Tyson set to plead case

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 28, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

Security figures to be tight and public access limited when Mike Tyson appears before the Nevada State Athletic Commission at the Sawyer Office Building near downtown Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Tyson has been called before the commission for a hearing on the subject of issuing him a boxing license.

That license will be a requirement if Tyson is to obtain a fight with heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, which is tentative for April 6 at the MGM Grand Garden. Observers say the proposed fight could pump as much as $100 million into the local economy.

Tyson, 35, has not been licensed in Nevada since a 1999 fight with Orlin Norris.

A majority vote of the five-person NSAC will determine Tyson's status.

"The Capital Police will provide security as they always do in the state building and they're very much aware of the situation," NSAC executive director Marc Ratner said Sunday. "There are also metal detectors that everyone must pass through."

The 1 p.m. hearing, which will be televised live by Las Vegas ONE, will be held in a chamber room which seats 100, although media representatives and those persons affiliated with the commission, the fighter and the proposed host site will be given priority access.

Tyson will also appear tonight on the CNN program "Larry King Live."

The issue of licensing Tyson was complicated by the fighter's outburst at a press conference in New York last Tuesday. At that event, designed to promote the fight with Lewis, Tyson initiated a physical exchange with Lewis and his handlers and then verbally berated a member of the audience.

If Tyson is unable to procure a license in Nevada he could attempt to gain one in another state, or fight overseas -- as he has done three times in the past two years -- where licensing fighters is regarded as a mere formality.