Bowe Has Tyson on His Mind : Boxing: After dispatching Hide in the sixth round, new WBO champion heads for Indiana with offer.

With 60 million reasons to win and his custom motor home fueled and running outside, Riddick Bowe reclaimed a small but important piece of the sport’s splintered heavyweight championship Saturday night when he knocked out Herbie Hide at 2:25 of the sixth round to take the World Boxing Organization title before about 5,000 at the MGM Grand Garden.

After losing the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards, Bowe knocked Hide down seven times in the next four rounds before referee Richard Steele finally counted Hide out.

Bowe, who outweighed Hide by 27 pounds and owned a three-inch height advantage, proved too strong for the former British champion, who fought gamely and landed his share of punches before going down.

Hide landed 41 more punches than Bowe, 120-79, but Bowe’s obviously left more of an impression.

Bowe (36-1, 30 knockouts) was lethargic early but seemed to wake up after he was accidentally butted in Round 2.

“It wasn’t one of my best performances,” Bowe admitted. “I did get anxious and should have maintained my composure.”

You couldn’t blame Bowe for looking ahead. By dawn’s light, he was expected to be crossing state lines in his motor home on his way to Plainfield, Ind., where he has a Monday appointment with inmate Mike Tyson at the Indiana Youth Center.

Call Bowe presumptuous for looking past Hide and booking ahead, but understand how hectic the schedule of a famous prisoner can be.

“You can’t just drop in and see Tyson,” Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager, said. “You have to make an appointment.”

Trying to get the jump on Tyson-Mania, Newman will drop into Tyson’s lap a proposal that will guarantee a 50-50 split of $120 million if Tyson will forget George Foreman and agree to fight Bowe in early November at Madison Square Garden.

Tyson is scheduled for release March 25.

Newman claims he has the backing of several cable television operators.

So now you know why Bowe was nervous against Hide. The fight was delayed 15 minutes because Bowe could not find a pair of gloves that would fit properly. He tried on six pairs.

Bowe struggled early, and Hide took advantage. Hide, 23, was having such a go of it, he became enamored with himself.

“I got a bit too carried away the first two, three rounds,” said Hide, who suffered his first defeat after 26 victories. “He drew me into a fight and I fought, and he got the better of it.”

The fight turned in the third round, when Bowe dropped Hide three times. The first was ruled a slip, though Hide appeared to be hurt. After Hide got up, Bowe swarmed him with punches and Hide fell again.

Again, he got up. Just before the bell, Bowe landed a right uppercut and Hide slumped into a corner post.

Hide opened a wild fourth with a hard left jab that scored. Bowe missed so badly with a counterpunch that he slipped and fell. Hide scored again with a right, but two Bowe rights, a left, then another right dropped Hide for the third time.

Again, Hide rose. Again, Bowe leveled him with a left.

But it would be two more rounds before Bowe could finish him off.

Bowe knocked him down again in the fifth, but Hide answered with a hard right to Bowe’s chin 14 seconds before the end of the round.

In the sixth, Hide slipped once early, then was sent to the floor a sixth time when Bowe hit him with his trademark overhand right at 1:18.

The end was near. Finally, after Bowe landed a left-right combination, Hide was down for good.

Although the WBO is not highly regarded, Bowe was a champion again for the first time since losing his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. titles to Evander Holyfield in November, 1993.

Since then, Bowe has fought against himself and the boxing establishment to get back in the heavyweight picture.

“We went through some adversity, some hard times,” Newman said. “Many times we were pronounced dead, never to return. We’re back.”

Bowe is obligated to fight Cuba’s Jorge Luis Gonzalez in June. Gonzalez, an MGM house fighter, had little trouble in his fight on the undercard, knocking out Bryan Scott at 2:34 of the second round.

In the post-fight news conference, things got testy when Bowe and Gonzalez exchanged words, Bowe getting the better of the exchange.

“When I get finished with him, I’ll have him wishing he was back in Cuba,” he said of Gonzalez, who defected in 1991.

Bowe looked Gonzalez in the eye: “I’m going to whip you, then (Fidel) Castro.”

Then, it was off to somewhere over the rainbow.

To Indiana.