King the Winner on a Knockout : Boxing: McCall’s victory puts promoter back in heavyweight picture.

Merely another quiet, chaotic Saturday evening in the heavyweight division: Obscure Oliver McCall won a title, logy Lennox Lewis finally paid for his awkward style and a familiar face was back as the division’s main power broker.

McCall won the fight, but, even his enemies admit, the second-round technical knockout of Lewis for the World Boxing Council title was Don King’s victory.

Suddenly, King, who--not for lack of trying--was shut out of heavyweight title action since Buster Douglas shocked Mike Tyson more than four years ago, has a piece of it again.

And Tyson, who has repeatedly said he will return to fighting and almost certainly will do it under King’s aegis, is due to be released from prison in May after serving a rape sentence.

McCall, 29, sneered at as merely another sparring partner in the days before the bout, stunned Lewis on Sunday morning in London, blasting him with a right to the jaw when Lewis, as is his habit, wobbled off balance and exposed it.

“That, in large part, was Don King’s victory,” said Rock Newman, who, as manager of former champion Riddick Bowe, had lined up a now-irrelevant deal to fight Lewis for the WBC belt in March.

“And whether you like him or dislike him, you’ve got to respect this guy’s work ethic and his ability to keep moving forward no matter how much the chips are down.

“He just kept plugging away, kept stacking the deck with those heavyweights and getting them ripe. He kept swinging at the ball and last night he hit one.

“He’s a tenacious guy. I think he’s despicable, but I’ve got to give him credit, he’s a tenacious despicable guy.”

King, of course, is still facing a nine-count federal indictment for wire fraud that could send him to prison.

And Michael Moorer, set to meet 45-year-old George Foreman Nov. 5, still owns the other two shares of the heavyweight championship--the World Boxing Assn. and the International Boxing Federation.

But after working his way to the WBC title by getting McCall a mandatory challenge as the No. 1 contender, and with Tyson’s comeback the most anticipated boxing event of this decade, King clearly once again is holding the division in his hands.

His options:

--Already, King is laying the groundwork for a few low-key McCall defenses against two or three of the many other rated King fighters, then a title match probably in late 1995 against Tyson.

King said McCall’s next opponent could be Franz Botha of South Africa or Peter McNeely of Boston. King also holds the rights to Tony Tucker, ranked No. 2 and about to be ranked No. 1 by the WBC, WBA and IBF, Bruce Seldon, ranked No. 3 by the IBF and WBA, and many other top 10-rated fighters in all three divisions.

“Oliver will make two or three defenses and by that time Mike Tyson will be out of prison,” King said to reporters in London.

McCall sparred with Tyson before the ex-champion defended the undisputed title against Douglas in February 1990 at Tokyo, where Douglas knocked out Tyson in the 10th round. Douglas got the title shot by outpointing McCall in July 1989.

“That’s my ultimate goal, you hear,” McCall said in London. “To knock out Tyson, the No. 1 guy, who I helped prepare for nine title defenses.”

Said Moorer manager John Davimos: “King’s going to hold that title, going to make it even more worthless by having McCall fight nobodys and hold it for Tyson. McCall’s a caretaker.”

--Agree to a rematch with Lewis, who claimed that referee Lupe Garcia stopped the bout too quickly at 31 seconds of the second round.

But a rematch would risk handing the title back to promoter Dan Duva, who also promotes Moorer, and that is extremely unlikely.

“(Lewis’ rematch) chances are slim and none,” King said, “and slim is out of town.”

--Cut a deal with Newman for a McCall-Bowe fight, with the winner facing Tyson in a mega-title bout.

Bowe is widely regarded to be the most talented fighter in the division, and is a proven pay-per-view draw, but is not tied to King or Duva and has not been able to position himself for a mandatory challenge.

“Bowe is in a deep, cold place right now,” Duva said.

Newman, who has maintained a fiercely independent path for Bowe, Sunday sounded like he was ready to negotiate with King, perhaps willing to give King some part of Bowe’s future in return for a McCall fight.

“Don King is very, very aggressive, and he’s very, very smart,” Newman said. “And I think an intelligent and aggressive guy who has Oliver McCall would recognize what an opportunity it would be to have himself associated with Riddick Bowe.”

Meanwhile, Moorer, recognized as the legitimate heavyweight champion by most of the boxing world because he beat Evander Holyfield, faces the possibility of being pushed out of the Tyson sweepstakes--and out of the public’s attention span.

“Does the public think Mike Tyson is the best? Is Riddick Bowe the best? Hey, the only one who won it in the ring is Michael Moorer,” Davimos said. “He’s got to be recognized as the heavyweight champion.

“And as people get to know him, I think he’ll become more marketable.”

The winner of Moorer-Foreman, meanwhile, faces a mandatory defense situation against King’s fighter, Tucker.

If Moorer defeats Foreman, another possibility would be Moorer vs. Bowe. But Davimos says that though Bowe has credibility as a fighter, he has no leverage after losing the Lewis match.

“I think Riddick had as bad a night last night as Lennox did, that the repercussions to Riddick are beyond what anybody could conceive,” Davimos said.