King Says It Will Be Mealtime for Tyson

Promoter Don King blames manager Bill Cayton for Mike Tyson’s alleged marital problems but still predicts Tyson will knock out Michael Spinks next Monday night.

Among other things, King has called Cayton an “evil man,” “Satan in disguise,” a “power zealot,” an “inveterate liar,” a “dictator” and a “hypocrite of the first form.”

Of the fight, King said: “Tyson’s going to go in there and kill Spinks. Spinks got little or no chance at all now, because (Tyson is) mad, and when he looks at Spinks he’s going to see Bill Cayton and he’s going to eat him up.

“He’s going to destroy Spinks. I’m scared for Spinks, man. I’m so scared. You all unleashed a time bomb, a nuclear bomb, and the bomb’s going to explode. Tyson’s going to eat him up like a rare roast beef.”

Add Tyson: Claiming he actually feeds on controversy, he said: “I’m just obsessed, I’m just chaotic. That’s the way I am. It doesn’t bother me, it just revolves around my life style--being crazy and chaotic and everything. It doesn’t bother me, it just bothers the people who I hold dear.”

Add Turmoil: Wallace Matthews of Newsday points out that Muhammad Ali also had marital problems but apparently didn’t let them affect him in the ring.

Ali broke up with former showgirl Sonja Rai three days before the second Sonny Liston fight. During his second marriage, he was rendezvousing with model Veronica Porche, even introducing her as his wife to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, before the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ with Joe Frazier.

Trivia Time: Nick Faldo is the third reigning British Open champion to lose in a playoff for the U.S. Open championship at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. Name the other two. (Answer below.)

From Dave Feitl, traded from Golden State to Washington for Manute Bol: “Maybe my stories won’t be as good as Manute’s killing lions with a spear, but I did run over some armadillos in Texas. I’d have to see the skins of the lions to believe that Manute killed them.”

24 Years Ago Today: On June 21, 1964, which was Father’s Day, Philadelphia’s Jim Bunning, a father of seven, pitched a perfect game to beat the New York Mets, 6-0. That gave Bunning a no-hitter in both leagues--in 1958 he pitched one for Detroit--and his catcher, Gus Triandos, became the first to catch no-hitters in both leagues. In 1958, at Baltimore, he caught one by Hoyt Wilhelm.

Magic Johnson, asked about the toughness of A.C. Green, told Alan Goldstein of the Baltimore Sun: “I remember when he showed up as a rookie. He didn’t do a lot of bragging like most young guys, but we wanted to test him early. Maurice Lucas really roughed him up in that first scrimmage to see if he’d back down. He never said a word. But he scored something like 28 points and got 30 rebounds, and everyone stood around amazed.”

Said Chuck Nevitt of the Detroit Pistons during a tour of the Playboy mansion when the players were told that tests had to be passed in order to be a bunny: “Can I see the library where they study for the tests?”

Trivia Answer: Ted Ray of Britain in 1913 and Arnold Palmer of the United States in 1963.

Quotebook

Jim Walewander of the Detroit Tigers, told that the team is 22-7 when he scores a run: “I don’t mind being a lucky charm as long as they don’t put me on a key chain.”