Boxing : Edmonton Embracing Tyson Fight

Tyson-Ruddock, the heavyweight title fight Don King couldn’t sell to Las Vegas, is a smash in Canada so far.

When John Giovenco, president of the Las Vegas Hilton, decided that Mike Tyson had gotten too good for his own good, he passed on Tyson-Ruddock, figuring he wouldn’t sell enough tickets to retrieve the $3-million site fee.

Donovan (Razor) Ruddock is a capable young heavyweight whose family moved from Jamaica to Toronto when he was 11. Turning pro in 1982, Ruddock slowly built a 6-0 record over carefully chosen opponents, then had a draw with Phillip Brown and was knocked out by journeyman Dave Jaco in 1985.

He hasn’t lost since, is 21-1-1 and has beaten a couple of aging warriors, Mike Weaver and Bonecrusher Smith.

The fight is scheduled for the 18,300-seat Northlands Coliseum, home of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team. Apparently, a sellout crowd will show up to see if their guy can do what few of Tyson’s recent opponents have been able to do--make it past the first round.

Edmonton is being treated to this kind of excitement because King, Tyson’s promoter, is playing a waiting game with Evander Holyfield’s management team. Tyson-Holyfield is the only heavyweight fight that quickens the pulse of anyone these days, but it could be another two years before it happens. Had it not been for the site fee, paid to King by Edmonton’s “mystery money man,” Tyson-Ruddock would be somewhere else. Like Toronto. Or Shelby, Mont.

“The promoters of the fight are Garry Stevenson of Edmonton and Sonny McPhee of Halifax,” said boxing writer Mark Spector of the Edmonton Journal. “The $3 million came from someone in Edmonton, and every sportswriter in Edmonton has been trying for the past two weeks to figure out who it is.”

Spector said every indication points to a sellout, which means the mystery man probably will get his $3 million back.

It’s all curiosity money, he said.

“Ruddock isn’t all that popular up here,” he said.

“Let’s face it, he’s a Jamaican. A lot of Canadians really don’t know much about the guy. He’s not nearly as popular as Willie deWit (the Canadian heavyweight champion who retired two years ago) was. Really, a lot of people are just excited about having Tyson fight here.”

Speaking of Tyson, research has uncovered more evidence that the heavyweight champion is mimicking the dress, mannerisms and even the speech of long-gone champions. Tyson’s late mentor, Cus D’Amato, was a boxing historian and the two of them spent many evenings studying fight films from Jim Jacobs’ collection. D’Amato also read to the teen-age Tyson from his boxing library.

A couple of years ago, when he took to wearing plain black trunks and black shoes, without socks, he was asked if the get-up was an imitation of Joe Gans, the great turn-of-the-century lightweight. He denied it.

Then he began deploying a fists-on-hips stance, a la Battling Nelson, and glaring down at fallen opponents.

“No, it’s not Nelson, it’s me,” he said.

And at postfight news conferences for the last couple of years, he has uttered the same curious quip, almost word for word, in response to a frequent question: “Mike, when are you going to fight Holyfield?”

The answer is always: “How about if Holyfield and I go down to the cellar, lock the door from the inside with a key, and the one who comes back up with the key is the winner?”

In “Two Fisted Jeff,” Jim Jeffries’ autobiography, there is a 1904 scene in a San Francisco saloon.

An up-and-coming heavyweight, Jack Johnson, walked up to Jeffries, the heavyweight champion, and challenged him to a title fight. Jeffries wrote that he responded this way:

“We’re not going to fight because you don’t have a name and we wouldn’t draw flies. But I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll go down in the cellar with you right now, we’ll lock the door from the inside and the one who comes back upstairs with the key will be the winner. How about that?”

Right. How about that, Mike?

Boxing Notes

Two big fights are almost wrapped up, and a third is well into negotiations. The long-awaited Meldrick Taylor-Julio Cesar Chavez light-welterweight showdown will be March 17, probably in Las Vegas. Lightweights Azumah Nelson and Pernell Whitaker will fight in April, probably in Atlantic City. A middleweight biggie, Michael Nunn and Thomas Hearns, is moving along slowly but resolutely toward an April showdown at Caesars Palace.

The Robert Byrd-Edward Parker bout at the Forum Wednesday is a semifinal bout in the Forum’s $225,000 super-feathwerweight tournament. Byrd is 18-2, Parker 17-3-2. The winner gets Kenny Baysmore in the final Oct. 23. . . . Don Fraser’s welterweight matchup at the Irvine Marriott Hotel Thursday is a battle of unbeatens. Ernie Chavez of Westminster is 6-0 and Bobby Chinungu of Covina, by way of Zambia, is 12-0. . . . Larry Ramirez of Fontana, assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic boxing team, was recently voted national coach of the year by the USA Amateur Boxing Federation. Boxer of the year was featherweight Frank Pena of Aurora, Colo. . . . Shane Mosley of Pomona is ranked No. 1 among U.S. amateur lightweights by the USA/ABF.

Saying “I couldn’t let the old girl die,” Stanley Weston, one-time Ring magazine copy boy, has purchased the failing Ring, once known as boxing’s Bible. Weston, 70, owns 11 other magazines. . . . The battle of the whales, Gerry Cooney vs. George Foreman Jan. 15, will be officially announced in New York Thursday. Cooney, by the way, will pay CBS commentator Gil Clancy $1 million to train him.