Tyson’s foul may not count

Dean Juipe

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.

Maybe he doesn't need any damage control.

A day after Mike Tyson swore in front of the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, reports indicate the commission may not hold the offensive outburst against him.

While one board member, Gerard Gormley, declined comment, another, Gary Shaw, implied Tyson using the f-word was no big deal.

"I didn't take it that he was swearing at me or the board personally," Shaw told the Associated Press. "He was talking to his attorney at the time."

Given Shaw's indifference toward the remark, he seems likely to vote in favor of licensing Tyson when the board meets on the subject next Thursday. As for Gormley, who knows?

"They'll focus on all the testimony that was given, not just that five minutes that everyone keeps seeing on TV," said Rhonda Utley-Herring, a spokeswoman for the Athletic Control Board. "They are going to deal with the public comments that are on the record."

Inexplicably, the third member of the board, Steven Katz, has excused himself from the entire scenario by going on vacation. He will not vote on Tyson's licensing, leaving Shaw and Gormley to decide Tyson's fate in New Jersey.

Tyson is seeking to be licensed there after having his license revoked in Nevada for biting the ears of Evander Holyfield during a June 28, 1997, fight at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission expected to be the regulatory body that would decide Tyson's relicensing. But Tyson, instead, applied in New Jersey and that state agreed to hear the case much to Nevada's chagrin.

Thursday, Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan distributed a letter he wrote to New Jersey commissioner (but non-voting Athletic Control Board member) Larry Hazzard. In his letter, Bryan accused New Jersey of "weakening the roles of state boxing commissions."

He also accused Hazzard of "repudiating" the testimony he gave at a July 23 Senate hearing in Washington.

At the time, Hazzard said New Jersey's consideration of Tyson's relicensing "was consistent with both the letter and the spirit" of the Bryan-sponsored Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1997. But in Bryan's letter to Hazzard, the senator says "if suspensions or revocations are not honored between states, it will only serve to embolden those who seek to establish a federal boxing commission."