Date: Fri 25-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Harmon-Column-Sports-Boxing

Full Text:

Kim Harmon/On Sports

What Did You Expect?

Well, what did you expect?

That Peter McNeeley would make a fight of it?

That Peter McNeeley would make it into the third, fourth or even fifth rounds?

That Peter McNeeley would win?

Boxing sank to a new low (as if it could get any lower) when it packaged the

Mike Tyson-Peter McNeeley fight and slapped a purse on it in excess of $25

million, and as it sank into whatever festering pool guys like Don King

crawled out of, it took with it all the poor saps who were stupid enough to

plunk down $40 or $50 to watch it on Pay-Per-View.

That this fight garnered the notoriety and audience it did was a farce. That

Vinny Vecchione, Peter McNeeley's manager, may get a chance to walk away with

$180,000 after what he did is criminal.

A brief recap: The opening round bell was still echoing in the casino when

McNeeley kissed the canvas for the first time. And the first bead of sweat had

just eased out on Tyson's forehead as a right-hand uppercut sent McNeeley to

the canvas for the second time. Vecchione quickly - valiantly, he would say -

leapt into the ring to stop the fight and protect his man, who was, by all

accounts, ready to go on and who would have, by all accounts, been knocked on

his butt a third time in another 20 seconds or so, thereby ending the fight

anyway.

If this does not smell like a set-up, a scam, a ripoff to all you people who

paid to watch this fight, then you shouldn't be in charge of your own finances

any more. Someone is going to come along one day and take all of your money

away. Don King knew Tyson's return to the ring, alone, would bring in

Pay-Per-View millions from across the globe and all he had to do was find

someone to fight him.

The danger being, Tyson might have gotten too soft while spending three years

behind iron bars. King not only needed someone Tyson could beat, he needed

someone Tyson could annihilate to breathe new life into the Tyson myth, to set

King up to make millions upon millions upon millions of more dollars in the

next few years.

Clearly, McNeeley was a fall guy. Clearly, he was told that if he talked tough

and made it look like he thought he could take Tyson, that King and Vecchione

would make sure McNeeley's head was still attached to his body when the fight

was over.

Why was McNeeley so happy right after the fight, right after he got wasted on,

what, six punches?

Because he took a couple of hits, fell down twice, and for 89 seconds of work

he earned $540,000 (which is $539,800 more than he had for his last fight) . .

. that's why.

And right now I don't know who to be more disgusted with - Don King, who looks

not to promote the sport (if we can call it that) of boxing but to promote his

own bank account, or the fools who will pay for this garbage every time it is

waved like a steak bone under the nose of a drooling dog.

If you can't see Don King and boxing for what it is, then go ahead and spend

$40 or $50 for that big Tyson-Foreman thing that's sure to come along and sure

to bring in excess of $100 million.

It's people like you who are making Don King rich beyond his wildest dreams

and if you don't think he's just yucking it up about that right now, then you

have a lot to learn.