by the publication, Tyson stated: “I’ve done the lot. Drink, drugs; I’ve screwed other men’s wives; I have been threatened, chased and survived. I’ve been on the streets, in jail and have done things that have not been pretty.”

Tyson’s highs and lows include being broke and rich, to feeling like and being treated like an animal to meeting Presidents and Leaders. “I’ve been broke and I have been rich. I have also earned a fortune – several fortunes – and spent them. I have been called an animal. I have been treated as an animal. But I have also met presidents and leaders and been given the best of hospitality,” said Tyson.

Tyson hopes people will accept him for what he is, stating: “I have to live my life and hope that people can accept me as I am – my highs and lows and vulnerability and who I am as a human being. I am an individual and this is what you get.”

A source, who asked to remain anonymous, informed Sherdog.com that Tyson has been quietly “training his ass off” with a prominent strength and conditioning coach in the area. The source also stated that Tyson “is not going to do boxing anymore,” but when asked if “Iron Mike” was going to try MMA, the source shrugged, “I don’t know, I can’t say.”

In recent years, the rumor mill linked the 41-year-old Tyson with EliteXC heavyweight Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, Quinton Jackson (Pictures) and Tito Ortiz (Pictures) among others. In 2006, he was a guest referee at a World Cage Fighting Championship bout in Manchester, England and signed an appearances-only contract with the now-defunct Pride Fighting Championships.

Sherdog quotes a source, who wishes to stay anonymous, that Tyson has been privately “training his ass off,” the source went on to add that Tyson will not be doing boxing anymore.

The source was then asked if Tyson was in training to take a stab at MMA? The source would only tell Sherdog, “I don’t know, I can’t say.”

How long before some promoter with deep pockets or, more likely, some promoter with pockets that are inside out but who knows how to talk and how to tap dance, gives Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson a call?

How long before he or she suggests Tyson-Holyfield III as a way to erase the debts that today seem to have both of them encircled in the kind of way only the IRS and mortgage holders can do?

Mike Tyson is presently the subject of a documentary that makes him look like the most forlorn figure in fisticuffs, a poor guy who didn’t lose his way because he never knew the way in the first place.

He is broke, beaten down and bewildered by it all, except to repeat periodically that he’s sorry he was a bad boy in addition to being a BAAADDDD MAN.

Evander Holyfield denied his mansion in Atlanta was being foreclosed on, even though that’s kind of hard to argue when it was being offered for sale on July 1 by Washington Mutual, the holder of a $10 million mortgage on the property. That forced sale has since been called off but no one is ready to say why, and the fact is Holyfield reportedly has three mortgages on the $20 million property that total over $15 million in debts.

He also claims one of the women who mothered one of his nine children is being unreasonable over the matter of $3000 a month in child support that has been missing for a time. When you pay a reported $45,000 a month in child support one can see how the check might have gotten lost in the paperwork.

Despite his protestations, Holyfield too seems broke, beaten down and bewildered by it all, except to repeat like a personal mantra that A) he isn’t in any sort of financial trouble and B) one day he will again be unified heavyweight champion.

“I’m not broke,’’ Holyfield told the Atlanta Constitution last week. “I’m just not liquid.’’

This is what it has come down to for the two highest grossing heavyweights in boxing history. Between them they grossed over $1 billion in fight related income on pay-per-view alone with Tyson’s gross at $545 million and Holyfield’s at $543 million. Together they did the second most PPV buys in history at 1.99 million for the Tyson-Holyfield II Ear Bite Fight on June 28, 1997. Holyfield’s purses exceeded $240 million and Tyson’s purses exceeded that.

While obviously neither took home all that money, the two of them made more than the gross national product of most countries, Holyfield himself earning $34 million for the second Tyson fight alone. So how did they end up broke?

Bad luck? Bad judgment? Born under a bad sign? How about hard work?

Regardless of your circumstances you have to work pretty hard at it to blow that kind of money. That’s true even if you have unscrupulous promoters, lousy managers, many marriages, too many kids and too few friends. Even with all of those problems blowing that kind of money without having waged war on a small nation is damn near impossible.

