Mike Tyson does not believe he will ever regain the boxing licence that was taken from him for biting Evander Holyfield in a Las Vegas ring - an action which, he said, makes him feel "disgust, disdain and humiliation" whenever he watches tapes of their notorious world heavyweight title fight in June and which has prompted him to go into psychotherapy. The former world heavyweight champion told an ABC television interviewer late on Monday night: "Truly, I think I'll be banned for the rest of my life. I truly think everyone hates me. Because no one gets punished more than I am. But I understand. I'm a big boy and big boys have big ordeals to be dealt with."
Tyson was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission after his midsummer madness and can seek reinstatement after one year but he said he believed that people want him to beg for mercy.
"I'm not that way with anyone," he said. "This is who I am and maybe sometimes it's the insecurity. I want to be the defiant person. That's part of my insecurity, but you know, it's just who I am."
Tyson, speaking for the first time since he sustained broken ribs and a punctured lung in a motorcycle accident last week, was joined for part of the interview by his wife, Dr Monica Turner, and three of their children. Of the Holyfield biting he said: "I shouldn't have done that. It was just striking out of total hatred right there. I shouldn't have done that because for that one moment, I forgot he was a human being.
"It was extremeness. There was some serious stuff going on in my head. I just snapped. I was no longer playing under the rules. I just totally lost it."
Tyson claimed he had been in therapy since the affair, trying to change some things about himself. "It's kind of scary to change. We're working on it and hopefully it'll turn out better. I'm not a stable person. I'm sporadic and spontaneous. I think change is necessary and I can tell you this thing is working."
Meanwhile, as one sinner evidently repents, Frank Maloney could be demonised for his lurid promotional material for Herol Graham's fight with the "Panzamanian Devil" Vinnie Pazienza at Wembley Arena next month.
The British boxing board's secretary John Morris is to look at the "Good and Evil" fight poster which he said yesterday "sounds like an exercise in bad taste". It shows the former world champion Pazienza emerging from Hell with the severed head of a woman in each hand, dripping blood, and running through fire.
The WBC international supermiddleweight champion Graham is depicted as an angel floating in on clouds; naked, with only his gloves saving his modesty.
Promoter Maloney is going all out for the hard sell to dispose of the 5,000 tickets soon to go on the market.
Graham, bidding for a third shot at a world title, added: "The public like the razzamataz in the build up
Morris was able to take more positive action yesterday and wrote to both Naseem Hamed and Chris Eubank expressing the Board's "concern" over their dust-up on the concourse of Heathrow's Terminal Three last month.
The matter will be discussed by the Board's stewards at their next meeting on November 19th.
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