Jasper
8-27-03, 01:45 PM
If he fights Bob Sapp, he will not survive, the man is a MONSTER!
Mike Tyson's next opponent might not be a titleholder. He might not be a hand-picked challenger, either. He might not be a boxer.
Last Thursday night, Tyson checked into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles to continue negotiations for a possible matchup with Bob Sapp, a 6-foot-5, 390-pound failed N.F.L. lineman, funeral-home worker and a star known as the Beast in the increasingly popular Japanese sport called K-1, a brutish, martial arts amalgam of karate, kung fu, kick boxing and tae kwan do.
"It might be nice,'' Tyson, the enigmatic, financially strapped former heavyweight champ, said in a telephone interview late last week. "But under Marquess of Queensberry rules. I don't really feel like getting kicked in the head, you know?''
Last Friday, Tyson pushed the reality of the bout closer, signing an exclusive management contract with K-1, a company based in Japan that uses the same name as the sport, thereby giving the promotional company the rights to handle a coming publicity tour for Tyson in Japan and other commercial endorsements in that country.
"I got nothing against Japan,'' Tyson said. "'Japan has always been respectful and courteous to me; and I've always been respectful and courteous to Japan.''
In the contract, Tyson was guaranteed nearly $4 million in addition to a $200,000 signing bonus, according to Scott Coker, president and chief executive of K-1 in the United States. He added that details regarding a Tyson-Sapp match, tentatively scheduled for late December, are still being discussed and that Tyson was soon expected to travel to Japan to begin his publicity campaign for the bout.
In Louisville, Ky., where promoters had also been negotiating with Tyson for a tentative fight date in December, reports of Tyson's dealings with K-1 were received with some confusion. "We're very deep into the deal,'' the promoter Chris Webb said.
Steven Espinoza, a lawyer for Tyson, said that a fight with Sapp was not a priority. "Mike's priority is in Louisville,'' he said.
If Tyson does choose to fight Sapp, he certainly would not be the only boxing champ to carry financial problems late in his career and enter the ring of the bizarre for quick paydays. In 1976, a cash-strapped Muhammad Ali traveled to Japan to wrestle 15 uneventful rounds with Rocky Inoki for an estimated $6 million. Joe Louis wrestled to pay back his debts to the Internal Revenue Service, the Italian heavyweight Primo Carnera became a wrestling champ and Two Ton Tony Galento challenged bears and octopuses.
Gauging Tyson's desires is not easy, however, and if he signs the contract and collects the signing bonus, it is not clear what might happen. "Mike's predictability has always been his unpredictability,'' Bert Sugar, the boxing historian, said. "Until he steps into the ring you don't know what the you've got, and once he steps into the ring, then you really don't know what the you've got?''
A Tyson-Sapp fight would be an odd contest, with comical overtones. And watching Tyson chasing or running from Sapp, whose most fearsome attack seems to be plunging down, professional-wrestling style, onto an opponent's head, could make for depressing programming for boxing fans. It might also make for a circus act many cable subscribers might not want to miss.
Shelly Finkel, a longtime Tyson adviser, said K-1 executives had been trying to get Tyson's attention for months, but the proposals were not of interest, partly because of financial guarantees. Since Tyson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this month, however, Finkel has not spoken with Tyson and said that the roster of his financial advisers was always changing.
Mike Tyson's next opponent might not be a titleholder. He might not be a hand-picked challenger, either. He might not be a boxer.
Last Thursday night, Tyson checked into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles to continue negotiations for a possible matchup with Bob Sapp, a 6-foot-5, 390-pound failed N.F.L. lineman, funeral-home worker and a star known as the Beast in the increasingly popular Japanese sport called K-1, a brutish, martial arts amalgam of karate, kung fu, kick boxing and tae kwan do.
"It might be nice,'' Tyson, the enigmatic, financially strapped former heavyweight champ, said in a telephone interview late last week. "But under Marquess of Queensberry rules. I don't really feel like getting kicked in the head, you know?''
Last Friday, Tyson pushed the reality of the bout closer, signing an exclusive management contract with K-1, a company based in Japan that uses the same name as the sport, thereby giving the promotional company the rights to handle a coming publicity tour for Tyson in Japan and other commercial endorsements in that country.
"I got nothing against Japan,'' Tyson said. "'Japan has always been respectful and courteous to me; and I've always been respectful and courteous to Japan.''
In the contract, Tyson was guaranteed nearly $4 million in addition to a $200,000 signing bonus, according to Scott Coker, president and chief executive of K-1 in the United States. He added that details regarding a Tyson-Sapp match, tentatively scheduled for late December, are still being discussed and that Tyson was soon expected to travel to Japan to begin his publicity campaign for the bout.
In Louisville, Ky., where promoters had also been negotiating with Tyson for a tentative fight date in December, reports of Tyson's dealings with K-1 were received with some confusion. "We're very deep into the deal,'' the promoter Chris Webb said.
Steven Espinoza, a lawyer for Tyson, said that a fight with Sapp was not a priority. "Mike's priority is in Louisville,'' he said.
If Tyson does choose to fight Sapp, he certainly would not be the only boxing champ to carry financial problems late in his career and enter the ring of the bizarre for quick paydays. In 1976, a cash-strapped Muhammad Ali traveled to Japan to wrestle 15 uneventful rounds with Rocky Inoki for an estimated $6 million. Joe Louis wrestled to pay back his debts to the Internal Revenue Service, the Italian heavyweight Primo Carnera became a wrestling champ and Two Ton Tony Galento challenged bears and octopuses.
Gauging Tyson's desires is not easy, however, and if he signs the contract and collects the signing bonus, it is not clear what might happen. "Mike's predictability has always been his unpredictability,'' Bert Sugar, the boxing historian, said. "Until he steps into the ring you don't know what the you've got, and once he steps into the ring, then you really don't know what the you've got?''
A Tyson-Sapp fight would be an odd contest, with comical overtones. And watching Tyson chasing or running from Sapp, whose most fearsome attack seems to be plunging down, professional-wrestling style, onto an opponent's head, could make for depressing programming for boxing fans. It might also make for a circus act many cable subscribers might not want to miss.
Shelly Finkel, a longtime Tyson adviser, said K-1 executives had been trying to get Tyson's attention for months, but the proposals were not of interest, partly because of financial guarantees. Since Tyson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this month, however, Finkel has not spoken with Tyson and said that the roster of his financial advisers was always changing.