[ BOXING ]
Adviser wants boxer
as Tyson’s opponentFinkel says having the
former champ fight a K-1
foe is unfair to the public
Tom Moffatt may need to print a whole new set of posters.
Moffatt, a Honolulu-based promoter, is waiting for contracts to be presented to the Hawaii Boxing Commission before he can start promoting a Mike Tyson fight scheduled for Sept. 11 at Aloha Stadium, but he has distributed posters featuring Tyson and Jerome Le Banner to the commission.
But Shelly Finkel, Tyson's adviser, says not so fast.
"We had made an agreement with K-1 for a boxing match," Finkel said. "But they presented someone who is not a boxer and it wouldn't be fair to the public. If it were a boxing match we would have been interested."
In an effort to promote the possible fight, Le Banner may have talked himself off the card. The kickboxer, who has only competed in five boxing matches, told the Japanese media that even if the fight were under boxing rules, he would be following K-1 rules. That caught Finkel's attention and created a roadblock to the proposed card.
K-1 promoter Scott Coker says Le Banner simply got carried away and that there is no chance that he would kick Tyson, pointing out that the referee would stop the fight the second Le Banner lifted his leg and the kickboxer would not be paid if he so blatantly broke the rules.
Coker, who has Tyson under contract for a boxing match and has already paid a deposit to reserve Aloha Stadium, says the promotion will go on and that the loose ends are "95 percent tied." He says finding an opponent acceptable to both Tyson and the Fighting Entertainment Group in Japan is the only snag.
FEG wants an opponent Japanese fans would be willing to fly to Hawaii to see, while Finkel wants an opponent who would keep Tyson's path to the heavyweight championship on track.
"We have to make Mike happy and make Japan happy," Coker said. "It is something we are going to have to work on, but we'll get it done."
Tyson, a former heavyweight champion who turns 38 tomorrow, is scheduled to make his comeback to the ring July 30 in Louisville against Danny Williams. He hasn't fought since knocking out Clifford Etienne in the first round in February.