Tyson Starts Training, but Trainer Exits

Mike Tyson doesn’t have a boxing license or the promise of a fight, but that hasn’t stopped him from having problems in the ring.

Tyson started training in a Las Vegas gym last week in the hopes that a Sept. 19 hearing before the Nevada Athletic Commission will go his way and he can resume fighting once again.

It took only a few days for his new trainer, Jesse Reid, to walk out of Tyson’s camp in a dispute over training duties.

Reid said, though, he expected to go back and train Tyson again.

“It is worth the time to talk to everybody,” he said.

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In a perfect boxing world, Bernard Hopkins and William Joppy would be fighting each other tonight to help the public identify at least one reigning middleweight champion.

Since little in boxing seems to make sense, however, it’s only fitting that the appearance of two middleweight champions on one card will be overshadowed by a 47-year-old who hasn’t held a title in nine years.

That would be Roberto Duran, of course, who challenges Joppy for his WBA middleweight title in the featured event at the Las Vegas Hilton. In the co-main event, Hopkins defends the IBF version of the 160-pound title against No. 1-ranked Robert Allen.

Hopkins is defending his IBF title for the eighth time but has yet to become a household name.