Let's get it on, Tyson tells Lewis
Mike Tyson is ready to get it on - but obstacles are already looming down the road to a Lennox Lewis superfight.
The Tyson and Lewis camps are already on a collision course over the carve-up of the £70million from what will be the biggest fight in boxing history.
And the gloves are off in the war over TV rights with Showtime, to whom Tyson is contracted, refusing to allow the fight to appear on rival Home Box Office.
Tyson's green light at least means both fighters have gone on record as saying they want the fight, which Lewis' handlers ambitiously suggested would take place on July 21.
Tyson's manager Shelly Finkel spoke to the former world champion after the Lewis camp suggested that they were targeting a summer date and Tyson's response was: "Let's get it on!"
Finkel said of Tyson, who turns 35 on June 30: "Mike would love to have this fight as a birthday gift.
"If Lennox is serious about making this fight, there's nothing avoiding it happening at our end."
But even before the negotiations can start in earnest both fighters must win warm-up bouts.
Lewis is scheduled to defend his WBC and IBF titles against American Hasim Rahman on April 21 and Tyson is pencilled in for a bout in either April or May, probably against either David Izon or Shannon Briggs.
Finkel and Lewis' manager Adrian Ogun insist a Lewis-Tyson fight is so big it will overcome TV problems but Showtime's executive producer Jay Larkin said his network stepped aside to allow Evander Holyfield to fight Lewis twice on HBO and wasn't about to step aside again.
"We've drawn a line in the and with a great, big fat stick," Larkin said. "It cannot happen on HBO without a significant compelling reason for us to make it happen.
"There's only one person who can make this fight a reality and that's Lennox Lewis. When Lennox truly wants to make this fight, he'll come out of hiding and make it."
Meanwhile Finkel hinted at a possible hitch over the purses by intimating that Tyson would expect a bigger slice of the pie despite the fact that he would come into the bout with no title around his waist.
Lewis, who acceded to similar demands by Evander Holyfield before their first fight on the basis that Holyfield held one more title than him, would draw the line at Tyson getting paid more.
But Finkel said: "I believe we're worth more because we bring the money. Mike is the biggest attraction here."
