Peter McNeeley realizes the world doesn't know he's the guy Mike Tyson will oppose Aug. 19 when he returns to boxing for the first time in four years. McNeeley says everyone will be aware of his identity afterward.

Longtime sports columnist and author Rick Talley died at a convalescent home in Las Vegas following a long bout with brain cancer, his wife, Jane, said. He was 61. ... Mike Tyson says he'll take a Muslim name sometime in the future. For the time being, he'll remain Iron Mike.

Mulholland

As rain pelted an umbrella at Bryant Park shortly after last week's Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe outdoor news conference was canceled, a well-dressed young man calmly ate a sandwich and discussed the bubbling excitement he felt about Mike Tyson's return. "I'd pay to watch him fight my mother," he said. But would he pay for Bowe-Holyfield ("The People's Championship") and Tyson-His Mom if both aired on pay-per-view the same night?

Tyson

Denver Some of the best amateur boxers in the country continued to struggle in the U.S. Olympic Festival. For the second straight day, two U.S. champions lost their first-round bouts and therefore any chance to win a gold medal. The festival competition is single elimination - win or go home.

Top-seeded Andre Agassi had his toughest match of the tournament, holding off No. 4 Todd Martin 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington D.C., and earning a date with second-seeded Stefan Edberg, who defeated No. 13 Patrick Rafter of Australia 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. ... Nigel Benn shook off six rounds of a tough challenge from Vincenzo Nardiello with two rounds of powerful punching to retain his WBC super-middleweight title by eighth-round knockout in London. Nate Miller rallied to win his first world title, taking Orlin Norris's WBA cruiserweight crown with an eighth-round knockout on the undercard.

George Foreman will conclude his second boxing career in a rematch with Michael Moorer, but he wishes it would end in a fight against Mike Tyson. "If I was Tyson's manager, I'd fight George Foreman," Foreman said. "There'd be so much money for pay-per-view, why not fight George Foreman? If he loses, he can say he was rushed and start over again."

Mike Tyson's promoter says the former heavyweight champion has been swamped with calls from around the world from fighters wanting to be his sparring partner. Don King said more than 1,200 calls from boxers in 11 countries and the United States have been received in the last four days.

Evander Holyfield went to bed thinking he had a third fight with Riddick Bowe, only to find out that Bowe's manager was to announce a match with Tommy Morrison. By late Thursday afternoon, however, it appeared chances were good that he and Bowe would get together Nov. 4 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

With the IBF on the verge of withdrawing lightweight championship recognition from Oscar De La Hoya for not fighting its No. 1 contender, the fighter relinquished the IBF 135-pound title. The IBF ordered De La Hoya to defend against top-ranked Miguel Julio of Colombia this month or be stripped of the title by Aug. 1. A judge has overturned a portion of an arbitration award that ordered Salt Lake Buzz owner Joe Buzas to settle with the Trappers baseball club. Third District Judge Homer F. Wilkinson ruled that the amount of money Buzas was to pay to the former Salt Lake Trappers should be reduced by $400,000 - from $552,152 to $152,152.

Mike Tyson could be in line for a shot at the WBC heavyweight title if he wants to fight the winner of the upcoming Oliver McCall-Frank Bruno championship bout. Promoter Don King, at a news conference to discuss the McCall-Bruno fight at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 2, said the final decision "is up to Mike Tyson. "I believe he would win the title today. But I don't want to be the one to rush him into a world title fight." Tyson will fight Peter McNeeley Aug. 19 in his first match after serving a three-year jail sentence for rape.

Mike Tyson's comeback fight against Peter McNeeley is slightly more than six weeks away, but promoter Don King indicated Tyson would like to fight former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in the near future. Assuming Tyson defeats McNeeley, King said he might arrange for Holyfield to fight World Boxing Association champion Bruce Seldon as a prelude to a Tyson match.

If Roy Jones thinks he's the world's best poundfor-pound fighter, Pernell Whitaker says he should think again. "We are not competing for pound for pound," Whitaker said. "We already know who that is. I claimed that title a long time ago, and until I step down from the game, I will be, pound for pound, the best."

When Peter McNeeley was starting out as a boxer, he was a big Mike Tyson fan. "I still have a poster of him on my wall," McNeeley said. "I never dreamed I would be fighting him someday."

Roy Jones Jr. sliced up Vinny Pazienza, who calls himself the Pazmanian Devil, knocked him down three times in the sixth round and then stopped him with 2 seconds left in the round Saturday night at the Convention Center. The unbeaten Jones retained the IBF super middleweight title and ran his record to 29-0 with his 25th knockout. It might have been the last hurrah, at least as a major boxing figure, for the 32-year-old Pazienza.

Further evidence of how the world of boxing and pay-per-view technology are intertwined was provided by promoter Don King on Tuesday at Mike Tyson's press conference at Sylvia's in Harlem. When King wasn't introducing everyone on the dais - including Tyson's cut man - he was selling Showtime's Aug. 19 Tyson-Peter McNeeley fight, which at a $50 price tag is a total ripoff. King also explained that if you can't dial into PPV, you can purchase a "trap," which is a device that will allow you to see the fight.

Mike Tyson has settled the civil suit filed against him by the beauty contestant he was convicted of raping four years go, the boxer's lawyer said Wednesday. "All I can tell you is that the matter has been resolved and Mike is looking to the future and not to the past, and that's why he resolved this," attorney Nathan Dershowitz said from his office in New York.

Mike Tyson came home to a hero's welcome Tuesday after three years in prison, basking in the cheers of fans and shielded from questions about his rape of a beauty queen. "The powers that be didn't want you here and didn't want me to speak to you," the former heavyweight champ told a sweltering outdoor rally of more than 500 in Harlem. "But we'll beat them because God's on our side."