Tyson Has Trumped Up Plan

It’s hard to doubt Mike Tyson when he says, “I’m the greatest fighter on the planet.”

It’s just as hard to believe him when he says he is in charge of his life.

“I call all the shots,” the champion said this week while admitting he has asked billionaire Donald Trump to advise him.

At least he and Trump say it was Tyson’s idea to seek Trump’s advice.

“Mike called me,” Trump said. But he also said, “My initial meeting was with Winston and Ruth Roper.”

Attorney Michael Winston and Roper, the heavyweight champion’s mother-in-law, are two of the characters in what resembles a daytime soap opera.

Call it, “As Mike Tyson’s World Churns.”

Other characters are, of course, Trump in the role of Daddy Warbucks; the beautiful Mrs. Tyson, actress Robin Givens, manager Bill Cayton, who is cast in the role of the villain, and promoter Don King, a man who plays many parts at the same time.

King, who would like to be Tyson’s main adviser, has proclaimed he is “one-thousand percent behind Mike Tyson.” Some people believe it’s better to have the promoter 1,000% in front of you.

There is litigation to break Tyson’s 3 1/2-year boxer-manager contract and three-year personal services contract which he signed in February with Cayton and the late Jim Jacobs.

Trump said he has “a great relationship with Bill Cayton,” but added “I think he (Tyson) has a very strong case.”

Trump noted that Tyson was not represented by a lawyer when “he signed a contract with some very sophistcated people.”

The people in the champion’s increasingly crowded corner contend Tyson would have not signed in February he he known Jacobs was terminally ill. Jacobs, who was close to Tyson, died in March. Cayton’s relationship with the fighter has been strictly business.

Givens and her mother called for Cayton to give an accounting of Tyson’s finances shortly after the actress and champion were married in February, and Tyson has accused the manager of villifying Robin and Ruth in the press.

He also has accused members of the media of embarrassing his family, although his wife and mother-in-law don’t seem to mind talking to the media and his sister-in-law volunteered to one reporter that she had seen Tyson hit Robin.

Tyson denies ever hitting his wife, and she has not been far from his side at anytime since they were married even though he fought twice in that period.

There have been assertions that Givens and Roper are behind Tyson’s decision to break with Cayton.

“That’s absured,” Tyson said. “Face the facts.”

It really is not fair to accuse Givens and Roper of not having Tyson’s best interests at heart. Nor is it fair to scoff at Tyson for sticking up for his wife and her family.

Time will tell.

It’s also easy to understand that 22-year-old Tyson could be confused by the problems which accompany fame and fortune.

Calling Tyson, “a fine young man, a champion of the people and a wonderful person,” Trump said, “I want to help Mike through this period and with his finances.”