Talks go on; new deadline looms

Negotiations inched forward but local sponsors in Memphis failed again Friday to come up with a $12.5 million site fee to land the much-shopped Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis fight.

Promoters originally hoped to announce a deal Friday for the June 8 heavyweight title bout, but instead will now go up against a Monday deadline that might be the last chance to salvage a fight troubled from the day it was officially announced.

If the fight is not formalized by Monday, the International Boxing Federation has said Lewis must fight No. 1 contender Chris Byrd or risk losing one of his two heavyweight titles.

That deadline, though, like others, could disappear in an increasingly desperate attempt to make one of boxing's richest fights ever -- a bout that has been shopped around the country and the world without success so far.

"These deals are 99 percent perseverance," said Pat English, an attorney for Main Events, the promoter for Lewis. "I'm still optimistic."

Memphis had appeared to have the fight in hand, but a local bank on Thursday refused to issue a letter of credit for the site fee, citing "moral issues." Tennessee promoter Brian Young went shopping for another bank Friday, but did not get a money pledge.

"It's not that we don't have the money but we took a right hook we didn't see coming," Young said. "But we picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off."

The main person behind Washington D.C.'s bid for the fight, meanwhile, conceded that the city was out of the running.

"It's either going to Memphis or there's not going to be a fight," said Michael Brown, of the D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission.