Tyson Fixes Seldon In First Round Crowd Takes Verbal Swings After 109-Second Bout

Bruce Seldon called Mike Tyson a destroyer. The fans called the fight a fix.

“Fix! Fix!” the ugliest word in boxing, resounded through the MGM Grand Garden after Tyson knocked Seldon down twice and stopped him in 109 seconds Saturday night to win the WBA heavyweight championship.

“I went up against the baddest man on the planet,” Seldon said. “It wasn’t a fixed fight. I didn’t train 12 weeks to come in here and take a dive.

“They say Mike Tyson is a destroyer. I am a witness to that.”

Tyson swarmed all over Seldon from the opening bell. And while Seldon was able to tie him up on a few occasions, he couldn’t keep him at bay.

“I’m punching pretty hard these days,” Tyson said. “I’m punching harder than when I was younger.”

However, it was a punch that most of the fans thought didn’t land that led to the chorus of boos and the shouts of a fixed fight from the crowd, estimated at 9,000.

Seldon went face down from a glancing right hand high on the forehead. At first, referee Richard Steele thought it was a slip.

“I went to wave it (a knockdown) off, and I looked at Bruce again and the fighter seemed dazed and hurt, so I had to pick up the count,” Steele said.

Seldon admitted the punch was a grazing blow, but added, “He got a little elbow behind it, which did me in.”

Seldon struggled up and took the 8-count. Tyson then was on him, firing a left hook to the jaw that dropped Seldon face down again.

Again he struggled up, but his legs were rubbery and Steele stopped the fight.

“The second time, it (the left hook) rattled my eyes,” the 29-year-old Seldon said. “I couldn’t see clearly.”

Seldon is known as the Atlantic City Express, after his hometown, but his journey with Tyson was much too fast for the crowd.

“Cus D’Amato: Two down and one to go,” Tyson said, referring to his late boxing mentor and also to the fact that he added the WBA championship to the WBC title he already held.

The WBC championship was not at stake because of an agreement reached with Lennox Lewis, who was supposed to get the first shot at the WBC title Tyson won by stopping Frank Bruno in the third round on March 16. Lewis accepted $4 million to allow Tyson to challenge for the WBA title.

It appears that Tyson won’t be WBC champion for long. He is set to fight Evander Holyfield, not Lewis, on Nov. 9 at the MGM Grand.

WBC president Jose Sulaiman said earlier in the day that he was told Tyson would relinquish his organization’s title shortly.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Tyson said of a match with Holyfield. “Holyfield is in for a lot of trouble.”

Since his release from prison March 25, 1995, Tyson’s four fights have lasted a total of less than eight full rounds. In those four fights, Tyson’s purses totaled $75 million, $15 million of it coming Saturday night.

Seldon had to wait nearly two months to pick up his $5 million paycheck, because the fight originally scheduled for July 13 was postponed when Tyson came down with bronchitis.

Since Tyson launched his comeback Aug. 19 with an 89-second win over Peter McNeeley, he has been stopped only by injury and illness. No opponent has even made him break a sweat.

The 109-second bout was not Tyson’s fastest in a championship. He knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds and Carl Williams in 93 in undisputed championship bouts in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

The 32-year-old Tyson, who weighed 219 pounds, earned his 45th victory against a single loss. It was his 39th knockout.

Seldon lost for the fourth time against 33 wins and 29 knockouts.