A Dope on the Ropes

Facing an emergency hearing Tuesday, Mike Tyson stayed in seclusion Sunday, and so did Don King, his promoter, and both of his mouthpieces, John Horne and Rory Holloway.

Evander Holyfield flew back to his Atlanta home, with a stitched up right ear, a cut left ear and a wide-open future.

Though Mitchell Liberati, an MGM Grand Garden arena ring supervisor, found and brought to Holyfield’s locker room a piece of skin and cartilage believed to be spit out by Tyson after he bit Holyfield’s right ear, the chunk was lost en route to the hospital.

“Evander was in a great deal of pain this morning,” said his attorney, Jim Thomas. “I mean, he lost a sizable piece of his ear. At some point, he’s going to need reconstructive surgery to repair it.

“And he’s disappointed because he was going to knock the guy out, and he wasn’t allowed to do that.”

Tuesday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting--akin to a criminal preliminary hearing--to decide whether to pursue disciplinary action against Tyson for biting both of Holyfield’s ears, which earned Tyson a disqualification from Saturday night’s heavyweight title fight.

If the commission decides there is evidence to pursue punishing Tyson with a suspension or other penalty, he will be given no less than 30 days notice to answer the complaint in a formal disciplinary hearing.

The commission has temporarily withheld Tyson’s $30 million purse, but by law can permanently withhold only up to $3 million, or 10% of the purse.

Thomas said Holyfield’s decision whether to pursue a civil complaint against Tyson for the bites could be affected by the commission’s actions.

“I believe the actions of Mike Tyson were tortious actions,” Thomas said. “I’ll say that one of the things we will take into consideration in deciding what to do is if somebody else has delivered some kind of reprimand for his actions. If there are no other consequences, maybe we’d become involved in seeking some kind of justice for his actions.”

Thomas termed Tyson’s post-fight explanation that he bit Holyfield in retaliation for a head butt as “sad, if not pathetic.”

Said Holyfield cornerman Tim Hallmark: “I think something extreme has to happen. We’re not obviously afraid to fight Mike or anybody like that. But I’m always concerned about what kids think. How can someone get away with something like this?”

There are no hard and fast rules to suspensions, other than that the decisions and implementation usually take a great deal of time. Oliver McCall, whose bizarre non-effort against Lennox Lewis in the World Boxing Council heavyweight title fight in February caused the commission to withhold his purse, still has not had his formal disciplinary hearing.

Many boxing insiders, however, have already made up their mind about Tyson.

“They have to suspend him,” veteran trainer Emanuel Steward said. “It’s the only thing they can do. I don’t know how long, but you have to show that what he did was wrong.”

Said Teddy Atlas, who worked with Tyson when Tyson was a teenager: “Ban him from the sport. I have the right to say this because I’ve been around him and I’ve been consistent. Ban him from the sport because it was premeditated.

“Because it’s just wrong.”

It would take a suspension of at least a year to have any real effect on Tyson, who probably, suspension or not, would not fight again until November, at the earliest.

But, already, there is speculation that the biggest fight either Holyfield or Tyson could get is a second rematch.

Though Holyfield’s trainer, Don Turner, said the only way he would support another Tyson fight would be if he removed his teeth for the bout, Thomas did not exactly rule a rematch out.

“At this point of time, and there’s always the possibility of reconsideration, we do not believe Mike Tyson deserves the privilege of being in the ring with somebody like Evander Holyfield,” Thomas said.

A possible next fight for either fighter--both are still contractually tied to King and Showtime television--could be with Michael Moorer (who beat Holyfield in 1994), the International Boxing Federation champion and also bound to King and Showtime.

What could Tyson do to rehabilitate his image, maybe enough to draw a second rematch?

“I guess a place to start would be to admit what he did and apologize for the first time,” Thomas said. “This pattern of crazy behavior and blaming it on someone else is self-destructive behavior.”

Turner pointed out that Tyson merely shoved Holyfield when Holyfield turned his back to him after the first bite, when he could have slammed him in the back of the head.

“I think he should fight again,” Turner said. “He has been a credit to the sport for a long time. But he should be disciplined and all the people who instigated all this stuff, they should be barred from boxing--not Mike Tyson.

“The people around him have to have control of the situation. Why was Tyson in the middle of the ring? The guys in the corner have to control their guy.

“Our guy had his ear partly bit off and he didn’t go crazy.”

Coverage:

* BILL PLASCHKE: At a time when it needs courage most, the sport of boxing will be toothless. A1

* RANDY HARVEY: Shame on him if he adds to Mike Tyson’s pay-per-view coffers again. C2

* THE SCENE: Chaos in the ring quickly spilled out into the Las Vegas night. C4