George Kimball America At LargeDon King claims he had added Andrew Golota to his April 17th show at Madison Square Garden in the interest of "diversity", but it was in truth a cynical stroke of marketing genius undertaken primarily because Osama Bin Laden was unavailable.
The world's heavyweights will be jostling for position next month in an effort to fill the yawning void cast by the abdication of Lennox Lewis, and King will be scrambling to maintain his traditional stranglehold on the division.
The self-proclaimed World's Greatest Promoter had already lined up one half of his New York heavyweight card by matching World Boxing Association champion John Ruiz against Fres Oquendo, whose shared Puerto Rican heritage would probably fill half the building.
As he cast about for inspiration on how to fill the other half last weekend, King said he received a "message from God". And what, exactly, did the Almighty whisper in Don's ear?
"Go forth," reported King, "and find Andrew Golota!"
The notorious Polish heavyweight wasn't hard to find, since King had inked him to a promotional contract just two weeks earlier, and at a Tuesday press conference in New York the promoter revealed that "The Foul Pole" would challenge for Chris Byrd's International Boxing Federation championship in the co-featured bout of the Ruiz-Oquendo card.
In his last Madison Square Garden appearance eight years ago, Golota's foul-plagued disqualification against Riddick Bowe touched off a riot that lasted half an hour and nearly resulted in the permanent banishment of the sport from the longtime "Mecca of Boxing".
On July 11th, 1996, Golota appeared to be handily winning his fight against Bowe, but so repeatedly aimed below-the-belt blows at the champion's protective cup that he was ultimately DQ'd by referee Wayne Kelly.
No sooner had the fight been stopped than members of Bowe's posse stormed the ring, and when one of them shattered a walkie-talkie over Golota's head he inflicted more damage than Bowe had been able to effect in seven rounds.
The mayhem in the ring quickly spread to the crowd, and chairs and bottles flew through the air as Bowe's fans battled Golota's Polish supporters. Seventeen people were arrested, while 14 spectators and eight police officers were injured. Golota's trainer at the time, septuagenarian Hall of Famer Lou Duva, collapsed with chest pains and had a ring stolen off his finger on his way to the hospital.
Golota's reaction to the DQ was to smack himself in the head with both gloves and proclaim "I stupid!", an assessment which has never been seriously challenged.
An investigation by the New York State Athletic Commission lay most of the blame for the melee on Bowe's entourage. Bowe's manager, Rock Newman, was suspended for a year, and two Bowe aides were permanently banned.
The commission also withdrew charges against Duva, ruling that "it became apparent he was forced to push aside referee Wayne Kelly in order to protect his boxer during the melee".
Only after considerable soul-searching did Madison Square Garden opt to resume its relationship with boxing, but the storied venue was forced to adopt new security procedures. And when Golota fought Bowe in an Atlantic City rematch that autumn, the second fight was a near-carbon copy of the first, with Golota being disqualified in the ninth round.
That Golota was tortured by inner demons became even clearer in his subsequent bouts. He suffered what his handlers described as "a panic attack" just before entering the ring against Lewis in 1997 and was promptly knocked out in the first round. Two years later, he was handily beating Michael Grant when he inexplicably quit in the 10th round, and in 2000 he was being battered by Mike Tyson when he once again quit. That TKO loss wound up on the books as "No Contest" when Tyson tested positive for marijuana after the fight, and on Tuesday King somewhat gleefully described the Foul Pole as "the white Mike Tyson".
The 36-year-old Golota was inactive for nearly three years after the Tyson debacle, but returned to the ring last year to register stoppages of two journeyman heavyweights, which apparently gave King enough ammunition to persuade his friends at the IBF to approve him as Byrd's opponent.
The two championship fights at the Garden will clarify one half of the heavyweight picture, but two other April title bouts are in the offing as well. On April 10th, in Las Vegas, Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko will fight Lamon Brewster for the World Boxing Organization title, a bout in which King also has a hand.
And on April 24th, Klitschko's somewhat more talented brother Vitaly will meet South African Corrie Sanders for the World Boxing Council belt surrendered by Lewis.
Byrd, who has beaten Vitaly Klitschko but lost to Wladimir, somewhat controversially outpointed Oquendo last September. Ruiz, handily beaten by Roy Jones Jr a year ago, got his title back by winning an "interim" championship when he beat Lewis' one-time conqueror Hasim Rahman in December, a designation which was upgraded to the genuine article when Jones resigned last month to resume his career as a light-heavyweight. Sanders knocked out Wladimir Klitschko for the WBO title last year, but gave up that belt to pursue more meaningful recognition.
Confused? Mark Taffet, the HBO vice-president whose company will handle the telecasts of all three April shows, neatly summarised it on Tuesday in New York.
"The heavyweight division," said Taffet, "is up for grabs."
