DAHLBERG on boxing: Tyson reserving rights to rematch with Lewis, but who will watch?

Friday, June 28, 2002 | 4:07 a.m.

Mike Tyson is reserving his right to fight Lennox Lewis again. What remains to be seen is if anyone wants to see it again.

In the days after he took a beating from Lewis and said there was no way he could ever beat him, Tyson's handlers quietly exercised a right in his contract to fight a rematch with the heavyweight champion.

That means he and Lewis could meet again in the near future, though Lewis can take one interim fight before that happens.

The problem is, no one seems to know if Tyson can still sell tickets anymore. He turns 36 on Sunday, exposed now as a fighter of fading ability whose main attraction seems to be the freak show that is his life.

Judging from how badly he was beaten by Lewis, a rematch doesn't make much sense in the world of pay-per-view, which embraced Lewis-Tyson I to the tune of 1.8 million households but may keep the pocketbook closed for any rematch.

Tyson's own television network doesn't even seem to know what he's worth. Showtime is trying to find out in a poll on its boxing website that offers Lewis-Tyson fight posters to the first 400 people who answer five questions.

Fans are asked if they want to see Tyson fight on television again, and whether they are less likely to buy a Tyson fight on pay-per-view after what Lewis did to him in Memphis.

The first answer is likely to be yes, since Tyson remains a curiosity. The second is likely to be no, especially for those who paid $54.95 to see a boxer who was a shadow of the fighter who terrorized the heavyweight ranks in the late 1980s.

Tyson was the bad boy draw for the Lewis fight, which ended up being the second biggest boxing pay-per-view event ever. When all the receipts are tallied up, both fighters stand to make some $30 million, though much of Tyson's purse will go to repaying debts.

But his appeal inside the ring figures to have dropped sharply with his performance against Lewis. Tyson is under contract to Showtime for one more fight, but he would likely have to fight once or twice to repair his damaged image before the networks even think about forging ahead with a Lewis rematch.

Lewis has a contract with Showtime's competitor, HBO, which is also asking on its boxing website whether fans think there should be a Lewis-Tyson rematch.

Tyson's manager, Shelly Finkel, said he hasn't talked to Tyson about his future yet, but exercised his right to a rematch as is spelled out in the contract the two fighters signed to meet the first time.

"I wanted to preserve Mike's rights," Finkel said.

Under the contract, Lewis is required to fight Tyson again - but allowed an interim fight, which could be the mandatory defense of his IBF title against No. 1 contender Chris Byrd.

Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, said the network expects to meet with Lewis in the next few weeks to discuss his options.

"Our first step is to sit down with the heavyweight champion of the world and discuss his future plans," Greenburg said.

Tyson is certainly damaged goods, but there will always be people who pay to watch him fight just for the sheer spectacle or to see if he will self destruct in the ring.

Finkel admitted a few days before the June 8 fight that Tyson's appeal would be seriously damaged if he was beaten badly by Lewis. Now, though, he sees some upside in the loss.

"The next fight people will want to see if it was a fluke or if it was for real," Finkel said. "I believe Mike's next fight, if it's on regular TV, will do monstrous ratings."

Some boxing types believe Tyson will try to rehabilitate his faded image as a fighter by perhaps coming up with a medical excuse as to why he didn't fight better against Lewis.

He gave no excuses after the fight, but didn't exactly help any chance of getting a rematch by saying Lewis was too big and too good for him and that he was lucky he wasn't killed in the ring.

Even the people in Tyson's own camp aren't too sure exactly what Tyson has left anymore. He really hasn't beaten anyone of stature since his fights with Donovan "Razor" Ruddock a decade ago, and fighters aren't intimidated by him the way they used to be in his prime.

Tyson had claimed he was in his best shape ever and eager to fight for the first time in years before the Lewis fight. But, outside a good first round, he didn't throw more than one punch at a time when he got inside on Lewis and failed to counterpunch Lewis at all when he threw right uppercuts at him.

That's generally the sign of an aging fighter whose reflexes simply fail him. And that means Tyson better start putting some money away, because his days as a ring attraction are numbered.