Titans, Young talking: Team wouldn't mind Tyson at Adelphia
By PAUL KUHARSKY
Staff Writer
Local boxing promoter Brian Young met yesterday with Adelphia Coliseum officials in an attempt to piece together a package to lure a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis to Music City.
Young said he believed a partnership with the coliseum would ''guarantee the success of the bout,'' which was initially scheduled for April 8 in Las Vegas.
But it remains unclear how realistic a possibility Nashville is for the bout.
In yesterday's 90-minute meeting with Titans vice president and general manager of Adelphia Coliseum Bill Dickerson and events manager Rob Robinson, Young said a June 8 date and a seating capacity of 30,000 were discussed.
Dickerson reported on the meeting to team President Jeff Diamond, who in turn passed details on to owner Bud Adams in Houston.
''If it was going to come to Nashville, certainly we'd like to have it at Adelphia,'' Diamond said. ''At this point it's a little premature to discuss it. We'll toss it around internally and see what we can come up with.''
Diamond said he believes a lease arrangement similar to ones used for events held at the coliseum in the past, such as an 'NSync concert or a Vanderbilt-Tennessee football game, could be put together for the fight if Young can steer it to Nashville.
Diamond said the Titans will probably get back to Young in the next couple of days.
Young said he is in constant contact with Shelly Finkel, Tyson's manager, and hopes to pass along a proposal to him by this weekend.
Young will have a similar meeting at the Gaylord Entertainment Center today. Capacity for a fight there would be around 17,000.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission recently declined to grant Tyson a boxing license, sparking a great deal of speculation about other potential sites.
One of them, the Texas Motor Speedway in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, dropped out as a possibility yesterday.
Speedway General Manager Eddie Gossage, a Nashville native and Middle Tennessee State alum, said in a statement that ''Mike Tyson makes this fight undesirable for us. Regardless of the money, regardless of the national and international exposure, regardless of what some consider the upside ? the downside overshadows all of them.''
Several other locations have been reported as possible hosts for the bout, including other sites in Dallas as well as San Antonio, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles and Arizona.
But an optimistic Young said: ''I don't know too many people still left standing.''
Tyson, whose checkered past includes jail time for a rape conviction, initiated a fight with Lewis at a recent event promoting the fight, then had his Nevada license application denied.
To fight Lewis in Nashville, Tyson would have to be granted a license by the State Board of Boxing and Racing, which operates under Tennessee's department of commerce and insurance.
Paul Kuharsky is a staff writer for The Tennessean. He can be reached at [edited by taoist for Jack].
(...thought i'd save you the trouble, Jack.)
By PAUL KUHARSKY
Staff Writer
Local boxing promoter Brian Young met yesterday with Adelphia Coliseum officials in an attempt to piece together a package to lure a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis to Music City.
Young said he believed a partnership with the coliseum would ''guarantee the success of the bout,'' which was initially scheduled for April 8 in Las Vegas.
But it remains unclear how realistic a possibility Nashville is for the bout.
In yesterday's 90-minute meeting with Titans vice president and general manager of Adelphia Coliseum Bill Dickerson and events manager Rob Robinson, Young said a June 8 date and a seating capacity of 30,000 were discussed.
Dickerson reported on the meeting to team President Jeff Diamond, who in turn passed details on to owner Bud Adams in Houston.
''If it was going to come to Nashville, certainly we'd like to have it at Adelphia,'' Diamond said. ''At this point it's a little premature to discuss it. We'll toss it around internally and see what we can come up with.''
Diamond said he believes a lease arrangement similar to ones used for events held at the coliseum in the past, such as an 'NSync concert or a Vanderbilt-Tennessee football game, could be put together for the fight if Young can steer it to Nashville.
Diamond said the Titans will probably get back to Young in the next couple of days.
Young said he is in constant contact with Shelly Finkel, Tyson's manager, and hopes to pass along a proposal to him by this weekend.
Young will have a similar meeting at the Gaylord Entertainment Center today. Capacity for a fight there would be around 17,000.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission recently declined to grant Tyson a boxing license, sparking a great deal of speculation about other potential sites.
One of them, the Texas Motor Speedway in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, dropped out as a possibility yesterday.
Speedway General Manager Eddie Gossage, a Nashville native and Middle Tennessee State alum, said in a statement that ''Mike Tyson makes this fight undesirable for us. Regardless of the money, regardless of the national and international exposure, regardless of what some consider the upside ? the downside overshadows all of them.''
Several other locations have been reported as possible hosts for the bout, including other sites in Dallas as well as San Antonio, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles and Arizona.
But an optimistic Young said: ''I don't know too many people still left standing.''
Tyson, whose checkered past includes jail time for a rape conviction, initiated a fight with Lewis at a recent event promoting the fight, then had his Nevada license application denied.
To fight Lewis in Nashville, Tyson would have to be granted a license by the State Board of Boxing and Racing, which operates under Tennessee's department of commerce and insurance.
Paul Kuharsky is a staff writer for The Tennessean. He can be reached at [edited by taoist for Jack].
(...thought i'd save you the trouble, Jack.)
