Tillman Stopped by Tyson in First : Boxing: Former champion scores a knockout at 2:47 against friend who kept him off ’84 Olympic team.

In his first appearance since being upset in Tokyo by Buster Douglas, Mike Tyson knocked out Henry Tillman in the first round at Caesars Palace, Saturday night. Then, as he had after many conquests before, Tyson pronounced himself “still the best fighter in the universe.”

Many in the near-sellout crowd of 13,200 were watching to see if Tyson’s power had been reduced by his punishing knockout loss to Douglas Feb. 11. But if Tyson left anything in Tokyo, Henry Tillman never found it.

Of course, Tyson gave him only 2 minutes 47 seconds to look for it. It was his 19th first-round knockout.

When Tyson came into the ring Saturday night, it didn’t seem as if anything had changed. He was leaner and more fit looking than in his last appearance, 217 pounds compared to the 220 1/2 he carried in Tokyo.

Otherwise, there was the same all-black attire, the towel with the hole in it instead of a robe, the same scowl, still no socks, the same glare toward ringsiders and, in the end, the same kind of victory--an opponent on his back, staring blankly into the ring lights. The former undisputed heavyweight champion chased Tillman into his (Tyson’s) corner, where he hit him on the forehead with an overhand right hand. Tillman went down on his back and had only planted his elbows under himself when referee Richard Steele counted him out.

Tyson’s 38th victory in 39 fights, was achieved against an overmatched opponent, which is exactly what Tyson’s promoter, Don King, had in mind when he picked Tillman a couple of months ago.

Tillman, who kept an 18-year-old Tyson off the U.S. Olympic team in the summer of 1984 and then won the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, dropped to 20-5 as a pro.

He seemed awkward and tentative from the outset, even stumbling a couple of times as he circled Tyson left-to-right, apparently trying to stay out of range of Tyson’s right hand.

That’s the part of Tillman’s game plan that made sense. What didn’t seem to make sense was when Tillman began trading punches with the man who had knocked out 33 of 39 opponents. He actually landed one straight right hand, but didn’t get a reaction from Tyson, not even a blink. He also threw a few uppercuts in dangerous territory: inside.

Tyson pursued aggressively, but with a great deal more patience than he had the last time he fought Tillman, six years ago in the adjacent Caesars Pavilion at the Olympic boxoffs. Then, Tyson was a wild, out-of-control amateur and Tillman was a quick-footed, jab-and-move, Olympic-style boxer.

In the six years since the L.A. Olympics, where Tyson, as the alternate U.S. heavyweight watched Tillman win the gold medal, the two remained on friendly terms, as Tyson’s career skyrocketed and Tillman’s nose-dived.

“I see Henry Tillman almost every time I come to L.A. He’s a personal friend of mine,” Tyson said in the interview room afterward. As Tillman reached the room 10 minutes after Tyson, the ex-champion rose, shook hands and the two hugged.

King indicated British/Jamaican heavyweight Alex Stewart would be Tyson’s next opponent, at a Sept. 8 Caesars doubleheader with George Foreman and Italian Francesco Damiani.

That date is somewhat meaningful, given the present state of litigation involving the heavyweight division.

Caesars’ next door neighbor, The Mirage, plans to stage a bout between Buster Douglas and Evander Holyfield 12 days later. King, Mirage president Steve Wynn and Douglas are in federal court suing each other over whether King breached his contract with Douglas by protesting the result of the Tyson-Douglas bout.

So at least for one night, Tyson, the 24-year-old former champion, seemed back on track to the eight-digit paydays of old. He was paid $2 million for his 2:47 of work. His enthusiasm has returned.

“I felt great, I was prepared to fight all night long,” he said.

“My objective was to hit him with the right hand. I thought he would make mistakes and that I’d get him with the right. I trained for nine weeks. I haven’t trained for nine weeks for a long time. I paid my dues this time.”

Tillman said he may have paid a price for a burst of enthusiasm after he landed the one right hand.

“I was able to catch him with a good right and I said: ‘Maybe I’ve got something here.’ I didn’t, and it brought me out of my game plan because I’d closed the gap between us. He caught me with a good overhand right.”

Tillman might have been beaten by a vastly superior fighter Saturday, but if he never fights again, he has won a bigger battle.

Henry Tillman learned to box in the California Men’s Correctional Facility at Chino. Less than two years later, he won a gold medal in the Olympic Games. In a couple of months, he will take the state exam for a California real estate license.

* GEORGE FOREMAN: The 41-year-old heavyweight has a great punch line, scoring the 22nd consecutive victory of his comeback with a second-round knockout of Adilson Rodrigues.C20