Boxing: Morality a poor second to money

Jose Sulaiman, the Lebanese-born, Mexico City-based president of the World Boxing Council, yesterday gave the strongest indication yet that the jeopardised world heavyweight championship fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson will go ahead. Indeed, it seems he is knocked out by the prospect.

Literally so. The portly Sulaiman was last seen sniffing the smelling salts after the infamous brawl in New York on Tuesday. He hit his head on a table during the mêlée and received hospital treatment for concussion.

But he has emerged clear-headed enough to insist that the WBC, whose title Lewis holds, will give the bout their official blessing, come what may.

This means that even if the Nevada State Athletic Commission refuse to relicense Tyson when his formal application is heard on Tuesday, either because of the mayhem in Manhattan or possible impending charges of sexual assault, the richest fight in history could take place outside Las Vegas, where it is scheduled for the MGM Grand Hotel on 6 April.

Sulaiman, naturally, insists that the fistful of dollars the WBC would extract from the fight as their sanctioning fee has not influenced the decision. "The WBC ordered this mandatory fight, which will be sanctioned by our organisation in any city or country where it is held," Sulaiman confirmed.

This may or may not be music to Tyson's ears (though perhaps not to the threatened lobes of his opponent). For even if the Commission, who are believed to be split over their decision, turn down his application despite pressure from casino owners and businesses in the financially beleaguered gambling citadel, to whom the fight is worth $300 million, other ruling bodies are not bound to follow suit. The fight could then be staged in a number of places, including Atlantic City and possibly even New York's Madison Square Garden, whose cap is already thrown into the famous ring. However, whether the New York authorities would want to risk opprobrium in the Big Apple after the events of 11 September is another matter.

So is the question of the obvious mental instability of Tyson, a convicted rapist, and the possibility of him being charged by the Las Vegas police on a series of counts of alleged sexual assault.

Even if these are proceeded with, any hearings are unlikely to take place before 6 April, and would not necessarily debar Tyson from fighting. What would, however, is the moral outrage if it is proved, as alleged, that he is the father of a child born to a teenage girl in Phoenix when she was under age.

Tyson's largely self-inflicted tribulations seem endless. Most leading boxing figures, both here and in America, believe the fight will go ahead unless he is in prison, though calls for him to be run out of boxing are gathering momentum. Yesterday Britain's leading referee, John Coyle, of Wolverhampton, who was himself floored by the demented Tyson when he tried to stop his fight with Lou Savarese in Glasgow 18 months ago, said he should no longer be part of the sport.

"In my personal view the man should not be in boxing," said Coyle. "Boxing does not need him."

The trouble is, it does, certainly as far as the currently talentless heavyweight division is concerned. No other figure generates such passion, or profit.

An ogre out of control he may well be, a man without method in his madness, but you don't have to be a Las Vegas high- roller to bet that more people would watch him attempt to inflict his indisciplined form of GBH in a gruesome showdown with Lewis, hoping for his comeuppance, than would switch off.

In declaring that they will sanction the fight it is possible that the WBC have also taken into account Lewis's role in this unsavoury affair.

Was it a stunt which went badly wrong in an attempt to hype an encounter between two ancient warriors well past their sell-by date? Close examination of a video shows that Tyson threw the first punch from a matter of inches. It missed by a mile, and even in his bloated dotage he is unlikely to make that kind of professional misjudgement if he really means business.

The resulting response from Lewis and his army of hired muscle could be regarded as similarly irresponsible, but what happened next, the biting, the foul-mouthing and then obscene gesturing, surely put Tyson beyond any redemption.

But will boxing see it that way? I doubt it. Too much is at stake financially, and this is a world in which money inevitably ko's morality. Ask Jose Sulaiman's WBC.