Yet they did it, which gets us back to my original premise. How long before we start hearing rumblings of Tyson-Holyfield III? Not long because Holyfield has already brought up the subject himself, although there hasn’t been much of a response yet from Tyson.

Would Vegas sanction it? You better believe it. Would some place like Dubai love to buy it to put that country on the map for something other than $5 gasoline? For sure.

Are there any heartless promoters out there still willing to make a buck off the backs of two spent shells that are down on their luck? You want to start with the letter A and go through the list alphabetically?

Some purists might say, “These are two shot guys in their mid-40s. No way will anyone buy it.’’ To that I say, “Trinidad vs. Jones.’’ I say, “Jack Johnson on his back in the Havana sunshine. Joe Louis past his prime his head knocked into press row. Ray Robinson when all the sugar was gone, Ray Leonard when the story was the same. Duran against a lot of guys and Henry Armstrong too.’’

Exploitation at the end is the story of boxing and too often the person doing the exploiting is the fighter exploiting himself. There are reasons this is an old tune though, and it is the same reason Holyfield-Tyson III seems more likely every time they make a new headline, because the headlines they make now are about personal train wrecks, unpaid bills or lingering tax liens, not glorious chronicles of victory.

The news has not been good for Tyson or Holyfield for quite some time, but in the latter’s case the bad news usually only involved another night in a ring, where his reflexes are gone and his performances substandard. For Tyson it was always worse. Legal hassles, back taxes, drug problems.

But now the headlines say Holyfield is broke too, a victim of a 109-room house no one could afford to keep up, too much child support, bad business deals and Lord knows what else. So why wouldn’t he look to wipe out those problems the only way he has ever known?

Why wouldn’t Evander Holyfield come back one last time to take on the man he beat twice before at a time when so many people believed he never could? Why wouldn’t he come back to fight Tyson in an age-old rerun of old age fighters fighting over money not titles or even pride?

Given the chance, he would.

Which brings us back to Mike Tyson. One of his long-time advisors said recently Tyson has no desire to train and will never come back again. The first half has been true for years. His desire to do the work required to win faded long ago, which is how he ended up on the floor against a less-than-journeyman named Kevin McBride in perhaps the biggest embarrassment of his professional career.

More to the point, the same man said Tyson wanted no part of Holyfield, who broke him down physically and mentally in their first fight and totally in their rematch, and perhaps he doesn’t. But he may also soon tire of being the world’s houseguest.

One can see why Mike Tyson wouldn’t want to take a chance of being embarrassed for a third time by Holyfield. One can certainly see why he doesn’t want to live the Spartan fighter’s existence any more, even if it’s only for six or eight weeks in training camp one last time. But the history of boxing also shows that if the numbers are right, or at least the fighters believe they are, a lot of other matters don’t matter.

At the moment, Evander Holyfield has already brought up the subject. Mike Tyson has remained mum on the matter and no promoter has begun publicly beating the drum for Tyson-Holyfield III. Maybe things will stay that way, as they should for boxing’s sake and their own.

———-
Mike Tyson put up $50,000 for a “hit” on members of a vicious Brooklyn drug gang who allegedly shot his former bodyguard to death, a witness testified yesterday.

Nothing ever came of the contract on the Cash Money Brothers gang, Dwayne “Thor” Meyers testified.

The claim came during the trial of Abubakr Raheem, 38, an alleged member of the ruthless gang that controlled the Lafayette Gardens Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Raheem allegedly drove the getaway car in two turf-war slayings, according to prosecutors.

Meyers said the former heavyweight champ put up the money in retaliation for the June 2000 slaying of Darryl “Homicide” Baum, Tyson’s ex-bodyguard and close friend.

Just two weeks after the slaying, Tyson dedicated his knockout fight against Lou Savarese to his “brother, Darryl Baum.”

“I love you with all my heart . . . Oh, God, I’m mad,” Tyson said at the time.

