After This One, It’s Mega-Dose of Reality

Is this the last great heavyweight fight of our time?

Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, the only two enduring figures from a generation of heavyweights that once offered so much promise, fight their rematch tonight, guaranteed to split at least $65 million and attract an audience that will break all records.

The celebrities are streaming in, the glitz and greed quotient is staggering, and boxing is king again, for a weekend.

Then the lights go out for a long time.

If Holyfield wins, they will never fight again, and he’ll still be 34. Tyson turns 31 on Monday, and barring a third fight if he wins tonight, what’s the next big fight out there for him?

Nothing, really. This is a fight that should have and could have happened five years ago, when both were in their primes. Half a decade later, there’s nobody left and nobody rising to give the sport’s money men the prospect of another epic at least until the next millennium.

“The Dempsey-Tunneys, the Louis-Schmelings, they stand out as defining fights of their generation,” said Showtime executive Jay Larkin, one of the industry’s key operators. “And this fight is the defining fight of this generation.

“But going beyond that, you look out there, there’s not a whole lot on the horizon.”

Riddick Bowe was the shining hope, but, though he beat Holyfield twice, he flared out a while ago, announcing his retirement not long after most of the boxing world already had written him off.

Lennox Lewis was Bowe’s giant foil, but a combination of wobbly legs and a circumspect mind have contributed to cast him into the permanent role of pretender.

George Foreman is 48. Michael Moorer? Sorry. David Tua and Courage Tshabalala are both young and strong, and both lost recently.

“The whole heavyweight division is getting up there,” said Emanuel Steward, trainer for Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion who faces former World Boxing Organization title-holder Henry Akinwande on July 11 at Caesars Tahoe.

“In the past, you had a young kid like Cassius Clay or you could see Mike Tyson. . . . Now, all the guys are coming and going, the David Tuas, Shannon Briggs. There’s no star on the horizon.”

How barren is the cupboard? Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager, says that the only mega-fight left out there probably involves Bowe, which kind of defeats the purpose.

“It is a little bleak, looking two or three years down the road,” Larkin said. “But look back at the milestone fights, there’s usually a great wilderness after each one.”

A FINAL BOWE

Holyfield, who still has a fondness for Bowe despite their three intense battles, says he hopes Bowe retired for the right reasons--and not because he felt pressured by outsiders.

“If he’s out of boxing because he just doesn’t want to do it anymore, I’m happy for him,” Holyfield said. “But I’m kind of sad if he’s out of boxing because he’s only doing what somebody else wants.

“These are the years he won’t be able to get back. You’re a hot product, make at least $2-3 million a fight, which is a lot of money. I had to realize that myself.”

JONES GROANS

Roy Jones Jr. says he is considering quitting boxing to get away from the chaos.

Jones is in town to announce his Aug. 7 rematch with Montell Griffin at Ledyard, Conn., to try to regain the WBC light-heavyweight title he lost earlier this year by disqualification (when Griffin went to a knee during the bout, Jones hit him twice before the referee could signal a knockdown).

“I’m tired of all this garbage,” Jones said. “This guy took a knee, and you give him a title? What is this world coming to? This is a fight, it ain’t no dance.”

Jones also heatedly suggested that politics alone have elevated Oscar De La Hoya to the top of many pound-for-pound lists, over Jones.

“De La Hoya has been down two times that I know of, put down by journeymen guys,” said Jones, who is eager to fight De La Hoya whenever the welterweight can build his body up to super-middleweight. “I’ve never been down in my career. Not once. So how can someone who’s been knocked down twice be better than someone who hasn’t?

“And how could you watch the De La Hoya-Pernell Whitaker fight, a fight nobody won, and say De La Hoya is better than Roy Jones?”

QUICK JABS

Apparently De La Hoya isn’t the only top-level fighter with a penchant for making quick trainer switches. WBO junior-bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia (who, like De La Hoya, trains in Big Bear) has dumped Jesse Reid, with whom he had been feuding for months, and turned to Steward (recently hired by De La Hoya). This comes only weeks before the huge July 18 fight against Albuquerque rival Danny Romero, the International Boxing Federation junior-bantamweight champion.

Oxnard’s Robert Garcia, the IBF’s No. 1-rated junior-lightweight, won’t be on the televised portion of the card, but he fights journeyman Angel Aldama tonight. Garcia is waiting for a shot at the title but will have to wait out champion Arturo Gatti’s October bout against Gabriel Ruelas. . . . Heading toward a potential fall fight in Mexico, Julio Cesar Chavez and Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who both suffered their only losses to De La Hoya, fight in separate bouts.