AN EARFUL FROM MIKE TYSON

Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion who bit off part of Evander Holyfield’s right ear in their 1997 title bout, says he would do it again.

Tyson, preparing to return to the ring after serving a jail term in Maryland, said in an exclusive interview last week when asked about the ear-biting incident:

“I would do it again under those circumstances. [Referee] Mills Lane wasn’t protecting me [from head butts]. He didn’t handle the situation appropriately. . . . Yes, [I would do it again] if I’m bleeding and I’m cut.”

Tyson will fight Orlin Norris Oct. 23 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

His self-destructive behavior having left the two-time former champion in exile from boxing for most of the last 2 1/2 years, Tyson has fought only once since the infamous Holyfield fight in June 1997.

In the third round of their title rematch at the MGM Grand, he spit out his mouthpiece and bit off the top of Holyfield’s right ear, in retribution for what he said later were unpenalized head butts by Holyfield. Then minutes later, he bit Holyfield in the left ear.

After losing his boxing license for 15 months for that, Tyson returned to fight Francois Botha last January, winning on a fifth-round knockout.

But then Tyson, who had spent 3 1/2 years in an Indiana prison for a rape conviction in the early ‘90s, was jailed again in February for assaulting two men in the wake of a minor traffic accident.

He was released in May, after serving 3 1/2 months, and now, at 33, is preparing for his comeback fight against Norris. After a workout here at the Golden Gloves Gym the other day, Tyson reflected on his turbulent life:

Question: How do you cope with all the starts and stops in your career?

Answer: I’m just trying to hang on and stay strong. But sometimes I have just felt like going somewhere else.

Q: What do you mean by going somewhere else?

A: I felt like just leaving the country.

Q: So what kept you here?

A: I have a family, a wife and four children.

Q: What was the low point, the second Holyfield fight?

A: Hell, no. It was probably the motorcycle accident [in 1997]. It took a lot out of me. I punctured a lung and fractured my back and a rib.

Q: Did that scare you?

A: When I was [flying] through the air I was scared, but not afterward.

A week later, I was riding my motorcycle again, but at the time of the accident, I was as low as a man can be.

Q: Did you ever get so low that you considered giving up boxing?

A: Not really. It’s easy to think that way when you are not actively training. Once you start training and get back to this level, it’s fine. I love fighting.

But I’ll say that sometimes training is hard because you are a grown man and somebody is pointing out all your bad points. You think you are an accomplished fighter and somebody is telling you all your negative points. Damn, was somebody blowing smoke . . . when they used to tell me how good I was?

Q: Why do you think you fought so badly against Holyfield?

A: He wanted it more than I did. And I had been off for four years.

Listen, if I had never been a prisoner, if I had never been inactive, I would still be champion. I just had a bunch of setbacks. If other guys had ever been off that period of time and fought me, they wouldn’t have lasted one round.

Think about someone going through what I went through, being in prison 3 1/2 years and being inactive four years and then coming back and winning a title. Most people’s lives would have been ruined.

Q: So you figure that, if you had fought Holyfield when you were originally scheduled to do so, back in the early ‘90s before you went to prison for rape, you would have beaten him?

A: Oh, yeah, I believe that. Yeah.

Q: When you look back on the second Holyfield fight, is it hard for you to believe you acted the way you did and resorted to ear biting?

A: I would do it again under those circumstances. [Referee] Mills Lane wasn’t protecting me [from head butts]. He didn’t handle the situation appropriately.

Q: So if you were faced with that situation again, you would act the same way?

A: Yes, if I’m bleeding and I’m cut. I know what the reality is. Listen, I hate to cry and I hate to sound like sour grapes, but no one ever listens to me. No one ever hears what I have to say.

Q: So are you saying that if Orlin Norris resorts to some illegal tactic against you on Oct. 23, you don’t expect help from the referee?

A: No, no, I don’t.

Q: And you feel this is a pattern in your life?

A: Whether I have a rough fight or I go to court, everyone is going to try to get me.

If Mike Tyson is in your courtroom and you don’t send him to jail, it’s an injustice. Everyone knows he’s a bad guy. So if he is in your courtroom, he should go to jail.

If he’s having a rough fight and there is some foulness going on, the referee is going to be paralyzed and not act.

Nobody ever has any sympathy or pity for me. In retaliation, I’ll fight back because nobody is fighting for me. I have to defend myself. It is just human nature to defend yourself. I just never sold out.

I would tell my kids, “Please, sell out. Sell out.” It’s probably too late for me, but I would tell my kids, “Listen, you don’t really need to protest anything. You don’t need to fight for causes. Just be happy and live your life.”

Q: What was your life like in prison? What kept you going?

A: I don’t know, man. I just wanted to live life. I didn’t have a lot of people who I thought loved me. That wasn’t a crutch I had to grasp.

