Holyfield-Lewis Negotiations For Unification Run Into Snag

Attempts to unify the heavyweight title for the first time since 1992 were thwarted again when talks between Evander Holyfield and HBO broke down early Tuesday.

Hopes for unification rose Monday when the promoter for WBC champion Lennox Lewis said a $50 million deal had been struck and the fight had been scheduled for April 25 in Las Vegas.

But talks hit a snag when HBO, the network that has exclusive rights to Lewis’ fights, and Holyfield’s camp could not agree on how much money Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, would be guaranteed.

HBO guaranteed Holyfield 650,000 pay-per-view buys and all of the profits above that mark, but Holyfield wanted a 1 million buy guarantee, said Lou DiBella, the senior vice president for programming at Time Warner Sports, the pay-per-view arm of HBO.

Boxing commissioner Larry Hazzard was cleared of accusations that he fixed last month’s bout in which George Foreman lost to Shannon Briggs.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement dismissed a complaint from Foreman promoters Irving Azoff and Jeffrey Wald.

Division director Frank Catania said there was no merit to the claims that Hazzard conspired with two judges to give Briggs the 12-round decision in the Nov. 22 heavyweight bout.

Foreman dominated the fight, and Briggs appeared surprised when he was declared the winner. Many in the crowd of 5,220 at Trump Taj Mahal jeered the announcement.

At Nagoya, Japan, Satoshi Iida of Japan won the WBA junior bantamweight title by taking a unanimous decision over Thailand’s previously unbeaten Yokthai Sith Oar. Iida knocked down the champion in the first round with a straight left to the face.

Yokthai rallied and managed to survive the rest of the fight, but all three judges voted to lift his title.