Tyson goes before Nevada commission today in search of a license

Tim Dahlberg

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 9:45 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Mike Tyson appeared before Nevada boxing officials today to ask once again to be allowed to return to the sport he once dominated.

Tyson's hearing before the Nevada Athletic Commission came one month after he was told to undergo psychological testing to help the officials make their decision. The doctors determined that the former heavyweight champ was depressed but unlikely to snap again in the ring, as he did when he bit Evander Holyfield's ears in a fight.

With Muhammad Ali sitting in the front row of the audience, Tyson lawyer James Jimmerson reminded the commissioners that his client has done everything asked of him and urged the panel to meet him halfway. He said Tyson was approaching the hearing with a sense of "honesty, fairness and doing the right thing."

Tyson, wearing a black sports coat and white dress shirt, sat next to his wife, Monica, at a table in front of the commissioners.

If he gets his boxing license back, Tyson will fight once again - perhaps as early as December - for the riches he has frittered away. A loss will put him out of the sport for at least another year.

In a gambling state, Tyson is taking a calculated gamble he can get three votes from the five-member commission to resurrect a career that seemed doomed after he bit Holyfield 15 months ago.

"I don't know, but I'm hopeful," Tyson adviser Shelly Finkel said before the hearing. "I think our chances are better than they were before."

The exam last month at Massachusetts General Hospital was what commissioners wanted when they recessed a six-hour hearing Sept. 19 without making a decision on Tyson's license. The resulting recommendation was what Tyson's advisers wanted when he had to undergo five days of exams that Tyson found humiliating.

But a clean bill of mental health won't be enough to get Tyson back the license that was revoked when he also comes with questions about a Maryland traffic altercation still hanging over his head - questions that he refused to answer in his first Nevada hearing a month ago; questions that will have to be answered if he is going to fight again.

"I want to hear about Maryland directly from Mike," commissioner Luther Mack said. "That is going to be the test. Mike is going to have to explain what happened there and explain it in his own words."

Tyson's advisers pushed for the earliest possible hearing so that Tyson could fight before the end of the year, probably Dec. 5 at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

If the gamble fails, he will be banned from the sport for at least another year - a crippling blow for an aging heavyweight who owes the Internal Revenue Service $13 million in unpaid taxes despite having made more than $100 million in purses since his release from prison in 1995.

While his advisers are hopeful, Tyson himself isn't.

"I don't think they are going to give me back my license, to be honest," Tyson said after a workout last week in Phoenix. "I'm not sure of anything, especially anything nice happening to me."

Tyson appears to have support from at least two of the commissioners, and his advisers privately say they believe they can pick up at least one more vote if Tyson is able to explain why he allegedly punched and kicked two men following a traffic accident Aug. 31 in Maryland.

Last-minute talks continued over the weekend with attorneys representing the two men in hopes of reaching a civil settlement in the case that likely would gut any criminal charges.

"It's 50-50 that they settle," Tyson spokesman Peter Seligman said. "It's like Russian roulette. You put a number out there and if it's enough, it's enough. If not, you don't settle."

Tyson was to have undergone trial today on criminal charges in the case, but it was postponed until Dec. 1 at the request of his attorneys.

If a settlement isn't reached before today's meeting, Tyson's advisers are hoping that Tyson can proclaim his innocence and be given a license with the understanding that it would be stripped from him if he were convicted of the charges.

There's even more at stake for Tyson in the matter. He is still on probation for his rape conviction, and could be sent back to prison if convicted.

"The bigger problem is he'll go to jail," Seligman said. "Then none of this matters."

Tyson's supporters contend he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty in Maryland. They point to the fact that the same commission - which has three of the same members - sanctioned a Tyson fight against Holyfield despite the fact Tyson was then under indictment on felony rape charges.

That fight never came off at the time because Tyson suffered an injury in training.