ABC'S ARMEN KETEYIAN: "The question now is how many people
will pay $50 to watch Mike Tyson fight again" ("World News
Sunday," ABC, 8/20).
ESPN'S DICK SCHAAP, on his disgust with the SET pay-per-view
broadcast team: "I was offended by how blatantly they were all
shilling for Don King. Then I remembered how much time we spent
talking about Tyson and his return on 'The Sports Reporters' and
'SportsCenter' and I realized we all work for Don King, the only
difference is the people who broadcast the fight last night got
paid for it. Only in America" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 8/20).
JOHN FEINSTEIN: "My surprise is that anyone was surprised.
... People buy this stuff, and if they buy this stuff, that is
their problem -- not Don King's, and not Mike Tyson's" ("Sports
Reporters," ESPN, 8/20).
WALL STREET JOURNAL'S FREDERICK KLEIN: "At least nobody got
hurt" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/21).
N.Y. POST'S WALLACE MATTHEWS: "Everyone, it seems, got what
they deserved" (N.Y. POST, 8/21).
NEWSDAY'S GREG LOGAN: "Once again, the public came away
from a major boxing event feeling cheated." NEWSDAY'S JOE GERGEN
wrote that boxing "suffered another a) black eye, b) blow to its
credibility, c) psychological knockout or d) all of the above"
(NEWSDAY, 8/20-21).
BOSTON HERALD'S JIM BAKER: "This time the public was raped
-- financially" (BOSTON HERALD, 8/21).
ORLANDO SENTINEL'S BRIAN SCHMITZ: "It is more evidence that
boxing screams for governmental regulation. [McNeeley manager
Vinny] Vecchione was merely protecting his fighter and
investment, doing what state officials should have done" (ORLANDO
SENTINEL, 8/20).
N.Y. TIMES' HARVEY ARATON: "Book a third-rate act, get a
third-rate performance" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/21).
USA TODAY'S BRYAN BURWELL: "This fight didn't tell us
anything about Tyson as a boxer, because it was all too brief and
McNeeley fell way too often. But it told us tons about Tyson as
an attraction" (USA TODAY, 8/21).
L.A. TIMES' TIM KAWAKAMI: "Only boxing can make an
inevitable result seem bizarre" (L.A. TIMES, 8/21).
L.A. TIMES' MIKE DOWNEY: "Mike Tyson has taken worse
punishment from prison food" (L.A. TIMES, 8/20).
WALL STREET JOURNAL'S MARK ROBICHAUX writes that the fight
"breathed new life into the pay-per-view industry" (WALL STREET
JOURNAL, 8/21).
BOXING ILLUSTRATED'S HERBERT GOLDMAN, on Tyson: "Regardless
of how good he is in the ring with his fists, promoters and
manufacturers of major products want a certain image, and Mike,
right now, does not have that image. But he has enough of the
right image to draw people to see him fight" ("Sports View,"
CNBC, 8/18).
