Tyson-Bruno Fight Now Scheduled for Feb. 25 : Briton’s Long-Delayed Match With Heavyweight Champion Set for Las Vegas

Mike Tyson, nearly 6 months after his last bout, has signed to fight England’s Frank Bruno Feb. 25 at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The fight, which will be televised by HBO, will generate a $3-million live-gate purse for Tyson and $3.6 million for Bruno. In addition, Tyson will earn about $4 million from HBO.

Of course, this one has had dates before.

Five, in fact.

First, it was set for Sept. 10 at London’s Wembley Stadium. Then there was Oct. 8 at Wembley. Then came proposed dates in November and December. Then there was Jan. 14.

As Tyson’s personal life began to fall apart last summer, so did Tyson-Bruno dates. First, Tyson ran his car into a tree and knocked himself out. He began fighting in public with his wife, actress Robin Givens. There was an early-morning street fight with a former opponent, Mitch Green.

Tyson sued his manager, Bill Cayton, who lashed out at promoter Don King for trying to wrest the heavyweight champion away from him. Tyson and Givens split, amid some very public name-calling, and Givens filed a $125-million defamation suit against Tyson.

At each eruption in the soap opera, the Bruno fight was pushed back, and the British heavyweight began to wonder if it would ever come off.

According to the principals in the negotiations, who held a news conference Thursday at the Los Angeles Hilton, the fight came together quickly in the last 7 days, after Bruno had agreed to fight Tyson in the United States.

“Frank agreed to fight Mike in the States sooner, rather than later, in England, because he’d been waiting so long,” said Jarvis Astaire, the British boxing promoter who sold his promotional contract for the fight to the Las Vegas Hilton.

The question as to who is promoting Tyson-Bruno has been a delicate one, but John Giovenco, president of the Hilton Nevada Corp., said:

“The Las Vegas Hilton is the promoter of this fight. And we are the sole promoter.”

Cayton, Tyson’s embattled New York manager, has indicated that Tyson-Bruno can occur only if King has nothing to do with the promotion. King had signed Tyson to a promotional contract in October and Cayton has threatened to file suit to break it.

Thursday, at the news conference, King was introduced as Tyson’s adviser, and Giovenco said King is not being paid for the bout.

Cayton said Thursday in a phone interview that he has no problem with King’s acting as an adviser.

“Don King has no legal position with Mike now, and he is not involved in the promotion in any way,” Cayton said.

“If Mike wants Don as an adviser, that’s fine.”

Tyson said he would begin training Monday at Las Vegas. He said he was about 20 pounds over his fighting weight, which is in the 216-218 range. Others put his weight at 250-plus.

Bruno 27, is a well-muscled 6 feet 3 inches--4 inches taller than Tyson--and has knocked out 31 of 34 opponents. He has been knocked out, however, by Americans Bonecrusher Smith and Tim Witherspoon. He is ranked as the No. 1 contender by the World Boxing Assn. and the World Boxing Council, and No. 3 by the International Boxing Federation.

Tyson, since his 91-second knockout of Michael Spinks last June 27, is 35-0 with 31 knockouts. The Bruno fight will be his fifth defense of the undisputed heavyweight championship.