Columnist Dean Juipe: Playboy piece should seal Tyson’s fate

Dean Juipe

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 9:32 a.m.

THE DELAYS are exasperating for everyone involved and Mike Tyson's chances of being relicensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission decline with each one.

It's easy to forget how simple this could have and should have been: Tyson was eligible to be reinstated by the NSAC on July 9 and, had he applied then, approval was a sure thing.

But his advisers failed to pull the trigger. They could have had him in front of the commission during the summer and back in the ring almost immediately thereafter, yet they balked and nothing but trouble has followed.

To encapsulate: Tyson takes a fling at getting licensed in New Jersey before withdrawing after catching the ire of the NSAC, the Association of Boxing Commissions and even a few politicians; a hearing date is set in Las Vegas but before he gets here he allegedly punches one man and kicks another after a minor traffic incident in Maryland; he agrees to independent psychological testing and to have the results read into the public record, but the report is late in reaching the NSAC and a hearing that was scheduled to reconvene is instead postponed as the confidentiality issue is run through the courts; and, Thursday's topper, Tyson allows himself to be interviewed at length for November's Playboy magazine and the picture he paints is of a troubled man on the verge of completely shorting out and going ballistic.

With each misstep, the odds against relicensing grow longer.

In fact, even without knowing how Tyson was analyzed by the independent testers at Massachusetts General Hospital, the NSAC has to really question itself on the merits of letting this man back in the boxing ring. The Playboy interview is fabulous reading and it's amazing if not admirable to see Tyson so frank and spontaneous, yet much of what he has to say works against him.

It's still another example of a man seemingly intent on self-destruction.

The fact that he isn't receiving any valuable advice from those around him only accentuates his negatives.

And those negatives are piling up. Whether the MassGen report is inflammatory or not, there's enough in the Playboy piece to justify denying Tyson a license. Factor in this Maryland two-step and the NSAC may feel its hands are tied, that it has absolutely no choice but to rule against him.

(Of course, the commission should have put off reconvening the Tyson relicensing hearing until the Maryland situation played itself out. It may still be erring in even considering addressing Tyson's request until the alleged assaults are settled either in or out of court.)

Any way you look at it, licensing Tyson has become an increasingly dangerous proposition. When he admits he's going to "blow one day" -- as he does in Playboy -- those in charge of regulating boxing in the state have to wonder if that day might come inside the ring.

Why take that chance?

The NSAC can prevent Tyson from fighting in the United States and that's what it should do.

To relicense him not only invites trouble, it may pave the way for a night of carnage none of us can imagine. Let him go to Europe and fight if that's the alternative.