Promoter: Lewis-Holyfield rematch in trouble

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, July 21, 1999 | 10:35 a.m.

From where Panos Eliades is sitting, the prospects for a Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield rematch in November are slim and none.

Eliades, who both manages and promotes Lewis, is in Las Vegas this week for a dual purpose: To present a check for $25,000 to the UNLV club boxing team today, and to be available at Mandalay Bay in the event fellow promoter Don King can iron out the many difficulties that have prevented the rematch from falling into place.

Lewis, the WBC champion, and Holyfield, the IBF and WBA champion, fought March 13 in New York City. The fight, seemingly one-sided in Lewis' favor, was scored a draw amid allegations it was fixed.

Calls for a rematch quickly surfaced and negotiations have staggered in the ensuing four months, with King -- who promotes Holyfield -- creating more than one roadblock.

If and when there is a rematch, Mandalay Bay apparently would be the host site. The tentative working date has been Nov. 6 or Nov. 13.

"Three predictions," Eliades said Tuesday in his Mandalay Bay suite. "One, Lewis and Holyfield will not take place this year. Two, King has a terrible problem with the federal government and I believe he will be indicted. And three, Lewis and Holyfield will fight next year at Mandalay Bay and I'll be the promoter."

Eliades bases his reasoning on King not only being investigated by the FBI for racketeering, but by the ill will King has caused with cable network HBO, which would handle the pay-per-view telecast of the rematch. In addition, and not to be discounted, is the fact King still owes Eliades and Lewis $2 million from the fight in March.

"One other thing," Eliades adds. "I don't really think Holyfield wants this fight. Evander talks a good fight, but he got beaten up pretty badly by Lennox and what can he do different if they fight again?"

Nonetheless, Eliades believed the rematch was imminent until King was quoted in last Friday's edition of the Amsterdam (N.Y.) News as saying he believed HBO conspired with the FBI on the day the government agency raided his Florida offices. King said he thought HBO set him up, in effect, by luring him to New York for negotiations on the day the FBI held its raid.

"In the last few days I'm led to believe HBO wants to wash its hands of Don King," Eliades said. "He said there was collusion between HBO and the FBI and that really upset the HBO people.

"I think King's problems with HBO had been resolved until this. Now it's a huge stumbling block again."

Earlier, HBO stated a reluctance to sign a rematch contract with King without the stipulation that King would step aside as promoter (and be replaced by Eliades) in the event he was indicted.

Responding to Eliades' sensational remarks Tuesday, HBO's Lou DiBella said from his New York office that he remains cautiously optimistic.

"People here were upset with King's comments in the Amsterdam News," DiBella said. "He attacked HBO. But I ultimately think in the long run it won't have anything to do with the deal.

"My honest opinion is that the deal is going to get done sooner than later. We haven't ended our communications with Don."

But Eliades has put a time limit on the negotiations and it's near at hand.

"By the beginning of August I'm going to start looking for another fight for Lennox," he said. "I can't let him hang about."

Lewis has a mandatory coming due with John Ruiz, while Holyfield has one due with Henry Akinwande.

Eliades has negotiated an $18 million purse for Lewis if and when the rematch with Holyfield takes place. He said King and Holyfield would share (in some fashion) roughly the same amount of money for their participation.

"Evander could get beat by Akinwande for far less, so why not take the fight with Lennox?" Eliades said, before going on to answer his own question.

"Evander's a puppet," he said. "King's his master. Evander's surprisingly loyal to King and it may cost him.

"What he should do is say to King 'Pay the man what you owe him from before' and force the rematch to happen. I'm surprised he hasn't done it because Evander, for all his preaching and praying, governs his life by the dollar -- and I hear he's down to his last $100 million."

Eliades maintains King owes Lewis $2 million from the March fight for pay-per-view receipts that have long since been counted and received.

"We have some money that's outstanding from that first fight and Lennox has said not to let him off," Eliades said. "It's $2 million, give or take. It's not a lot of money, but it's not a little. It's the principle of the thing. He owes us the money and if we don't get it we'll sue, King will tell the judge it was trickery, and the judge will have a good laugh while deciding the case in two or three minutes."

King, of course, could suddenly acquiesce to the demands confronting him and the rematch could yet happen.

"But I don't think it will, this year at least," Eliades said. "I've got a funny feeling that Don's in serious trouble. People thought this fight could be made, but we need something to happen by the end of July."

In the event Lewis (34-1-1) and Holyfield (36-3-1) eventually do fight, Eliades thinks Lewis will win this one by knockout.

"The problem in their first fight is that Lennox thought he was so far ahead he didn't want to take any chances," Eliades said. "He didn't want to put himself in any unnecessary danger.

"But what we didn't know is that (judge) Eugenia Williams was corrupt. As it turns out, between she and (fellow judge) Larry O'Connell we were lucky to get a draw."

Williams scored the fight 115-113 for Holyfield, while O'Connell had it even.