Moorer wins close decision

      Michael Moorer got the victory Saturday night, but not by the impressive fashion promoters hoped.
      Moorer retained his International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship but had to settle for a majority decision over Vaughn Bean before an announced sellout crowd of 8,018 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
      Promoters had eyed a possible bout between Moorer and the winner of the Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson rematch May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden.
      The southpaw Moorer appeared to out-box and throw more punches than Bean, but the judges scored it a close fight.
      Judge Bill Graham had it 116-113, and judge Jerry Roth had it 115-113, both for Moorer. Judge Dave Moretti had it a draw, 114-114. All three officials are from Las Vegas.
      There were no knockdowns or anything close to a knockdown. But Moorer, 212 pounds, was the aggressor throughout the bout.
      Bean, also 212, backpedaled much of the night while Moorer made the fight for most of the bout.
      Graham and Roth gave the 12th and final round to Bean, making the fight relatively close on their scorecards. Moretti gave the last round to Moorer. If Moretti had also given the last round to Bean, it would have been a split decision.
      Butch Lewis, Bean's promoter, was irate with the decision.
      He jumped through the ropes after the decision was announced and yelled at members of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
      "They (the media) kept saying my kid might not last a round. They wanted to jump on Don King and me because we made the match. As the media was telling everyone that, it's like when they say that you should buy Tide, then you don't buy Tide. They (the judges) have been hearing this for eight weeks. These officials live here.
      "All I asked them (the athletic commission) to do was bring in neutral officials, so they wouldn't be biased by the media," Lewis screamed during an interview on Showtime.
      The crowd wasn't enamored of either fighter's performance. The crowd booed late in the sixth round, after the seventh round and after the 10th and 11th rounds.
      Moorer closed an 8 1/2 favorite after opening as a 9-1 favorite and sitting as a 6-1 favorite for most of the week before the fight.
      Although Moorer failed to score a knockout victory, he did more than Bean to win the fight.
      Bean did score when he threw punches and caught Moorer coming in at times. But Bean failed to put together many combinations or power punches.
      Bean, 23 may have been intimidated by Moorer or the act of fighting for the heavyweight championship.
      Bean had never faced a fighter close to the top 10 in compiling a 27-0 record since turning pro in 1992.
      Of Bean's 26 opponents (he fought one opponent twice), only four had winning records when he fought them. Of the four, only one still has a winning record.
      Moorer's manager, John Davimos, has said he has a contract for Moorer to fight Tyson if Tyson wins the rematch next month. Davimos said promoter Don King had signed the contract but Tyson had not.
      Moorer was noncommittal when asked if his performance helped him get a possible Tyson or Holyfield fight.
      "Styles make fights. We'll see what happens," Moorer said.
      Moorer did not attend the post-fight news conference. A spokesman for Showtime said his mother suffered a stroke Saturday and was in a Las Vegas hospital. It was not known if Moorer knew about the stroke before his fight.