Columnist Ron Kantowski: Tyson won’t be back in Nevada soon

Monday, June 26, 2000 | 11:33 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column usually appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088. Regular columnist Dean Juipe has the day off.

Mike Tyson stopped Lou Savarese in 38 seconds Saturday night. That's just a little more time than it has taken you to read these two sentences. Had I inserted a couple of additional commas, this first paragraph would have run longer than the fight.

How's that for perspective?

As laughable as Tyson's first comeback fight against Peter McNeeley seemed a few years ago, that one was a war compared to Tyson-Savarese. The Hunts people should have been at ringside. They need a new poster boy and Savarese proved to be a 6-foot-5 can of tomato paste.

After Savarese's 38 seconds of fame were history, Jay Larkin, who runs boxing for Showtime, went on a rant about Tyson's ferocity. "He was terrifying," Larkin said. "It was a terrifying display of power, a display of relentlessness."

Relentless? That means persistent, never ending. This was a station break -- a solitary left hook that caught a stiff upside his head. And the only thing terrifying about the night was the swiftness with which those who own a cable box switched over to HBO, Showtime's rival, to catch the replay of the scintillating Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya fight held the week before.

One of these days, a Tyson fight actually is going to answer some of the questions about his skills and his focus and his viability as a threat to Lennox Lewis. This wasn't the one. In fact, it may have added one.

When -- if ever -- will Tyson be welcome back in Las Vegas?

The Nevada State Athletic Commission basically gave Tyson a one-way ticket out of town following his aborted fight with Orlin Norris at the MGM last October. Tyson hit Norris after the first-round bell, and the latter sustained/feigned a knee injury that ended the proceedings.

"My advice is pack Mike Tyson's bags up and take this act on the road," commissioner Lorenzo Fertitta told Tyson's connections (although had Tyson himself attended the hearing in which his purse was released, it's doubtful Fertitta would have been talking so tough).

Anyway, I hope Tyson packed a full suitcase.

After referee John Coyle waved off the fight and tried to separate Tyson from the dazed Savarese, Tyson continued flinging wild punches. One of them appeared to glance off the referee, knocking him to the canvas. But, said Coyle, "I wasn't hurt when Tyson kept punching." (Which makes him a better man than Savarese.)

A late punch or two usually isn't considered a grievous offense -- after all, the sport is boxing, not rhythmic gymnastics. But given Tyson doesn't have a license to fight in Nevada and remains on double-secret probation, you would think he would have been on his best behavior.

Instead, Tyson did his best John "Bluto" Blutarski impression. He tried to turn Hampden Park, the Scottish national soccer stadium, into Animal House. Afterward, he threatened to rip Lewis' heart out and feed it to him. He said he would eat Lewis' children. And this was after Tyson may or may not have fed fight promoter Frank Warren a knuckle sandwich in a dispute over money Tyson felt was owed him.

Dean Wormer wouldn't have approved. And neither could have the Nevada State Athletic Commission, in the unlikely event the cantankerous Tyson was thinking about continuing his comeback here.