“We got word Mike Tyson and [another man] had both contributed $50,000 apiece for the murders of Cash Money Brothers,” Meyers testified.

Baum was gunned down just a few months after allegedly firing nine shots at rapper 50 Cent.
—-

It could happen. Here’s why.

If Kimbo Slice continues to get the kind of exposure he’s gotten since fighting on CBS, and if he continues to win, the public will make it so that people will get very rich off this fight. So, when there is money to be made, things tend to get done.

Kimbo’s promoter is Gary Shaw, who got his start in boxing and still promotes some of the best fighters in the world. MMA and boxing generally don’t mix, but in this particular case, one man is firmly entrenched in both sports. Shaw has the wherewithal and connections to make the fight a reality. In fact, Kimbo was part of the ring walk for Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa when he fought on HBO recently. (Shaw co-promotes Gamboa in the U.S.)

And for the third reason, we return to the issue of money. According to some published accounts, Tyson’s fortune is long gone. Any time a fighter has ventured into the realm of Mixed Martial Arts, it is because they have viewed it as a quick and easy score. That’s a mistake for Tyson or any other fighter who crosses over. Nonetheless, if money is indeed a factor for Tyson, half the battle is already won.

While the comparisons between Slice and Tyson are rampant, they don’t really ring true. Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, a man who dominated the game for nearly a decade. My MMA sources tell me that Kimbo would be defeated by nearly every legitimate heavyweight fighting in the UFC. (Kimbo currently fights for UFC rival, EliteXC.)

As imposing as Kimbo is, the experts peg him as a neophyte in his own game.

Still, he has the aura of intimidation that you can’t ignore. Shaw gave this quote to TheSweetScience.com about Slice and Tyson: “Slice is the closest thing I know to Tyson. He has an on and off switch. When it is on, someone is in trouble for sure.”

Slice is indeed a phenomenon, but before Tyson’s rape conviction, Iron Mike was as big as it gets in the world of sports. He earned $20-million paydays and drew pay-per-view numbers that the UFC hasn’t even sniffed yet. Tyson was on the cover of Time magazine, Sports Illustrated and nearly every other major national publication you can imagine. He did national commercials for Pepsi and Kodak. Slice still has a long way to go to reach greatness within his own sport and to achieve the kind of celebrity that Tyson enjoyed. In fact, he still enjoys it. In terms of relevance to boxing, Tyson hasn’t been a factor since the Lennox Lewis fight in 2002, but people are still talking about him, still making documentaries about him.

The appeal of a Slice-Tyson fight has everything to do with the mystique that surrounds both fighters. Slice became an internet legend when his ferocious street fights were broadcast on YouTube. Tyson was forever boxing’s bad boy, saying things like, “Everyone has a plan until they get hit.” And that he tried to catch his opponent on the tip of his nose to “drive his nose into his brain.” He hit fighters when they were down, and after the bell, and, of course, he bit a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear off.

Was there ever a badder dude on the planet?

The people around Slice believe he is. If a fight of this magnitude were to happen, here’s why it would make sense right now for both men. When making a match, any astute boxing manager tries to get some kind of an advantage for his fighter. The advantage for Tyson would be, fight the guy now before he gets better. Catch him on the way up. The advantage for Slice would be the opposite, catching the guy on the way down. And in the case of Tyson the fighter, he’s about as down as he’ll ever be.

“Bad” Chad Dawson, the current WBC light heavyweight champion often watches MMA fights and tunes in especially to watch Slice. He doesn’t think Tyson should fight him. “I watched Kimbo Slice, he’s a big strong guy. I don’t think the fight would be a good idea for Mike. I wouldn’t want to see him do it. Once he got him on the ground, the fight would be over.”

That is most likely true. Even though MMA folks say that Slice has no ground game, he has more ground game than any boxer. A few years back, he beat a 46-year-old Ray Mercer by bringing him to the ground and squeezing his rib cage with those massive legs. No, Slice couldn’t drop Mercer with a punch, but he did force him to submit. All this certainly works against Tyson.

