This Tyson bout carries no weight

With a tattoo plastered on his face, Mike Tyson remains a marked man. He continues to cut a figure of some intrigue, even in Arabia. In a curious but unsurprising twist to anyone who has doted on his life and times, Tyson and his travelling circus of a career could soon wheel into Abu Dhabi to confront Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield. Tyson and his haymakers once ruled the world. They left Trevor Berbick a wobbling wreck as he became the youngest man to seize the world heavyweight title in 1986, but lost their sting some time ago. The shadow of this errant pugilist lives on. There are people in these parts willing to unload a serious wedge of cash to witness a freak show. The unhinged times of Tyson shows no sign of drying up. The CEO of Hydra Properties Sulaiman Al Fahim was yesterday speaking a language instantly recognisable to Tyson when he spoke of staging the "richest" fight in history. A fee of US$34million (Dh124.9m) for each man has been touted. Crazy money for such a weird arrangement.

With Tyson aged 42 and Holyfield weighing in at 47, one should ask would it not be worth wheeling out Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, or finding out if old Larry Holmes is in need of some work? Al Fahim sounded like an Arabic version of Don King in emitting soundbites of staging a "fight" between Tyson and Holyfield at the Zayed Sports City Stadium. This would not be so much a Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman Rumble in the Jungle, more decaying in the desert. An exhibition match making an exhibition of itself. Tyson's boxing corpse has been decomposing since he chomped on a Holyfield ear in their second world title fight in 1997, a second defeat for Tyson against his nemesis.

Tyson's continued flirtation with the sport carries with it as much as realism as Rocky Balboa. If Abu Dhabi wants publicity, it should seek to stage a battle between brimming boxers. It will gain notoriety, but this hardly carries with it the hallmark of quality to which the emirate aspires. Las Vegas is kitsch, but even it would probably not touch such a tasteless bout. Such a fight belongs in a museum, rather than Caesars Palace. Abu Dhabi should probably also forget the haphazard heavyweight division. Attempting to bring over a Floyd Mayweather, who has in the past proved he can brought back from retirement by the offer of filthy lucre, seems to make much more sense.

The heavyweight division is in such a faltering condition that Holyfield has unsuccessfully challenged for various versions of the world title over the past three years, losing to Sultan Ibragimov and last month to Nikolai Valuev. Tyson was finished before he lost to Lennox Lewis in their world title fight of 2002. An enticing payday continues to play its part in eroding the stockpile of memories a fighter stirs up, but Tyson needs the money. Distracted by drugs and exploited by the usual hangers-on, he got tagged by James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 and has been on the wane since doing jailtime for the rape of Desiree Washington a year later.

The longer Tyson lingers on, the more he eats away at his legacy. The state of Tyson's financial health continues to be uppermost in his thoughts. He was made bankrupt in 2003. His mental health can been questioned. He has recently fell to inglorious defeats, losing to Danny Williams in 2004 and to Kevin McBride a year later. One recalls Rocky Marciano thumping Joe Louis in 1951 when the "Brown Bomber" was a dwindling mess of a fighter. Like Tyson, Louis was in need of a helping handout.

dkane@thenational.ae