ST. LOUIS-The ?leak,? if you can call it that, originated with Don King himself, who in Friday morning?s wee hours sent out word (?to friend and foe alike??) that Floyd Mayweather, Evander Hoyfield and Mike Tyson were en route to St. Louis and would be at ringside as his special guests for Saturday night?s ?Gateway to Greatness? title fight tripleheader at the Scottrade Center.
The inclusion of Mayweather on the guest list, coming as it did just days after Manny Pacquiao?s promoter Bob Arum had said that King replacing Golden Boy?s Richard Schaefer at the negotiating table could salvage a Pacquio-Mayweather mega-fight that otherwise appears doomed.
?King is the most persuasive guy I?ve ever met,? Arum told the Los Angeles Times. ?With enough time, he?ll get this kid to come over. Don?s no fool. He knows how to make a fight.?
While King did not discourage such talk, there is no indication that Money?s presence in St. Louis would make a Pacquiao fight any closer.
The dual presence of Holyfield and Tyson is sure to fuel talk of a third bout between the two, although that is a notion so far-fetched that King himself was constrained to throw cold water on the suggestion a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, it would signify a further thaw in the relationship between King and Tyson, who described the promoter as ?a wretched slimy reptilian motherfucker? in James Tobak?s ?Tyson? film last year. Since the movie?s release there has been a rapproachment of sorts, and last October Tyson worked the online telecast team (along with Col. Bob Sheridan), calling the Joseph Akbeko-Yonnhy Perez undercard for DonKing.com.
If the timing of the leak has nothing to do with Pacquiao-Mayweather or Holyfield-Tyson III, then, what was it all about?
The cynic might suggest a last-minute run on the Scottrade box office.