Remember, the last thing a fighter loses is his punch. And it’s always been my contention that one of the main differences between a boxer and mixed martial artist is their ability to take punches. Wouldn’t you like to see what would happen if Tyson nailed Kimbo with just one left hook?

I would.
Posted by Robert Cassidy
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/boxing/blog/2008/06/kimbo_slice_vs_mike_tyson_coul.html

IRON Mike Tyson can
be a real big softie – as he proved with
this knockout gift
to a special South Yorkshire fan.
He handed over his signed IBF world title belt to hero soldier Ben Parkinson of Doncaster, who lost both his legs when his Land Rover was blown up in Afghanistan.

Tyson fan Ben, aged 24, was lost for words when his boxing idol presented him with the belt before a dinner for 800 people at the Doncaster Dome.

Ben, whose family launched a campaign to increase his compensation payout to £285,000, had hoped to be walking for the first time on his new artificial legs. He still uses a wheelchair.

Tyson, 41, the ex-undisputed heavyweight champion, said: “He’s the real hero – an inspiration.”

Andy Booker, of Askern, a close friend of the boxer who co-organised the show with Ray Fisher, said: “This is typical of Mike. He’s so generous. But he’s also very modest. He does lots for charity but most of it goes unreported.”

Tyson raised £5,000 from a sporting dinner at Doncaster Dome four years ago for the family of a Yorkshire policewoman shot dead. He also handed over £10,000 from a Leeds dinner to the family of Doncaster rugby league coach St John Ellis, who collapsed and died.

A Glasgow dinner on Tyson’s British tour has been cancelled after protests from politicians and women’s groups, following an outcry over his rape conviction in 1992.

But hundreds of fans still attended the Doncaster event, where a question and answer session was interrupted by a phone call from his old fighting pal Frank Bruno.

As the crowd chanted Bruno’s name, Tyson told him: “I’m doing great my friend – good to hear from you. I’m trying to make this second chance at life work. Everyone here loves you, Frank.”

Tyson rejected suggestions of a career comeback. “Once I gave boxing up, I gave it up wholeheartedly. I love to watch fights. I’m still proud I was a fighter. Maybe I’m jaded a little bit, dealing with crazy managers and promoters.”

He said one of his proudest moments was knocking out Trevor Berbick to become the youngest-ever heavyweight world champion, aged 20.

But screw it — we’re all fans. That’s why back in the day, people talked about what would happen between Tyson and Ali or Tyson and Marciano or whatever other potential fight. It’s why we talk today about Mayweather against Leonard or Mayweather against Duran or Hearns or whomever — fights, of course, all that Mayweather would lose, a sign that no matter what, everyone will almost always favor the old guys.

Go ahead, go down to a bar sometime and ask some oldster if anyone in the last 40 years has been as good as Willie Mays or even close to it. Ask your dad if Tom Brady is any Joe Montana. No coach can hold a candle to Woody, Bo or Bear. That’s just the way it is. Youthful admiration clouds the minds of many in these debates.

But that’s all off the topic a little bit. What would happen if the 36-year old Kimbo Slice fought the 41-year old Mike Tyson, who hasn’t fought competitively in years and has ballooned up to near 300 pounds, it appears?

I’ll tell you what would happen. Kimbo Slice would knock Mike Tyson out.

Lots of MMA detractors and even MMA fans dislike Kimbo Slice. They have no love for his streetfighting exploits, and it’s true that there’s something very gutter and legitimately “street” about the guy. One of his sponsors is Reality Kings — if you’re over 15, male, and have been on the internet in the wee hours of the morn’, you know what that is. Hardly something to represent a professional athlete.

Me? I like Kimbo. For one thing, he often doesn’t get enough credit for being a legitimate and talented athlete. The man can fight, and more than that, he’s a real physical specimen. This is not a freakshow situation, and it’s not a pot-bellied brawler like Tank Abbott, the guy Slice last waxed in a sanctioned bout. (A fight, by the way, that felt a little bit scummy and uncomfortable to watch, even for someone that didn’t expect much of anything out of it.)

