MGM Grand Senior VP/Marketing Don Welsh said that even
with a "scaled-down" 14,000-seat arena, Saturday's Mike
Tyson-Frans Botha fight "won't be a sellout," according to
Royce Feour of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. Welsh: "We are
estimating, based on the (ticket sales) performance this
week ... it will be 10,500 to 12,000 for the fight. If we
are lucky, it will hit 12,000" (L.V. REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/14).
In N.Y., Michael Katz writes that the fight's "buzz appears
muted" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/14). In Toronto, Stephen Brunt
writes that Tyson's box office appeal "may finally be
starting to wane," despite his "aura with the higher public
that no one else in the sport possesses." Brunt, on the
marketing plan designed to show Tyson's origins, emergence,
setbacks and triumphs: "So far, the world isn't buying it,
and Tyson isn't helping his cause" (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/14).
MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOU? In N.Y., Michael Katz
writes that Tyson's anger "has been simmering," and that in
a Phoenix gym he "had to be restrained" after "he ran at"
ESPN's Mark Schwartz because of an ESPN2 roundtable
discussion that "criticized him" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/14).
ON TV: During an interview with Jim Gray on NBC's
"Dateline," Tyson commented on his public image: "I don't
care about my public image. If I cared about my public
image I would've never told you on national television that
I was at a strip club the other day. You think I give a
damn what somebody thinks about me?" (NBC, 1/13).
ARUM-MATIC FOR THE HALL OF FAME: Top Rank President Bob
Arum, on being inducted to the boxing Hall of Fame: "To me
it's very embarrassing because I just don't think any of the
present-day promoters should be in the Hall of Fame because
we are partly responsible for the sad state of boxing
today." Arum said he would make his views "known at the
ceremony" scheduled for June 13 at the Int'l Boxing Hall of
Fame in Canastota, NY (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/13).
