Tyson gets second bite of the cherry

“I’m just happy to be here,” a relieved Tyson said after Monday’s hearing, which was a continuation of six-hour proceedings on September 19.

Tyson, who still must file the standard application form to receive a new license, said he didn’t know how soon he would box, although there have been reports that financial pressures will prompt him to fight before the end of the year.

“I’m undecided right now,” Tyson said of the timing of his next fight. “I have a lot of things I have to work out now. I don’t know if I’m prepared to fight thisyear.”

The hearing was continued from September at the request of the five-man commission, and Tyson was asked to submit to in-depth psychiatric evaluation at an institution of the Commission’s choosing.

Five of the six doctors who saw Tyson at Massachusetts General Hospital were present on Monday. "We believe he will be able to handle himself in the ring,” said psychiatrist Ronald Schouten.

Schouten said the examination of Tyson showed that he had some difficulty controling anger and recurring bouts of depression, but that he could address his problems in psychotherapy.

“No one — no lay person, no mental health professional — has a crystal ball,” Schouten said when asked if he could guarantee there would be no repeat of the gruesome events of July 1997, when Tyson was disqualified for biting both of Holyfield’s ears in their world title rematch.

"For the most part, Mr Tyson can control his anger and irritation. He has resources to conduct himself in a reasonable manner,” he added.

Tyson,32, was animated throughout the hearing, often touching his wife, Monica Turner Tyson, affectionately or turning to look at various speakers. He described his banishment, and the laborious appeal for reinstatement, as "torture”.

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Tyson told the panel at one point. “I’m at your guys’ mercy. Please don’t torture me any more, Sir.” Tyson, who rambled a bit but was largely composed and relaxed, again alluded to the fact that when he bit Holyfield, he was responding to what he felt at the time were unfair head-butts by his opponent that referee Mills Lane failed to penalise.

“At that particular time, I had no awareness that it was a prize fight,” Tyson said, saying that in his mind he reverted to the street-fighting moves of his youth.

But he said he wasn’t trying to put the blame on Lane or Holyfield. “As far as saying this would never have happened, no. I’m the only one who has to carry the weight,” Tyson said.

Tyson, whose career in the ring has already beendisrupted by three years in prison for rape, acknowledged many shortcomings, but he said he wasn’t mentally ill.

“I know who I am,” he said. “I’m no schizophrenic. I’m no manic-depressive. But I am what I am. I can’t change that.”

Women’s rights activist Anne Golonka, who has protested Tyson’s return to the ring ever since he emerged from prison, was angry that no opposing testimony was heard.

“I’m bitterly disappointed. There was absolutely no negative testimony given at all,” she said. “No one said he shouldn’t be allowed to box. It was totally one-sided and no one advocated the other position.”

Of the commissioners, former American football player Glenn Carano, Luther Mack, Lorenzo Fertitta and chairman Elias Ghanem, voted in favor of the motion to restore Tyson’s license. Commissioner James Nave, a hard questioner in both hearing sessions, voted against.

On September 19, several commissioners were worried by assault charges pending against Tyson in Maryland, where two men accused him ofhitting and kicking them over a minor traffic accident.

Tyson addressed those charges on Monday. He said he yelled at the drivers, but did not physically attack anyone. "It was a big ugly scene,” Tyson admitted. “I said things I shouldn’t have said. They probably were afraid, this big, black guy … I did screw up.”

But he denied charges that he hit one man and kicked another in the groin. Monica Turner Tyson said she thought her husband “overreacted” in Maryland, but she said she did not see him strike anyone.

One of the most persuasive witnesses was former basketball star Earvin Magic’ Johnson. A friend of Tyson for years, Johnson said he hoped to be able to help Tyson learn to manage the proceeds of future fights.

“Mike needs people in his life who have been through what he’s been through athletically,” Johnson said. “He also needs people he can respect.”

Ali, perhaps, commands Tyson’s ultimate respect. Although he has not been a close friend of Tyson over the years, he prepared astatement in support of the younger fighter which was read by his wife, Lonnie.

“There are only a few punishments worse thant being denied a chance to earn a living…” wrote Ali, who was banned from the ring for refusing armed service in the Vietnam War. “Give him a chance to redeem himself in the ring.”

The Commissioners were ready to do that, but with stern warnings. “Mike, most of your problems are of your own making,” Ghanem said. “You have to take responsibility for your own life.”