Despite It All, When Tyson Fights, Fans Pay to See Him

Mike Tyson has no class.

He has a questionable hold on sanity.

He has deteriorating boxing skills.

So how does he keep getting big paydays?

The man has power. Punching power and drawing power.

Like him or not--and who likes him these days?--Tyson remains one of the world’s most marketable athletes, capable of drawing the kind of attention and dollars Tiger Woods does for opposite reasons.

Tyson’s fight last Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland, against little-known Lou Savarese was held on a rainy night in a cold, damp stadium against a stiff masquerading as an opponent. It was questionable all week whether Tyson would even show up, because of the shooting death of his close friend, Darryl Baum, in Brooklyn, and because of an alleged attack by Tyson on his British promoter, Frank Warren. Also because there are always questions when Tyson is involved.

Yet a crowd of 20,000 still paid its way into Hampden Park.

Compare that to Staples Center where, two weeks ago, a quality match between two world-class fighters from Southern California--Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley--drew 13,892 who paid full price, and 1,751 others coming in on discounted tickets. Even counting luxury suites, for which there is no accounting, fewer than 20,000 seats were sold.

Lennox Lewis, who owns two-thirds of the heavyweight title and is universally considered the true heavyweight champion, is having trouble selling tickets for his July 15 title defense against Francois Botha in London, Lewis’ hometown.

If Lewis were facing Tyson, the only problem would be finding tickets.

To fight Savarese, barely a credible opponent, Tyson got a purse of $8 million. That equals the purse earned by De La Hoya against Mosley in one of De La Hoya’s biggest fights, and is considerably more than the $4.5 million earned by Mosley.

Tyson’s last pay-per-view bout, against Botha last year, pulled in around 600,000 buys, better than Lewis-Michael Grant a few months ago for two-thirds of the heavyweight title. Lewis’ fight against Botha hasn’t even been deemed worthy of pay-per-view.

Tyson’s last three fights, all on Showtime, are among that cable network’s highest-rated programs, said its boxing mastermind, Jay Larkin. And two of those fights, against Julius Francis in England in late January and Savarese, were tape-delayed, aired hours after viewers could have learned the results.

With Woods, arguably the most popular athlete in the world, you get charisma, explosive power on the golf course and the expectation of athletic excellence.

With Tyson, unquestionably the most unpopular, you get ugliness, explosive power in the ring and the expectation of the unexpected.

In the days when he was embroiled in controversy, Muhammad Ali used to say that at least half the people who paid to see him fight did so with the hope of seeing him lose.

But they paid.

So it is with Tyson.

Yes, Tyson rants, Tyson raves. Tyson routinely breaks boxing rules. He yells about eating the children of an opponent

But Tyson sells. And that is still the bottom line.

AND NEXT . . .

Who to fight and where to fight?

Those are serious questions for Tyson’s handlers. The former heavyweight champion says he is not yet ready to take a third shot at the title by fighting Lewis, who is committed to the Botha fight and is then expected to face David Tua in November.

Tyson’s options are to continue fighting tomato cans without risk until he jumps up to fight Lewis, perhaps next spring. Or to find out if he has progressed by moving up in quality to face Andrew Golota, who has shown glimpses of world-class talent in a career that could rival Tyson’s in terms of erratic behavior. A third option would be to fight Evander Holyfield a third time after having lost the first two.

* Golota. Whom would you root for in that one?

Tyson’s immediate concern is finding a site. The British Board of Boxing Control is investigating his behavior in the Savarese fight, behavior that could ban him from the United Kingdom.

Officials of the Nevada State Athletic Commission have said that Tyson would have to undergo scrutiny in a hearing if he requests a new license in that state. He would probably have to undergo similar scrutiny in New Jersey or New York.

And any time Tyson sits down in a public hearing, there’s no telling what he’ll say or do to further damage his case.

One possibility is for Tyson-Golota to be held in Golota’s native Poland. Larkin, whose network has Tyson under contract, says that one preliminary discussion on Tyson-Golota was held in Scotland but nothing more.

Said one source close to Tyson, “I challenge anyone to take a Tyson-Golota fight. No one in their sane mind would do that. If you roll the dice, you may come up with craps. Will Golota show up? Will Tyson show up? Will Golota use dirty tactics? Will Tyson use dirty tactics? Will Golota cry? Who the hell knows what will happen?”

Sounds pretty attractive.

* Holyfield. Should he beat John Ruiz in their fight for the World Boxing Assn. heavyweight title Aug. 12 in Las Vegas, Tyson-Holyfield III would be a huge moneymaker.

But Holyfield is promoted by Don King, who is still embroiled in litigation with Tyson. Getting Tyson to do business with King could be tough.

* Lewis. He said he would give up his belt and a Tua fight to take on Tyson. And Tyson has been offered $23.6 million for the fight.

But there’s a big problem. Lewis is contractually tied to HBO; Tyson has a contract with rival Showtime.

Larkin, who has stepped aside to allow Holyfield to fight Lewis twice on TVKO, the pay-per-view arm of HBO, and did the same to allow Felix Trinidad to come over to TVKO for his match against De La Hoya last September, insists he won’t budge this time.

“Hell will freeze over before HBO will allow Lewis to fight on Showtime,” Larkin said, “and pork chops will grow on palm trees in Tel Aviv before we will let Tyson fight on HBO.”

Maybe so. But be assured, wherever and whenever, Tyson, outrageous and out of control though he may be, will continue to fight.