Don King called it “Night of the Heavyweights.” But after a seven hour card that ended in the wee hours of yesterday morning, nothing of note was resolved in the division. No fighter delivered a dominant performance and no new blood emerged to excite the public.

There are currently four heavyweight “champions” – Vitali Klitschko, Chris Byrd, John Ruiz, and Lamon Brewster. None of the four has earned public acceptance because they’ve failed to prove themselves to fight fans in the ring. Rather, their championships have resulted from victories over weak opponents or another fighter being stripped of his belt by a world sanctioning organization.

King has promotional control over Byrd, Ruiz, and Brewster, and the latter two defended their titles at the Madison Square Garden slugfest. First up on Saturday night, Byrd took on Jameel McCline with the International Boxing Federation belt at stake.

McCline towered over the champion and outweighed him by 56 pounds (270 to 214). In the early going, it looked as though Goliath would prevail. In Round 2, McCline trapped Byrd in a corner, missed badly with a volley of punches, and landed a solid right hand that put Byrd down.

McCline has been accused of being too timid in the ring, especially for a fighter his size. But coincidental with the knockdown, he seemed to realize that Byrd might be able to sting him with blows but didn’t hit hard enough to take him out. Thus, for the next few rounds, Jameel fought aggressively and mixed his punches well. Then he tired, and Byrd came on in the late rounds for a 115-112, 114-113, 112-114 split-decision triumph. This observer scored it 115-112 in favor of McCline.

Ruiz also had a close call during his defense of the World Boxing Association crown against Andrew Golota Saturday night.

It’s hard to land a good clean punch on Ruiz. But this time, he came out hard, throwing overhand rights, going for all the marbles. That left him open to a perfectly timed right-hand counter by Golota in the second round. The blow landed flush on Ruiz’s jaw and put him down. He rose, but he was hurt and went down again before the bell.

Then Ruiz reverted to form: clutching, grappling, holding, and mauling. In Round 4, referee Randy Neumann deducted a point from the champion for illegal blows to the back of the head. Golota, meanwhile, was responding in kind.

Eventually, the fight settled into a pattern, with Ruiz slipping Golota’s jab and lunging forward with his head low like a fullback trying to work his way into the end zone. He also landed some effective body punches and at one point came close to head-butting Golota in the groin.

The judges scored it 114-111, 114-111, and 113-112 for Ruiz. That seemed odd, given the fact that Ruiz incurred a two-point deficit in the knockdown round, was penalized a point for rabbit-punching, and was out-landed 152-121.This observer scored the fight even at 113-113.

There was a second plot line to Ruiz-Golota, and it was even uglier than the fight itself. Eight years ago, Golota fought Riddick Bowe at Madison Square Garden and was disqualified for repeated low blows. A riot followed, with Golta’s Polish countrymen and Bowe’s African-American supporters assaulting one another. This time, both the Ruiz and Golota camps were warned in advance by the chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, Ron Scott Stevens, to be on their best behavior.

As Ruiz-Golota progressed, there were scattered fistfights throughout the crowd. After the first round, Norman Stone (Ruiz’s manager/trainer) ran across the ring to confront Sam Colonna (Golota’s trainer) over a perceived slight. Stone also screamed obscenities at referee Randy Neumann throughout the bout. Finally, Neumann advised Stevens, “I might want this guy ejected.”

“You’re the referee,” Stevens replied. “Do what you have to do.”

In Round 8, Neumann brought Ruiz to his corner to repair some loose tape on his glove. But Stone refused to do the job and berated the referee with another stream of profanities. At that point, Neumann told Stevens, “Ron, this guy’s got to go.” Stone was led out of the arena by security guards.

“We hope Ruiz will fight in New York again,” Stevens added. “But this type of behavior will not be tolerated. Nothing can justify Stone’s conduct. It would be unacceptable at a club fight. And for it to happen during a world championship fight at Madison Square Garden is disgraceful.”

Stone is lucky that he was ejected instead of additional points being taken away from his fighter. Look for the New York State Athletic Commission to levy a substantial fine against him.

Ruiz’s victory, like Byrd’s, did little to bolster his marketability or credentials. As for the future, King says he wants to promote a heavyweight championship tournament in 2005. But for the tournament to be credible, he needs the winner of the December 11 World Boxing Council matchup between Vitali Klitschko and Danny Williams to participate. That’s not likely to happen. At present, King doesn’t promote either Klitschko or Williams, and he says that he won’t allow either of them to enter the tournament unless they give him options on their future fights.

That leaves open the possibility of title-consolidation fights between King’s three champions. But no one would pay much for those fights. The only way for a promoter to make big money in the heavyweight division today is to control the champion or Mike Tyson. Thus, it will probably serve King’s interests to have three belts (and multiple “title” fights) for the forseeable future.

In sum, for all practical purposes, the heavyweight championship is now vacant. That’s a shame. Parity might be good for the National Football League, but not for heavyweight boxing.