Columnist Dean Juipe: Fines, bans don’t faze Mike Tyson

Dean Juipe

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 10:03 a.m.

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

He won't be back in Las Vegas anytime soon, at least in a working capacity.

He would tell you he doesn't care.

As the result of his own actions, Mike Tyson has extended his informal ban in Nevada. He won't fight here this year and, realistically, he may never fight here again.

Rebellious as he is, Tyson would merely shrug at his banishment from the boxing capital. Sure, not fighting in Las Vegas before a big casino-driven crowd will cost him a few bucks, but he can't concern himself with the limitations of money.

The train rolls on and its destination may be unclear, yet Tyson is indifferent to the particulars. He's on a mission and if that mission prevents him from completely maximizing his earning potential, so be it.

Tyson, you see, has a singular desire these days. He is totally focused on only one thing: Reestablishing his reputation as the "baddest man on the planet."

Toward that goal he will do what he did in the ring last Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland, when he elbowed the referee and tried to punch around him as the poor sap told him his fight with Lou Savarese was already over. The fact that the referee has yet to deliver the age-old visual sign that a fight has reached its conclusion -- waving his hands above his head -- makes Tyson's behavior only marginally excusable.

Off his antidepressants and in a good rage, Tyson wanted to fight more than 38 seconds. When Savarese buckled early, it left Tyson without an outlet for a pent-up aggression that had been boiling for days and was heightened by the murder of his supposed best friend and a physical confrontation with the fight's promoter.

The Glasgow scenario -- which now includes an Aug. 9 hearing in which Tyson must return to answer questions and attempt to justify his actions -- is only the latest installment in his self-destructive career. Bites and late hits have become commonplace in his fights and a sensitive Nevada State Athletic Commission, feeling a need to bolster the dreary sport's lagging integrity, will go out of its way to hold him accountable.

It isn't going to license him to fight here until he can go two or three fights without an unseemly incident. Given the rate of occurrence of his unseemly incidents to date, Tyson appears incapable of impeccable behavior (in or out of the ring) and a NSAC decision on the matter of his licensing may be on perpetual hold.

Tyson, above all else, wants to be feared, to the extent that adulation in its purest form is secondary. And if retaining or adding to that fear requires him to go berserk and all but willingly violate the sport's rules, Tyson can be counted on to comply as if he were no more than a thespian tackling an everyday role.

If it's outrageousness that makes him feared, he's going to be outrageous.

As for the inevitable repercussions -- such as fines, bans and suspensions -- he's going to accept them as part of doing business. He's banking on the fact it's a big world and he can always fight somewhere.

He'll be accommodated.

It may not be a steady gig in the limelight, but the baddest man on the planet can always find work.