The career of Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion of the world, was again plunged into ruinous ignominy after an extraordinary fight at the press conference to announce his coming fight with Lennox Lewis.
The British title-holder and Tyson had come to the Millennium Hotel off Broadway to publicise their bout, which was scheduled for March 6th in the MGM Garden Arena, Las Vegas. In the event, they held it right there and then.
As the lights dimmed in the Hudson Theatre, Tyson trembled on his podium for all of five seconds before lunging at Lewis. At the end of the unprecedented, 10-minute, 35-person brawl that followed, Lewis was left with a bitten foot, his suit was ripped, Tyson's forehead was gashed, Jose Sulaiman, the president of the World Boxing Council, was nursing an injured neck, and the future of the most frequently disgraced man in boxing once again hung in the balance.
If it goes ahead, the official, refereed confrontation between Lewis and Tyson will be a historic event: the first time the two pay-per-view channels to whom the stars are contracted, HBO and Showtime, will have managed to broker a deal allowing the two to fight. But that historic event was in doubt last night when Kathy Duva, the CEO of Main Event, which is staging the show, said that she now doubted that it would happen.
If it does, and notoriety is rarely a deterrent to fight promoters, the organisers will encounter little difficulty selling tickets. Neither will they have to convince the public that either man is serious. The looks on the faces of the two fighters' entourages dispelled any suggestion that yesterday's brawl was an act of stage-managed promotion.
It had started when Tyson approached Lewis, who was standing barely 10 feet away, threw off his leather beret and went for his opponent. Lewis appeared shocked and initially backed away before becoming consumed in the contest.
The barnstorming backing music for the conference quickly ran out, leaving the stage a mass of limbs, most clad in suits. Even at close quarters it was hard to tell which fist belonged to whom, but Tyson's left hook and Lewis's right-hand return were clear to all, though neither man made contact.
As the chaos spread, Tyson launched a fist at his own manager, Shelly Finkel, though it was not clear if he hit him. Sulaiman, the WBC president, was knocked to the floor.
Tyson, dressed entirely in black, was eventually restrained by his minders, but he made it to the front of the stage in time to address a journalist who had yelled, "Somebody put him in a straitjacket!"
"You're scared of a real man," Tyson replied, launching into a minute-long tirade that involved much crotch-grabbing and in-depth analyses of the sexual orientation of male boxing writers. Then he grabbed one of his minders round the throat as he desperately tried to break free to continue his fight.
"He bit my foot," Lewis told reporters afterwards, removing his shoe and sock to examine the damage.
Representatives of the promoters began packing up the microphones and trestle tables as a spokeswoman for the venue announced that the conference was cancelled. Tyson left the building, and Lewis said he would talk to the press later in the day. But he never did, communicating instead through a statement read by his business agent, Adrian Ogun.
"As a result of today's event, I will evaluate my options after the relative boxing commissions have ruled," he said.
The Nevada Athletic Commission is due to decide on Tuesday whether Tyson is mentally fit to fight in Las Vegas. It seems a distinct possibility that Nevada could now withhold Tyson's licence, an action they have already indicated will be inevitable if Tyson faces charges as a result of a four-month investigation by Las Vegas police into allegations that he sexually assaulted a lap dancer.
Guardian Service
