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, to be shown on “Fox Sunday Night Fights.”

The main event features bantamweights Johnny Gonzalez (14-3, one knockout) and Ricardo Vargas (31-9-3, 11) in a rematch of their Feb. 8 fight, won on a decision by Vargas.