At Last, Holyfield vs. Tyson : Boxing: King gets backed into a corner and forced to take Duva’s original offer of $15 million for challenger.

What is projected as the richest fight in boxing history, heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield vs. former champion Mike Tyson, came together in a New York hotel room Wednesday.

The fight some expect to approach $100 million in gross receipts, a fight that has been made and unmade several times since the fall of 1989, will be held Nov. 8 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Holyfield, according to his adviser Shelly Finkel, will earn $30 million, Tyson $15 million. Tyson’s promoter, Don King had demanded a purse split closer to 50-50 but settled for the original offer made by Dan Duva, Holyfield’s promoter.

In addition to his record challenger’s share of $15 million, Finkel said, Tyson will earn a percentage of the gross receipts.

Some wonder if George Foreman, who lost a decision to Holyfield and earned $12 million last April, didn’t earn a finder’s fee. Both camps used Foreman as a bargaining chip.

After Tyson defeated Razor Ruddock in Las Vegas June 28, Roy Foreman, George’s brother, said he received a good-faith check for $1 million for a Tyson-Foreman fight in the fall.

King went to Houston and met with Foreman for two days but could not get him to sign a contract. Then, as Duva seemed to be on the brink of signing Foreman for a rematch with Holyfield, King capitulated.

“Jose Sulaiman (president of the World Boxing Council and a King ally) called us Tuesday and asked if we’d meet with him and Don, and we did,” Finkel said Wednesday.

“We met for about an hour-and-a-half Tuesday evening in Sulaiman’s room at the Parker Meridien Hotel (in New York), everyone agreed with everyone, then we broke up to talk to the two fighters by phone.

“Evander is in Hawaii judging a slam dunk contest for Magic Johnson, and I talked to him last night. The first thing he said was: ‘Great!’

“Then Dan and I met with King and Sulaiman again this morning (Wednesday), and agreed on everything again. They knew we were ready to sign with Foreman, so I’m sure that’s what brought the whole thing together.

“Dan and Don signed contracts today.”

On one point that prolonged negotiations, Duva emerged as the winner over King. As the champion’s promoter, he remains the sole promoter for the fight. Earlier, King offered to pay Duva $30 million for promotional rights for Holyfield-Tyson.

King was also no doubt prodded to the negotiating table by his fighter. Tyson reportedly has been unhappy for months over the slow pace of the Holyfield-Tyson talks and some insiders say he told King to either get him Holyfield or he would find a new promoter.

King, apparently beaten to a Foreman fight by Duva, had no credible opponents for Tyson. If Holyfield had fought Foreman again, Tyson would have most likely been matched with Riddick Bowe--a bout that would have earned Tyson a fraction of what he would have made against Holyfield or Foreman.

Another loser Wednesday was Las Vegas promoter Bob Arum, Foreman’s promoter. He would have shared in the millions had Foreman fought either Holyfield or Tyson.

Even with King making the Holyfield fight for Tyson, some wonder if his days as Tyson’s promoter are numbered. Since before the Ruddock fight, Tyson has sought advice from Harold Smith, adviser to light-heavyweight champion Thomas Hearns.

King has no legal standing with Tyson, who is being sued by Tyson’s estranged manager, Bill Cayton. Cayton and the late Jimmy Jacobs managed Tyson, and King promoted several of his first major fights.

But Jacobs died in 1988 and Tyson chose to be advised by King, not Cayton, who sued King for interfering with his contract with Tyson.

Holyfield-Tyson was scheduled in the fall of 1989, when both were undefeated and Tyson was heavyweight champion. They were to meet June 18, 1990, in Atlantic City, N.J. But Buster Douglas foiled that by knocking out Tyson in Tokyo in February of 1990 .

Holyfield knocked out Douglas last October to win the title, but bypassed Tyson to fight Foreman in Atlantic City last April 19.

Holyfield, 28, bronze medalist at light-heavyweight at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, is 26-0 with 21 knockouts. Tyson, 25, a heavyweight alternate at the 1984 Olympics is 42-1, with 36 knockouts.