Columnist Dean Juipe: New casino high bidder for rematch

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

The details apparently are this close to being set in stone and the announcement is said to be pending. It may even come as early as Tuesday, insiders say.

To no one's great surprise, it looks as if Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis will hold their rematch in Las Vegas in November.

The new Mandalay Bay casino appears to have won the bidding rights for the fight, which will match a pair of heavyweight champions who did little to distinguish themselves during a March 13 fight in New York City that was somehow scored a draw. Lewis seemingly won the fight and the scoring controversy has led to a laundry list of governmental inquiries, yet his lack of killer instinct was almost as unforgivable as the financially, if not morally, bankrupt Eugenia Williams having Holyfield two points ahead on her final scorecard.

The fight -- and its surrounding unpleasantness -- gave boxing another black eye. Nonetheless, the rematch has just enough marketability in it that Mandalay Bay will put up the site fee -- $10 million? -- and use the attention to carve a spot near the top of the sport's pecking order.

Initially, the rematch had England written all over it. London's Wembley Stadium (80,000 capacity) and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium (75,000) offered huge venues that could be packed with Lewis supporters, given his English background.

It looked like that's where the fight belonged. But U.S. TV interests weren't especially enamored with that idea and the field was narrowed to Madison Square Garden and Mandalay Bay.

While one prominent cable executive said New York was favorable because its many media outlets would publicize the fight extensively, Holyfield prefers the fight going to Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay is anxious to establish itself as a player. With MSG feeling once burned, it was twice shy to lay out the financial incentives that Mandalay Bay -- and its 12,000-seat arena -- was offering.

Hence, like it or not, the fight comes here.

"I've signed the contract already," Holyfield told the Associated Press. With Lewis given a financial bump to be on equal footing with Holyfield, his signature is inevitable.

Two thoughts immediately come to mind: People have short memories and everyone who swore off pay-per-view boxing after the March fiasco in New York will have had second thoughts about it by November; and the real selling point for the rematch is the notion that either Lewis steps up his game and knocks out the aging Holyfield, or Holyfield somehow regroups, wins and Lewis has to live with having missed not one but two chances at glory.

Their first fight was largely a tedious exercise session in which Lewis kept Holyfield at arm's length and scored virtually at will, even if it escaped two of the judges' attention. Dramatic moments were in short supply, at least until the ring announcer proclaimed "We have a (three-way) split decision" much to the spectators' disbelief.

Their second fight has to be better. Lewis should be able to come in relatively fearless, while Holyfield will feel he needs a win to reclaim his pride and knows he has to win to reposition himself for another big fight with Mike Tyson -- remember him?

But the only sure thing is that the rematch, wherever it's held, will be better scored than the original. Ms. Williams has been retired.

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