Columnist Dean Juipe: Tyson’s purse will be next to nothing

Dean Juipe

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 10:30 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

From a distance, the issue seems to be settled. The contracts are signed and the fight has been formally announced by a morally bankrupt state willing to do its part to undermine the Association of Boxing Commissions and tempt the federal government to get involved in pro boxing.

Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis will fight June 8 in Memphis, Tenn.

Or will they?

Including more than one person who has a financial stake in the fight, there are those who won't believe the bout will actually take place until they see Tyson step into the ring. And that feeling comes from more than just knowing how volatile the former heavyweight champion is.

There's a fear not only that Tyson will once again do something to upset the apple cart -- as he did at a New York press conference that resulted in the fight being canceled from its original April 6 date at the MGM in Las Vegas -- but that he could easily go ballistic when he finds out he's virtually fighting for free.

It's likely his "advisers" have yet to spell out the details for him, but eventually Tyson is going to discover that he's taking this fight to more or less settle old debts.

Preposterous as it seems, it has been reported that Tyson owes a former promotional firm almost $1 million and that, unbelievably, he owes the Showtime cable network at least $8 million and perhaps as much as $12 million. These are monies that were advanced to Tyson in recent years and monies that have yet to be repaid.

On top of that, Tyson has employed a horde of lawyers in the past few years to handle his many legal entanglements and it's probable that many of those firms were paid for services rendered by Tyson's chief custodian, Shelly Finkel. Finkel, too, has yet to see much return on his financial and emotional investment and he's not only apt to be owed a small fortune but is certainly expecting to receive one.

Add 'em up and factor in the taxes the government will take off the top and the multitude of bodyguards and misfits who will have a hand out, and Tyson will be lucky to get a ham sandwich out of the deal.

How do you suppose he'll react when this new reality is explained to him?

At 35 years old and with his once-glorious career in a severe decline that Lewis, the reigning heavyweight champion, will only accentuate, Tyson may need to be coerced into the ring in Memphis. And he's not much for coercion.

Showtime certainly will do its part to prod him along, and that's why it is allegedly putting up part of the site fee (on an interim basis, it hopes) to get the fight scheduled. It is looking to cut its losses with Tyson and the only way to do that is to have him fight and trust that the pay-per-view receipts will cover some or all of the boxer's lingering debt.

Tyson, who initially was told he was in line for a $17.5 million purse, has already agreed -- via Finkel -- to allow Lewis to be paid first. Tyson's other creditors will then step to the teller's window and take their respective cuts.

What do you figure will be left for the guy who has to go in there and take the abuse Lewis will surely dish out?

If the answer is nothing, it's precisely what the ill-mannered and terminally disgraced Tyson deserves.