Mike Tyson To Fight In Bolehland?
2001-01-12
Would Mike Tyson fight Lennox Lewis or any other in Malaysia
on March 11? Unlikely. Even if Mr Abdul Aziz, the
spokesman for the promoters, Promote Classics, insists he
would. Tyson's publicist, Mr Adam Grant, does not know
about it but Mr Abdul Aziz has a glib answer for that: he
could have been kept in the dark. All Promote Classics have
so far is a letter of intent from Tyson a year ago, he says,
and it "now goes after Lewis". It has none from either
Lewis or "an unidentified opponent".
The match is two months away, and a fair bet it would
not take place. The chairman of Promote Classics, Ms Rose
Chu, is negotiating with US cable channels Showtime and Home
Box Office. How could she when there is no contract for the
fight with either Tyson or Lewis? How does Promote Classics
negotiate with Showtime, as Mr Aziz alleges, without an
underlying contract with Tyson? Promote Classics, who had
scheduled the bout for Jan 21, delayed it to later in the
first quarter. It now blinks: those who bought tickets
could now get a refund.
Promote Classics seem to believe boxing matches with
worldclass players can be arranged like you would district
boxing matches. And, like the government, it believes
Malaysians can be fashioned like cheese to accept any
rubbish offered them. It thinks Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis
would drop everything to rush to Malaysia for a boxing match
to keep fans in Malaysia happy. If it got Tyson's letter of
intent a year ago, why was it not converted into a firm
contract? Letters of intent are MOUs -- and this even
Bolehland lawyers would tell you mean nothing.
If Tyson was fighting in Malaysia in March, his
publicist would have known of this when the contract was
signed, and hit the ground running organising it. By now
his representatives would be here making sure his client
gets maximum billing and publicity. Indeed, as Mr Grant
tells "projecteyeball", the Singapore web newspaper, "if
Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis were fighting each other, the
world would know about it." He insists Tyson had not signed
on to fight anyone, let alone Lewis. "There is nothing".
Recently, Malaysians bought tickets for a perfomance by
the American singer, Coco Lee. She did not turn up on the
appointed day. How could she when was not even told about
it? The inconvenience this put Malaysians through is
ignored. It looked like a scam. But the authorities kept
quiet. Indian film stars come here for a gala performance
but would not appear on stage until they were paid their
dues before the performance. Others who came before them
were not often paid -- once the performance was over, they
could not bargain any more. On the other hand, worldclass
artistes come to Singapore so regularly for only one reason:
they are professionally managed, patrons gets value for
money, and woe betide any who falls foul of cheating the
public.
Curiously, in an international fight involving Tyson,
neither the culture and tourism nor the sports ministries
are involved. Why? Malaysia would buzz with excitement and
expectation by now if a worldclass fight was to take place?
So, there is more than meets the eye. It is therefore
important now for Promote Classics to come clean and inform
the world what the state of play is: When was the contract
signed? With whom? Who would Tyson fight? What is the
prize money? Why was not the contract signed earlier? Why
is Mr Abdul Aziz still talking of a letter of intent? And
the government should step in and tell us what the state of
play is.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my
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