King says Tyson made mistake in filing lawsuit

Dean Juipe

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 10:05 a.m.

Of course there was hyperbole and double talk and, perhaps, misinformation. After all, the speaker was Don King.

Yet in the midst of his meandering diatribe the famed boxing promoter let it be known that he feels his most celebrated client, Mike Tyson, has made a mistake in filing a $100 million lawsuit against him in New York City.

That suit, filed last Thursday, not only seeks financial compensation but looks to sever the relationship between the fighter and the promoter.

King made his first comments on the suit and Tyson during Saturday's pay-per-view boxing card from Mexico City that featured Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Miguel Angel Gonzalez. While Chavez and Gonzalez fought to a draw, King is looking for a more favorable result when Tyson's suit is heard in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

"I might say this is a totally meritless lawsuit," King said of accusations that he siphoned off untold millions of dollars that should have ended up in Tyson's pocket. "We generated for Mike Tyson's end $115 million in 18 months. It made him the highest paid athlete in the history of the world. There's no athlete alive that has made that kind of money and in that short period of time."

While interviewer Jim Gray attempted to steer the conversation to specifics, King balked under the "advice of counsel" premise. Yet he said Tyson was not only being used by his new consultants, he knew and approved of every contractual arrangement he entered into with King.

"Certainly Mike Tyson knows how to read," King said. "He has no problem with reading. I don't know what he learned or didn't learn, but I do know that Team Tyson told Mike every bit of every deal. He knew everything from the beginning to the end.

"His newfound manipulators ... are using him as a pawn. I'm terribly hurt and disappointed that he would allow himself to be used in such a manner to make an assault on me."

Chief among those "manipulators" is Jeff Wald, a Hollywood agent who, King said, met Tyson through King.

"He happens to be a guy who ate at my table, came to my house," King said of Wald. "I brought him and his wife to Mike Tyson, to all of my shows. I thought he was a dear friend and I loaned him $85,000 to keep him going because he was stone broke.

"I tried to help him in every way and this is his betrayal, what we call a back stabber."

King also questioned the timing of the lawsuit in that it came just a week before he has to defend himself on fraud charges brought by Lloyd's of London. That case opens Wednesday in New York.

"It's a thinly veiled scheme to try to devise prejudice or influence prospective jurors in my criminal trial," King said of Tyson's suit. "They're trying to prejudice my jury with all these allegations and accusations."

He also said he won't devote his full attention to Tyson until the fraud trial is resolved.

"Right now I have to deal with my criminal trial," he said. "That's a meritless case as well and I'm extremely confident that I will be totally vindicated. But it's my foremost concern right now.

"After I get through with that, then I will take on Mike Tyson."