Columnist Dean Juipe: Tyson doing just fine in exile

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 9:30 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission sure put Mike Tyson in his place.

It showed him a thing or two.

It exiled the former heavyweight champ under the guise of "teaching him a lesson" and barred him from fighting in Nevada, at least for a while. But as penalties go this one not only hasn't worked, it has backfired.

As Tyson is proving during his two-week stay in England, he's bigger than ever. In terms of worldwide publicity and stature his popularity has climbed to an even loftier peak.

Nevadans are left licking their wounds. Whether you like Tyson or not, with him fighting elsewhere it is revenue lost for the state.

Meanwhile, he's playing the role of Pied Piper in Great Britain.

Drawing papal-like crowds at every public appearance, Tyson has become a performer with an unlimited stage. Not only is he being asked questions pertaining to boxing and his Saturday fight with journeyman Julius Francis, Tyson is fielding the type of broad inquiries that usually are reserved for distinguished statesmen or tribal elders.

And he's welcoming the attention, making himself available far more than he typically did in the United States. As a result, Tyson quotes on everything from malicious persecution to the economy have surfaced in what have become daily accounts of his travels in the British press.

This is fanfare Las Vegas could have shared with Tyson had its athletic commission not knee-jerked an erroneous reaction that penalized the wrong man. If the NSAC wanted to ban someone from fighting here it should have ostracized Orlin Norris, who took a dive following a belated punch from Tyson at the close of the opening round of their Oct. 23 fight at the MGM Grand Garden.

Norris quit rather than continue a fight he wasn't going to win. But when the anti-Tyson contingent of the media pounced on the subject it vilified the ex-champ and pulled in the NSAC with its vindictive undertow.

As a result, the commission temporarily withheld Tyson's purse from the fight and later presented itself as pompous to a fault at a hearing in which it reluctantly released his money while scolding him and sending him on his way.

With Tyson receiving $12 million for fighting Francis in Manchester and with his stock spiraling through the roof, forcing him to hit the road has been the equivalent of sending a petulant child to Disneyland. Yes, he's having the last laugh.

Aside from feeling the need to bully Tyson and flaunt its authority, the NSAC left open the possibility Tyson could return here and fight at a later date "if he keeps himself above reproach." In effect, it attempted to deport him to the "minor leagues" with the hope he would see the error of his ways and be suitably humbled.

The commission's secret desire was that Tyson would crawl back to Nevada both subdued and remorseful.

Instead he has gone off and found riches and further adulation. His every action has been chronicled and his every utterance honored.

Along the way he may have discovered he doesn't need to fight in America to be wealthy and lavishly feted.

If that proves to be the case and he never fights here again, the Nevada commission should not only accept the responsibility but fall on its sword.