Experts Predict Public Will Pay To See Tyson Fight

The only body that can suspend Mike Tyson for life is the paying public.

No pay, no play.

Promoter Butch Lewis and former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes believe Tyson will fight again despite being stripped of his license on Wednesday, and they are sure the public will pay big to see his next comeback.

Tyson, who also was fined $3 million by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for biting Evander Holyfield’s ears, can reapply for a license in a year. If the application is denied he can reapply in another year.

Holmes thought Tyson would fight again in a year.

“It’s their loss if they don’t give him a license,” Holmes said. “He’s still a big draw, and people are going to want to see him.”

Asked how he thought Tyson’s next fight would do financially, Lewis said, “Through the roof.”

“If for no other reason than for curiosity, everybody will want to see it. It’s no longer a boxing match, it’s an event,” Lewis said.

Holmes said Tyson’s punishment was too harsh, that a $250,000 fine, a six-month suspension and some community service would have been fair.

Lewis, however, said it was fair. “It maintains the credibility of the commission.”

It also allows the sport’s movers and shakers time for damage control. Tyson, too.

“Hopefully, while the year goes on, he can kind of deal with Mike Tyson, the person,” Lewis said. “People say he should have straightened himself out those three years in prison, but I don’t agree a prison is a place to sit around and get yourself together.”

Should Tyson stay out of trouble in the next year, it would seem the commission should grant him a license.

And while Tyson’s actions were inexcusable, it was the nature of the foul that created the outcry to ban him from boxing, and, in some quarters, to ban boxing.

“When Mike bit the second ear it made a statement about Mike, not about boxing,” said boxer Bobby Czyz, a commentator during the fight who worked Wednesday for Court TV, which covered the hearing.

An intentional butt or low blow also could have gotten Tyson disqualified. There have been numerous disqualifications for such tactics over the years, but without much public outcry and, unfortunately, often without very severe punishment.

Andrew Golota was disqualified in his last two fights for repeated low blows against former heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe. There was no punishment, and on Aug. 16 in Atlantic City, N.J., Golota will get a multimillion-dollar payday for fighting Ray Mercer.

Boxers have been bitten in the ring before, but Tyson actually bit off a chunk of Holyfield’s right ear and spit it out. It was a repulsive act, even in boxing.

“Mike’s not a bad guy,” Holmes said. “He just reacted.”

Yes, reacted like the street fighter he once was.

Tyson, who lost the first two rounds of the WBA heavyweight title rematch on June 28, had the best of the third round. But Holmes thinks Tyson sensed he was going to lose again to the fighter who had stopped him in the 11th round of their first fight.

“He thought he was going to get knocked out again and he didn’t want to be embarrassed,” Holmes said. “(Referee) Mills Lane gave him an out.”

After the severe bite of the right year, Lane told Tyson one more bite and he would be disqualified. Tyson then bit the left ear, but Lane didn’t disqualify him until the third round ended.

The bitten ears gave boxing another black eye.

Boxing, however, seems to have great recuperative powers, or maybe the sport just has millions of eyes - those of a curious, paying public.