My wife [Monica] stuck by me. She came to visit, but then she left and you stay there. You stagnate. I read a lot. I learned a lot, but even that got boring. But I don’t hold grudges or nothing. Life is too short.

Q: Speaking of shortened lives, John F. Kennedy Jr. came to visit you when you were in jail in Maryland. What did you two talk about?

A: We talked about life. You know, he flew up there to see me, but he had [a flying] instructor with him. I told him, “You are crazy to fly.”

And he said to me, “You don’t know what it’s like up there alone. You don’t know what the feeling is like.”

I told him it was stupid, that there wasn’t enough metal up there for me. I said, “If you are going to go up there, don’t take anybody you love with you.”

He said to me, “Well, you ride motorcycles.”

I hate to say, I told you so. This was a young guy, a handsome guy, a respected guy, a well-known guy. It’s too bad. He should have been able to do whatever he wanted to do. If he wanted to fly jet rockets to the moon, he should have been able to do so.

Q: Do you have any role models?

A: I was just reading a story before I came to the gym today about Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole’s daughter. She was talking about her drug addiction, hanging out and partying, bad influences. I try my best to learn from other people’s mistakes. I have a lot of respect for people who can change.

Q: Do you have any idea how long you will keep fighting?

A: I don’t know. I’m just happy I can still do it. I need to be around it more. I need to start going to more fights. I’m very insecure when I go to a fight now. I don’t know how the fight people perceive me because I’ve been gone so long. They are very fickle. So I need to be out there more.

Q: Do you worry about staying around too long and absorbing too much punishment, winding up like a Muhammad Ali or a Jerry Quarry?

A: I’m not a good-looking guy. I don’t care if my nose gets mashed.

Q: I’m talking more about the risk of brain damage.

A: If my children will live a better life than I did by my getting brain damage, by my being brain dead, then let it be.

Q: Are you happy now?

A: I’m pretty cool. I’m happy.

Q: No bitterness?

A: No, I was [bitter] at one time, but I don’t care now.

Q: So you are at peace?

A: I don’t know about peace, but I’m not going to let anything destroy whatever soundness I do have. Everything starts now, Mike Tyson now in 1999 and the year 2000.

Q: How would you like to be remembered?

A: I don’t want to be remembered. As long as my kids remember me, I’d rather be forgotten by everybody else.

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Trials and Tribulations

The trail of Mike Tyson since his controversial fight against Evander Holyfield:

* June 28, 1997: Mike Tyson is disqualified after third round of rematch with Evander Holyfield because he bit Holyfield twice, once on each ear. Nevada State Athletic Commission withholds Tyson’s $29.8-million purse pending a hearing.

* June 30, 1997: Tyson apologizes for his actions, saying he “snapped.”

* July 1, 1997: Nevada commission suspends Tyson pending a hearing to determine his final punishment for biting Holyfield.

* July 9, 1997: Nevada commission revokes Tyson’s boxing license. He cannot reapply for it for at least one year.

* Oct. 29, 1997: Tyson suffers broken ribs when his motorcycle skids as he exits a highway near Hartford, Conn.

* March 5, 1998: Tyson files a $100-million lawsuit against Don King, alleging that the promoter cheated him out of tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade.

* July 9, 1998: First day Tyson can apply for reinstatement.

* July 17, 1998: Tyson applies for a license in New Jersey.

* July 29, 1998: Tyson expresses frustration during a closing statement by his attorney toward the end of a 3-hour 40-minute hearing to decide whether Tyson should be licensed to box in New Jersey.

* Aug. 13, 1998: On the eve of a scheduled New Jersey ruling, Tyson withdraws his application. At the same time, he formally asks that the Nevada State Athletic Commission consider reinstating his license, and commissioners immediately accept his request.

* Aug. 21, 1998: Tyson’s hearing before the Nevada commission, originally scheduled for Sept. 9, is moved to Sept. 19.

* Aug. 31, 1998: Tyson is involved in a minor traffic accident and is accused of punching one man in the chest and kicking another in the groin. Richard Hardick, 50, says Tyson kicked him after his car rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz driven by Tyson’s wife, Monica. Hardick says his car was forced into Tyson’s car after it was rear-ended by a third vehicle. Abmielec Saucedo claims Tyson struck him in the face.

* Sept. 2, 1998: Hardick files an assault charge against the former heavyweight boxing champion.

* Sept. 3, 1998: Saucedo files criminal assault charges.

* Sept. 18, 1998: Tyson admits to having serious financial troubles and will fight with or without the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s blessing.

* Oct. 19, 1998: Nevada State Athletic Commission gives back to Tyson the license it had revoked after the Holyfield incident.

* Jan. 16, 1999: Tyson knocks out Francois Botha in fifth round in Las Vegas.

* Feb. 5, 1999: Tyson begins serving jail sentence in Maryland for assaulting two men after a minor traffic accident.

* May 24, 1999: Tyson is released from jail.