Let’s get ready to rumble

And this time it won’t be pure hype when IBF and WBA kingpin,
36-year-old
Evander Holyfield (36-3 with 25 KOs) squares off against his WBC
counterpart, 33-year-old Lennox Lewis (34-1 with 27 KOs) Saturday night
in
New York’s Madison Square Garden.

In an unscientific poll, conducted by the Toronto Sun, 54 per cent of
the
123 votes went to Lewis, however, those percentage points could slip
since
Holyfield seemingly always rates as an underdog.

In the past, I’ve always been a Holyfield fanatic.

However, this time it’s different.

I’m picking Lewis in 12 rounds.

He’s been lurking in the wings for years, bidding his time, sometimes

ignored and he must feel slighted at the lack of respect he’s received.

The Holy Warrior, with his cap inscribed with “Jesus Is Lord,”
Holyfield at
220, actually seems cocky in his approach, spouting that he’ll drop
Lewis
in three.

Not so this time, Evander.

Lewis is three years younger and weighs 23 pounds more of muscle. At
least
that’s the weight differential before the official weigh-in March 11.

However, my most memorable memory was Lennox’s annihilation of
Donovan
(Razor) Ruddock, and not Tyson’s ear-biting incident against the
champion.

I know, I know, Holyfield has socked the likes of Riddick Bowe,
Michael
Moorer and two guys who must be collecting the old-age pension — George

Foreman and Larry Holmes. Meanwhile, Lewis, who calls London, England
and
parts of southern Ontario as home, has stuffed lesser lights in Ruddock,

Frank Bruno, Ray Mercer and Andrew (Mr. Low Blows) Golota.

Promoter Don King was at his “super-ecstatic” best, or worst, when he

announced the contest with Holyfield getting $20 million in comparison
with
Lewis’ $8 mil.

What makes this PPV rumble in the Garden so fascinating is that while

Holyfield has said he’ll take out Lewis in three, he also fudges by
saying
this might be his last, for he’s moving up in the age bracket and for
Lewis, it’s probably his last stab at the unified title.

For what seems a decade, Lewis has been left hanging on the ropes for
a
shot, being caught in the whirl of contractual disagreements.

It finally became a reality when promoter King and HBO Sports prez
Seth
Abraham shook hands, according to Sunday’s Boston Globe.

Both King and Abraham had been at odds since 1990 when Abraham
refused to
bounce commentator Larry Merchant from Mike Tyson’s boxing shows after
“King promised Tyson that would be part of their new contract,” wrote
Ron
Borges.

Tyson and King went “across the street” to HBO’s bitter rival,
Showtime.

During the interim, major matches were blocked and Lewis was
prevented for
fighting for the unified title; however, now King and Abraham have
shaken
hands and as Mills Lane would growl: “Let’s get it on.”

“Don and I realized together we could make some big fights,” Abraham
told
the Globe. “We had a trial separation that lasted eight years, but it
didn’t work. After we made Lewis-Holyfield I was hoping it wouldn’t be a

one-date relationship. It wasn’t. We made Trinidad-Whitaker.”

However, in all the rhetoric leading up to Saturday night’s fight,
King did
and always has had the last word.

“We didn’t ever have no issues but one. No one was more shocked,
hurt, or
disappointed than me to leave HBO over a commentator (Merchant).”

Then King started to go on a verbal roll and most turned down their
hearing
aids except the Globe’s Borges.

Oh yes, it’s not about politics, or Abraham or King, but about
Saturday
night in the Garden.

Lewis in 12.

A WAR OF WORDS: Both Holyfield and Lewis have mainly concentrated in
their
respective training camps, however, Evander stepped out of humble role
for
a moment in proclaiming he’d take his opponent out in three; however,
Lewis
came back with his “hypocrite” comments: “He says he’s religious, but
he’s
a hypocrite.”

Holyfield admitted in late 1998 that he’d fathered five kids out of
wedlock
with four women. The Tyson “tamer” said such comments didn’t bother him.

“What he saying is I made some mistakes. If I can be heavyweight
champion
of the world and make mistakes, why can’t I be a man of God and make
mistakes? Why can’t I clean myself and get back up? ”

THE TYSON WATCH: It’s not freedom yet for Mike Tyson, but his release
date
is closer now that he won’t have to return to Indiana for jail time.
However, he
will still have to serve an extra 60 days for violating probation at the

end of the one-year sentence he’s serving in Montgomery County, Md., for
a
misdemeanor assault.

Tyson will pay the state of Indiana $80 per day, or a total of
$4,800, for
the cost of his incarceration on the probation violation, and Indiana
will
reimburse the money to Maryland authorities.

GIVE ‘EM A CUBAN CIGAR: It took the politicos decades to pull it off,
but
times are changing for Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Major League Baseball.

Castro, a one-time major pitching prospect, has agreed with the U.S.
state
dept. to allow a home-and-home exhibition series between Baltimore
Orioles
and the Cuban all-stars. The O’s are scheduled to play Havana on March
28
and later in Baltimore’s Camden Yards.

The negotiations for such a celebrated series was held up because of
the
squabble over revenues and where they’d go.

SAY, MARIO, CAN YOU SPARE A MIL OR TWO? Superstar Mario Lemieux, who
led
Pittsburgh to two Stanley Cups, has been chasing $50 million in order to

buy the bankrupt Pens so they don’t move to another city.

In a strange twist, Lemieux, as the largest unsecured creditor,
claims the
Penguins owe him $31.4 million in back pay. They are about $125 million
in
debt.

P.S. Three questions:

1. Is there anybody besides Coach K’s Duke to consider in March
Madness?

2. Has anyone ever won any Coca-Cola bottle top $$$?