Hong Kong is being lined up as a possible venue for the World heavyweight title rematch between champion Hasim Rahman of the United States and the man he deposed to win the title, Britain's Lennox Lewis, according to rumours circulating in the past week.
Boxing's most famous and infamous promoter Don King is currently in Beijing trying to finalize a date for a third fight between Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz to determine who will be the World Boxing Association's (WBA) heavyweight champion.
When that matter is settled, it is believed that King is then planning to fly to Hong Kong to discuss with an, as yet, unknown group of local investors the practicality of holding a high profile title contest — Lewis-Rahman II — in the SAR. To King, and this goes for all boxing promoters, practicality is a question of whether getting the money together will be a problem or not.
Eyebrows may be raised at this whisper, especially as this group of investors, if they do indeed exist, has not come forward as would be expected if it were really serious about a bid. And King, the shock-haired millionaire who first rose to prominence in 1974 by taking the 'Rumble in the Jungle' between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Zaire, could be spinning a yarn just in order to get more money from American organizers.
It might turn out to be a smokescreen, but Hong Kong never gets a look-in as far as major sporting events go, aside from the Rugby Sevens of course, so let's all dream for a moment that the rumour might be serious .
For a fight of such magnitude, both Rahman and Lewis could expect to earn at least $10 million each, and possibly well in advance of that. Their first fight, for the World Boxing Council (WBC) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) belts, held in April in Johannesburg, was a relatively low profile affair, intended as it was to showcase Lewis' talents to an African audience for the first time.
In accordance with that, Rahman, the rank outsider, got paid $1.5 million and Lewis, the then champion, receiving $8 million for his efforts. When Rahman shocked the world by knocking out Lewis with a huge right hand in the fifth round, interest in the rematch — which was written into Lewis' contract should he lose — rose dramatically, as did the money required to stage such an event.
Lewis-Rahman II has been pencilled in for November 10, and although Las Vegas was seen initially as a dead cert to stage the fight, Hong Kong may now appeal to King as he attempts to salvage the Holyfield-Ruiz match up.
That fight, which has been promoted as the 'Raging in Beijing', was due to take place this Saturday (August 5) in the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing. It has been postponed — officially because Ruiz has a neck injury, although skeptics have pointed to low ticket sales and a failure to attract the interest of major television networks in the United States as being more likely explanations. The latter point is important because without the support of these networks, there is little possibility of raising the cash to make a fight financially viable.
Beijing, in advance of its bid to host the 2008 Olympics, was keen to put on the Holyfield-Rahman contest to show to the rest of the world that China is capable of organizing a successful, global sports event.
Although drumming up the necessary interest and backing to stage the Holyfield-Ruiz fight has proved more difficult than China expected, to be fair to China, this is in reality has been because there is no great interest in the fight back in the US. Holyfield, at 38, is now regarded as a poor shadow of his former self — which once allowed him to destroy Mike Tyson twice, as well as being the only man to win the heavyweight title four times — while Ruiz, AKA 'The Quiet Man', has never been a big box office draw.
However, if both fights, one in Hong Kong and one in China, were televised on the same promotion, meaning that fight fans could see all three recognized versions of the heavyweight title being fought over on the same night, this would make the pay-for-view appeal of such a promotion all the more appealing. The event would make money.
Even though Hong Kong is not exactly a Mecca of boxing, it has the venue — the Hong Kong Football Stadium — and the audience, including a large and relatively affluent expatriate base, to ensure that such an occasion would be well supported.
Hong Kong is looking to promote itself as Asia's World City and a heavyweight title fight would certainly give it some welcome exposure. Now it just becomes a question of getting the financial backing to put on the show. Which, getting back to reality, in the harsh world of professional boxing, will require this mysterious 'group of investors' to put their money where their mouths are.
