Mike Tyson is ticketed to head to Monaco for a royal performance of his one-man show Undisputed Truth. He is in talks with Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese, who directed Raging Bull, about a biopic that could star Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and make the tale of Jake LaMotta seem like Sunday school. He reports he has three children in college ? at Georgetown, NYU and New York?s Parsons The New School of Design.
And, oh yes, he is a boxing promoter.
Given all the tabloid twists and turns Tyson?s life has taken ? the hundreds of millions in purses, the bankruptcy, the jail time, the addiction, the bite, boxing promoter may not be near the top of the list, but it still ranks a mention.
?Not in a million years,? Tyson was saying on the phone the other night when asked if he ever conceived of assuming the role of promoter. ?Me and promoters never got along.?
That, like much of what comes with describing Tyson?s life, can often be described as understatement. Tyson vs. promoter Don King outside the ring was often as memorable as Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield in it.
Tyson, 48, has been at promoting fights for a little more than a year. He has a card scheduled for Friday night at Mesquite?s Resistol Arena. It?s a credible card for fight fans featuring a 122-pound world championship bout between boxers from Panama and the Dominican Republic and includes up-and-coming Dallas middleweight Charles Hatley and local featherweight draw Robert Marroquin. He?ll hold a news conference Thursday.
Three decades after he gained national fame at the 1984 Olympic boxing trials in Fort Worth, 18 years after he lost his final claim to a heavyweight title to Evander Holyfield in the infamous ?bite? fight, nine years after he lost his last fight, there?s no one of Tyson?s marquee value on the card. Then again, there?s no one in boxing this side of Floyd Mayweather who is even close.
And so the promoter warrants more attention than the fighters.
On the phone Tyson, in his unmistakable high-pitched voice, was pleasant and chatty, opening with a ?hey buddy.? A public relations man who set up the connection asked at the last minute that no questions be asked about his violent past with women given with the on-going Ray Rice affair.
It did not go well earlier this month in Toronto when violence and women came up on a live television interview. Four-letter words rained over the airwaves, courtesy of Tyson. Yet the public relations man was happy to send along a newspaper clipping detailing recent Tyson heroics in helping soothe an injured motorcyclist on Las Vegas? busiest highway.
Tyson said he became a promoter because he wanted to give fighters ?an even break,? something he said he rarely got. He hopes to become more involved in with his promotions company ?Iron Mike Productions.?
?I didn?t like my career,? he said of a professional life that provided two decades of headlines. ?I don?t like to remember it.?
But where would be without it?
?It gave me a platform to do this,? he said. ?It gave me a platform to do everything.?
BIG TEXAS THROWDOWN
When: First bell at 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Resistol Arena, Mesquite
Tickets: $50 to $250
THE CARD
Anselmo Moreno (35-2-1) vs. Juan Carlos Payano (15-0), 12 rounds, for Moreno?s WBA ?super? bantamweight title.
Charles Hatley (23-1-1) vs. Richar Gutierrez 28-13-1), 10 rounds, middleweights.
Moises Flores (20-0) vs. Pablo Batres (7-10-1), 6 rounds, featherweights.
Robert Marroquin (23-3-1) vs. Miguel Soto (12-3), 8 rounds, featherweights.
Raphael Murphy (9-0) vs. Gary Tapuosa (5-1-1), 6 rounds, cruiserweights.
DeAnthony Bonner (7-1) vs. Evan James Woolsey (2-4), 6 rounds, junior lightweights.
John Wesley Nofire (14-0) vs. Earl Ladson (15-24-1), 4 rounds, heavyweights.
Alberto Fundora (1-0) vs. Andrew Sosa (0-2), 4 rounds, super middleweights.
On Twitter: @bhorn55
