The biggest boxing bout of Willie "Duke" Herenton's career is one he's not even lacing up for. He amassed a 60-3 record in his seven years as an amateur boxer by learning to take punches and wear his foes down.
Now the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, he is taking lumps over his decision to host the June 8 heavyweight fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Herenton sees the event as a chance to lift Memphis' image and give the local economy a boost -- estimated at US$50 million for area businesses by the city visitors' bureau.
PHOTO: AP
Memphis knows about negative publicity. On April 4, 1968, the city was changed when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was slain on a motel balcony. Now, with an unpredictable boxer, an unproven host, and the world as witness, Memphis risks watching its reputation be sullied again.
PHOTO: AP
"I'm praying that we have a great fight and we can pull this off without any embarrassment to anyone," said Herenton, the city's first black mayor, in an interview. "It has a lot of upside, but if we don't execute well, it has downside, too."
Herenton isn't worried about Tyson, who was originally scheduled to fight Lewis in Las Vegas in April. The fight was called off when the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted not to license Tyson, citing his brawl with Lewis at a news conference.
What does concern him is living up to promises he made to win the right to host the fight, including providing adequate security and transportation routes.
Memphis has struggled to keep its citizens employed and the city government financially sound as the economy was hobbled by recession.
Unemployment in the metropolitan area, with 1.14 million people, rose to 5.6 percent in January, the highest since June 1995. About 22 percent more Memphians filed for bankruptcy protection in the 12 months that ended March 31 compared with the prior year.
Now comes the fight, which has already led to a record US$23.9 million in gross ticket sales at the 19,000-seat Pyramid arena.
That translates into US$1.8 million in sales tax revenue alone.
An estimated 40,000 people will visit the city, the Memphis Convention and Visitors' Bureau estimates, spending as much as US$50 million on blues music, barbecue and trips to Graceland, the home of rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley.
Herenton uses such figures in his defense. "This fight is bigger than Mike Tyson," he said. "It's about a sporting attraction that's going to yield great economic returns."
It's that kind of thinking that led the 10 casino owners of Tunica, Mississippi, 30 miles to the south, to join forces with Herenton, who said he couldn't have pulled off the fight without their support.
In a series of March meetings, the casino owners agreed that they would offer up their hotel rooms and grounds for training, and buy up blocks of tickets to the fight.
As the general manager of Fitzgeralds Casino, Domenic Mezzetta is less worried about hosting the Tyson camp than about the rising waters of the Mississippi River, which are threatening to flood the lower deck of one of his parking lots.
Fitzgeralds agreed to purchase US$500,000 worth of tickets, to block out 160 rooms for Tyson's camp and various media, and to provide transportation for fight-goers. Mezzetta expects to recoup the costs by selling travel packages from US$1,800 to US$7,000 per couple, but he's focused more on the bout's lasting impact.
"If the goddess of luck is smiling on us, then we'll make a profit," he said. "But either way, the long-term value of this is immeasurable."
The bout has already elevated the exposure of at least one participant in the fight sweepstakes.
It was Brian Young, a 36-year-old fight promoter out of Nashville, Tennessee, who literally picked up the phone in early February and put Memphis in the bidding game after Tyson's application was denied in Las Vegas.
He first called his friend Tommy Patrick, of Tennessee's Board of Boxing and Racing, who said he thought they could pull off the fight. Then he phoned the top promoters for both camps.
Gary Shaw, representing Lewis as chief operating officer at Main Events, was recovering from prostate surgery at his sister-in-law's house in Los Angeles.
"She kept coming into the room, saying there's a guy on the phone from Nashville who says he can do the fight," Shaw said. "I told her to take a message."
Both camps were "very skeptical," said Young, whose biggest promotion to date was a US$10,000 WBC World Youth title fight on the Nashville Fairgrounds last May that drew 1,500 fans. Young stands to make considerably more on the Lewis-Tyson bout, though he declined to put a number on it.
Then, Herenton gave his full support and the two started working out a bid centered on the Pyramid, home of the city's fledgling Memphis Grizzlies basketball franchise. Shaw started taking Young's calls, and Lewis announced Memphis as the site during a March 25 press conference.
Tyson's history, which includes a conviction each for rape and misdemeanor assault, gave the fight's supporters more than a few headaches. The biggest threat came from First Tennessee Bank, which denied a line of credit to fund the US$12.5 million site fee because of a "moral issue" with the fight. Unnamed private investors were rounded up instead.
While they're apprehensive about hosting Tyson, whose antics crossed over into the ring when he bit Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 fight, Memphians are counting their fortunes at the same time.
"I heard one of our bellmen say he's going to buy a new house with the tips he makes from the fight," said Dan Bills, weekend manager at the Peabody Hotel.
The 130-year-old Peabody, whose twice daily march of mallard ducks between the hotel's lobby fountain and an awaiting elevator still draws the crowds, is bracing for a big haul. The Peabody has sold out fight packages costing as much as US$7,500, including signature fight glasses and a flower bouquet.
Guitarist Greg Norris is banking on the exposure, even if his city runs the risk of returning to the realm of Disgraceland. His band, the BB King All-Stars, is headlining at BB King's Blues Club on June 8, and playing at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica the following night.
"I think Tyson's a thug, but if he can help us, then great," Norris said, before taking the stage at BB's and launching into Eddie Floyd's Knock on Wood.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique