Byline: ED SCHUYLER JR. Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA The next time Mike Tyson visits America's living rooms it will cost arm-chair fans.
A free Mike Tyson became a figure of the recent past Saturday night when he knocked out Buster Mathis Jr. and cleared the way for his first step toward a goal of again becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion.
It will be a pay-per-view journey, and, if you believe Frank Bruno, it will be a bad trip.
Tyson's challenge to WBC champion Bruno, public knowledge for some time, was formally announced Sunday for March 16 in the MGM Grand at Las Vegas.
``He needs to be told the truth and on March 16th he'll learn the truth,'' said Bruno, who suggested it was a faded Tyson who belted out Mathis in the third round before an estimated crowd of 8,000 at the Spectrum.
The live audience paid as much as $500 a ticket. A nationwide audience paid nothing to watch on the Fox Network. Philadelphia was not blacked-out.
``A guy from England is coming to kick his butt,'' said Bruno, adding that Tyson will be facing a better fighter than he stopped in the fifth round Feb. 25, 1989, when Tyson was the undisputed champion.
``I don't care who it is,'' Tyson said of his next opponent. ``I'm not afraid of anyone. I'll fight anywhere.''
At the MGM Grand on SET, Showtime's pay-per-view arm is where Tyson is expected to fight his next five matches if he keeps winning. He also will be getting much bigger purses than the $10 million he got for beating Mathis.
Promoter Don King envisions Tyson winning the WBC, WBA and WBA titles and then engaging in a gold-mine match against Riddick Bowe. Lennox Lewis of Britain, a former WBC champion, could enter the picture should he fight and beat Bowe while Tyson is competing in the ``King Tournament.''
Bruno, WBA champion Bruce Seldon of Atlantic City and Frans Botha of South Africa, all are promoted by King. Bowe is not.
Bruno, Seldon and Botha were introduced in the ring before the fight. One ringsider noticed that they were standing side-by-side and not in a row like tenpins.
Bowe attended the boxing show in Madison Square Garden on Friday night, and said he had no interest in making the trip to Philadelphia to watch Tyson. He smiled and said he would watch at home for free.
Asked who he thought would be his toughest opponent among Bruno, Seldon and Botha, Tyson said, ``You never know. I might fight the guy who everyone might think is the toughest of the three, and he might get knocked out in 30 seconds. I might fight the guy everyone thinks is the weakest of three and he might go for 12 rounds.''
Tyson was pleased with his stay in Philadelphia, where he fought for the first time, and with the reach of the crowd that cheered him mightily when he was introduced, and there were more cheers after the fight . . .
``I've been through some serious adversity recently,'' Tyson said. ``I just came out of prison and I'm just happy to be accepted.''
While the 29-year-old Tyson served three years in prison, his absence from the ring was actually a little more than four years before he returned with an 89-second victory over Peter McNeeley. With his victory over Mathis at 3:52 of the third round, Tyson has fought a little less than 3 rounds in 4 years.
But he doesn't think he needs another fight before facing Bruno.
Mathis crowded Tyson for the first two rounds and had him missing badly, with his left hook. Mathis, however, lacked the punching power to make Tyson pay for his misses.
The knockout came after Tyson backed Mathis up with a right uppercut and followed with a left hook and two crushing rights to the head that dropped Mathis on to his back.
Tyson said not all of his wildness with his left was due to ring rust, but that some of the misses were calculated.
``I kind of lullabied him,'' Tyson said. ``It was all a plot, a setup, just like the society.''
