By Norm Frauenheim-
Mike Tyson isn’t back in the news. He never left. He’s there this week with a swift succession of contradictory headlines that would leave you with whiplash if it weren’t for what we already expect from him.
He has more moods than weather has fronts. It’s impossible to forecast what he’ll say or do next. One minute, he’s fighting Evander Holyfield. The next minute, he isn’t.
The best question is to ask whether anybody cares. But the answer only raises more question. Turns out, plenty of people do care and most of them don’t read The Ring
Boxing has run out of crossover fans. But Tyson still has them. They’re there, following TMZ, which broke the latest story. No, TMZ reported Wednesday he won’t fight Holyfield in a May 29 exhibition in Miami despite other reports that, yes, he would.
The week began with news from the Holyfield camp that the fight was off. It continued Tuesday with Tyson saying it was on during an Instagram interview with Haute Living. Haute Living’s masthead advertises a publication that reports on Lifestyle, Celebrity, Travel and Fashion. No mention of pound-for-pound ratings.
· Yeah, it’s confusing. Then again, what could be more confusing than plans for a fight between two men, each older than half a century? Tyson is 54; Holyfield is 58. A license to fight isn’t a license to drive. But that’s another story
The story here is Tyson’s celebrity. It’s durable, which is another of way saying you can bank on it. Tyson, the personality, still fascinates. Hence, the headlines in TMZ and Haute Living. Most of their audience would never be interested in the reasons Errol Spence-versus-Terence Crawford hasn’t happened. Come to think of it, they probably have never heard of Spence or Crawford.
But Tyson? Stupid question. Everybody knows Tyson for all the usual reasons, both crazy and compelling. They were there four months ago for his exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. The Triller-staged pay-per-view production on Nov. 28 did numbers that boxing hasn’t done in years. Reportedly, 1.6 million bought the telecast. Reportedly, it generated $80-million in revenue. They weren’t buying to see Jake Paul slam-dunk Nate Robinson like a basketball.
They were buying Tyson.
Still are.
The guess here is that they’ll still get a chance to buy Tyson in a show that might include Holyfield. Might not. Holyfield beat him twice in the 1990s and only lost a piece of his ear. But the show belongs to Tyson no matter who’s in the supporting cast. Even if the rounds are limited to two minutes and the gloves are pillow-sized, there’s a suspicion that Tyson really doesn’t want to fight Holyfield anyway.
Fighting is in Holyfield’s DNA. There’s a good chance he’ll be as serious, mentally and physically, at 58 as he was at 34 in the 1997 Bite Fight. Who knows with Tyson? He’s an entrepreneur at 54 and as unpredictable as ever. He hopes to succeed with his Legends Only League, a concept that defies the clock and how it erodes ankles, arms and athletes.
Tyson might be his league’s only legend, mostly because of his hold on the public imagination. If widespread reports are accurate, it’s strong enough to spawn a planned television series, a biopic starring Jamie Foxx as Tyson.
It sounds crazy, as in crazy money. That’s the only sure thing with Tyson.
