The Fury and the Furor : Tyson Remains Untested, and Fight Fans Aren’t Happy Either

LAS VEGAS —  Only boxing can make an inevitable result seem bizarre.

Beamed into about a million pay-per-view homes and before a sold-out Grand Garden arena crowd, Mike Tyson’s comeback against Peter McNeeley after a four-year layoff was left unconsummated Saturday night.

The speed of Tyson’s victory was as expected--89 seconds into the first round--and Tyson appeared relatively sharp and effective under McNeeley’s awkward bull charge.

But the decision by McNeeley’s manager and trainer, Vinny Vecchione, to climb into the ring after a second knockdown, which automatically caused McNeeley’s disqualification and prevented a pure, power knockout, left the crowd chanting epithets.

“We understand some people weren’t happy with the ending,” Tyson co-manager John Horne said Sunday, “but the core, the real core, knows that there really hasn’t been a knockout in four years like Mike did.

“You make him bigger than life, [so] when he cashes in on it, don’t get upset about it.”

So, after grossing about $40 million and drawing a pay-per-view audience that Showtime executives are estimating to be the second-largest ever (behind the 1.38 million homes that bought the 1991 Evander Holyfield-George Foreman bout), where does Tyson, who earned $25 million Saturday, go from here?

In 1988, Tyson’s 91-second demolition of Michael Spinks left the boxing world in awe, and answered every question about his claim to the heavyweight throne. Saturday, his 89-second victory over the credibility-challenged McNeeley answered even less than was expected before the bout.

“Eventually, what you’ll all see is what you saw when you expected so much from Michael Spinks,” Horne said. “If Mike fights all the guys you talk about, Mike will do the same things he did to Peter McNeeley.”

Tyson’s next fight is scheduled for Nov. 4, also at the MGM Grand, also scheduled to be televised by Showtime’s SET pay-per-view, and the likely opponent is Buster Mathis Jr., a far more experienced fighter than McNeeley, and someone who drew a no-contest verdict against Riddick Bowe last summer.

Lou Savarese, another journeyman, is also mentioned as a potential Nov. 4 opponent. Horne said a decision on the opponent could be made as early as this week.

“What Mike established last night is this: Mike sold out the place, he sold out the world,” Horne said. “If Mike Tyson had fought George Foreman, and the place sold out, everybody would’ve said George Foreman sold it out.

“But this was against someone nobody knew. So, next time, when you talk about [Tyson fighting] Bowe, who couldn’t give away tickets here, or [Evander] Holyfield, we know who is doing the selling. And if they don’t like it, we don’t need them. We don’t need them for the money, and we don’t need them for the title.”

Either one, particularly the savvy, light-hitting Mathis, would almost certainly give Tyson an opponent who could test Tyson’s reflexes and ability to chase.

But, there are complications with the Nov. 4 date. Time-Warner’s pay-per-view arm, TVKO, already is set to televise its own major heavyweight bout, Bowe vs. Holyfield, on the same day, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and Caesars already has sold tickets for the event.

Can a Tyson bout, after the unsettled emotions of the McNeeley ending, go head-to-head with Bowe-Holyfield?

Though Showtime has been lightly stepping back from its commitment to putting Tyson vs. whoever on Nov. 4 and suggested it might switch the fight off pay-per-view and onto Showtime, Tyson and Horne appear determined to fight on the date.

“Mike’s fighting Nov. 4,” Horne said, “no matter what. And as far as I can tell, he will be fighting on nothing other than pay-per-view.”

Meanwhile, the controversy over Vecchione’s decision continued. Vecchione defended his actions, arguing that the safety of his fighter outweighed any crowd demand for a violent ending.

“Of course, there’s going to be second-guessing by everybody,” Vecchione said. “My fighter’s safety is more important than winning. He got knocked down twice, I thought he was wobbled bad, and so did he. He thought it was stopped by the three-knockdown rule, so that shows you where he thought he was at the time.”