When we last saw Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KO), he was being beaten down by Kevin McBride, mere months after Danny Williams unceremoniously bombed him out in four rounds in Louisville.

It’s been nine years since Mike Tyson last fought in Las Vegas, the epicenter of boxing. He’s been seen in Manchester, Glasgow, Auburn Hills, Copenhagen, Memphis, Louisville, and D.C. since then, but his fights past the Holyfield two-fer in 1996-97 were circus acts, even the bout with legitimate champion Lennox Lewis in 2002, which was a gross mismatch and, eventually, a slaughter.

Tyson is not in fighting shape. Even if he got himself into fighting shape, Kimbo has been actively training. He stays in good shape all the time.

If this fight happened, it wouldn’t last three minutes. Tyson go down. Hard.

One of the other things I like about Kimbo is that even if you see the streetfights as barbaric and somewhat disturbing — which they could be — there was always a sportsman-like quality about the man. There were fights where guys didn’t want to quit fighting even after it was completely obvious they couldn’t touch Slice, and Kimbo wanted them to be over with. They were fights with agreed-to rules, and Slice did not break those rules. He didn’t gouge out eyes or bite anyone’s ears off (sorry), or any other rumor you might have ever heard about a Kimbo Slice streetfight.

But they were unfair and there was something a little off-putting about that.

Look, this is a guy that obviously had some sort of formal fight training at some point in his life, well before he hooked up with Bas Rutten and got serious about mixed martial arts. His head movement, his posture, the way he came in defensively — those aren’t the usual streetfighting antics. Look at most of the guys he fought. Those were streetfighters, guys with no idea what they were doing.

And that’s another reason he’d knock Tyson out in short order. Not only is he younger, in better shape, more focused, less of a mental case, more together, better trained at this point, all that. He’s a real fighter. He is not the freak show act that some people will make him out to be. He can fight. For real. He’s not Emmanuel Yarborough or anything.

Does anyone think Tyson still packs the punch to KO Slice? Because he’d almost have to do it with a very fast combination or one big shot. I’m not saying Tyson can’t still hit hard, but Kimbo is a big man (generally around 230-240 pounds of solid muscle) and also hits like a truck. His punching power is no myth.

In a boxing ring, one might automatically favor Tyson. I do not. Boxing is what Kimbo chiefly employs in MMA for the time being. Under MMA rules, he already knows 100 times more than Tyson ever has about the rest of the game. But it would almost certainly be boxing rules, you’d think.

Gary Shaw, the promoter of Slice and EliteXC, has said he’s not encouraging the bout, but that he would have to consider it if it became a situation where it could really be a reality, simply because it would make a lot of money. His idea that it would be the “most-watched pay-per-view” in history is way off, but he’s right in that it would make a lot of dough — and most likely it wouldn’t hurt his man at all.

But if Slice did pound Tyson, would you really think more of Kimbo as a result?

Kimbo is a real star athlete. He’s not even scratched the surface, perhaps, of the fighter he could be, and he’s already arguably the most recognizable personality in MMA. There are better fighters — hundreds, probably — but none of them have that star quality that he does. Hulk Hogan wasn’t the world’s best professional wrestler, either, and Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t much of an actor. Both made a lot of money in their professions.

Here’s a bonus question: Would YOU pay roughly 50 bucks to see Kimbo fight Mike Tyson?

Mike Tyson had a ‘miracle’ moment at the Cannes Film Festival last week, where a documentary about his life received acclaim.

Tyson told reporters at a press conference he was reflecting on the miracle of being alive after living “a wild and a strange life. I’ve used drugs, I’ve had physical altercations with dangerous people…” he added.

The documentary, directed by James Toback, was told from the boxer’s perspective and ranges from Tyson’s earliest memories to his present predicaments.

The film, which uses archive footage of Tyson’s fights, also looks at issues of race and class.

During the press conference, the ex boxer said he had always been a harsh critic of himself, and never considered himself as a role model of any sort.

Tyson said he was “overwhelmed” at the reaction to the film: “I had no idea I was going to make it to this grand scale here.”