Holyfield Faces One More Obstacle : If He Beats Brazilian, a Tyson Matchup Should Be Next
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STATELINE, Nev. — Only a glance at the heavyweight rankings is needed to show that there’s just one heavyweight fight that will appreciably raise the pulse rate of the boxing public.
It’s Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield.
And this is the week Tyson-Holyfield should start coming together.
Tonight, in the great outdoors at Lake Tahoe, Holyfield is expected to clear what his promoter says is “the final hurdle” before Tyson, Adilson Rodrigues of Brazil.
And Friday night, in Atlantic City, N.J., Tyson is expected to beat Carl (the Truth) Williams.
“If Evander looks good against Rodrigues Saturday, I’ll get together with Don (King) over the next couple of weeks, and start working on it (Tyson-Holyfield),” said Shelly Finkel, the New York rock music/boxing promoter who lately has been serving as a go-between for King, Tyson’s adviser, and nearly everyone.
“I see the fight coming together in the first or second quarter of ‘90; it’s too late for ‘89,” Finkel said. “It looks like (Sugar Ray) Leonard will fight in November, so early ’90 is a better bet at this point.”
Holyfield (21-0) bolstered his heavyweight credentials when he stopped Michael Dokes in a sensational bout in Las Vegas last March. Since abandoning his cruiserweight championships in April 1988, Holyfield had seemed competent but not inspiring as a heavyweight, beating James Tillis and Pinklon Thomas.
Then came Dokes, a one-time cocaine addict who showed up at Caesars Palace prepared for the fight of his life. In what many are calling the best heavyweight fight of the 1980s, Dokes and Holyfield knocked each other all over the ring before Holyfield caught Dokes on the ropes in the 10th round and finished him.
It was a night when a rich Tyson-Holyfield fight nearly fluttered away.
“I had some bad moments in that fight, times when I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Holyfield said Thursday. “Then I said to myself: ‘Wait a minute--how can I possibly be a heavyweight champion if I can’t win this fight?’ So I reached down and did it. That’s the only time you grow as a fighter, when you have to reach down deep.”
Holyfield, 26, who expects to weigh about 210 pounds for tonight’s fight in Caesars Tahoe’s outdoor stadium, is a heavy favorite against the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Brazilian bricklayer who is 35-2 against an undistinguished list of heavyweights and who has fought outside of Brazil only once.
Rodrigues, 31, won a 10-round decision over James (Bonecrusher) Smith in 1987, went the distance against Alfredo Evangelista the same year, and needed all 10 rounds to beat Tillis in March. Nevertheless, the World Boxing Council ranks him the world’s No. 2 contender (behind Holyfield).
Holyfield vows to hold up his end tonight, and assumes Tyson will do the same next weekend. “If Williams goes out there and fights the guy, shows some heart, he’s got a chance,” he said.
“But if he just stands there, it’s over. Mike Tyson has a way of intimidating guys in there in the sense that they don’t perform up to their best. He makes them think in terms of looking good instead of winning the fight.”
Holyfield’s promoter, Dan Duva, will strive to make sure that promoter King doesn’t drag his feet in locking up the Tyson-Holyfield matchup. King has dropped hints that he would like the Duvas (Duva’s father, Lou, is Holyfield’s trainer) out of the promotional picture before agreeing to a showdown.
The fact is, there has been some unhappiness in the Holyfield camp with the Duvas. Ken Sanders, Holyfield’s Atlanta manager, was unhappy with the Duvas’ involvement in the Tony Mandarich affair. The Duvas were sending up trial balloons over the notion of putting Green Bay Packer holdout Mandarich in a gym for a couple of months, and turning him into a possible Tyson opponent.
This week, both the Duvas and Sanders have danced around the issue. Instead, Dan Duva seemed to be warming up for a war of words with King.
“This is typical of how Don King puts together a fight,” Duva said. “It’s always misdirection, divide and conquer, posturing . . . it’s just how he negotiates. He wants to get Holyfield as cheaply as possible. But he’s worried because he knows if Tyson loses to Evander, he will have no ties to the new heavyweight champion.”
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