Smash Dance

Ron Weathers, a close friend of Foreman's and his adviser, negotiates all of Foreman's bouts, and King has ignored him. "I have to get the O.K. from Ron, period," said Foreman. "I don't want to get involved in all of King's colloquialisms: brother this and brother that. Ron and I started together, and I am not about to tell him goodbye, that King is knocking on my door and I don't need him anymore. It's O.K. to cross the finish line, but you got to make sure you are holding hands with your friends when you do it."

Foreman is in an enviable position. This is an era of multimillion-dollar purses. For their slow dance at the Mirage, Tyson and Ruddock earned at least $5 million apiece. Unless Holyfield and Tyson meet, Foreman is the only fighter who can provide either one of them with a lucrative payday.

On Friday night, Foreman paid $34.95 to watch the Tyson-Ruddock fight on pay-per-view television. "After the seventh round it looked like a lot of holding to me," said Foreman. "One guy would hit the other, and then he'd hope the other guy wouldn't hit him back. I think Tyson is gone. It's like Carl Lewis and some of those other runners: One year they are beating everybody, and the next year you never hear their names. Tyson has become average. And an average fighter can be beaten by anybody on a given night."

King should take that as a message. It's time for him to air express a white flag to Duva.