Mike Tyson

PHILADELPHIA -- Mike Tyson is back. Again. And this time, to promote his fight with Francois Botha, they ran television spots with Tyson slurping a bowl of cereal, grinning mischievously, making crunching sounds.Rice Krispies? Cap'n Crunch? Granola? No cereal crunches that loud. Maybe that's the sound ripped cartilage makes? Bones breaking? Yeah, that's it.Gotcha. They want you to think that at age 32, coming off two emphatic, humiliating losses to Evander Holyfield, creaky with 13 months of rust, Mike Tyson is still capable of smashing somebody's nose back into his brain.

JOE MADISON, you've gone too far. But you've got guts.On Monday, Madison, the superb program director of Radio One's talk stations WOL and WOLB, walked where many are reluctant to tread: He questioned whether sending Mike Tyson - the epitome of dysfunction - to jail for a year ``does any good.''Madison went even further. He suggested that Montgomery County Judge Stephen Johnson sentenced Tyson solely to get publicity. Assuming the accusation is true, it's also quite beside the point.The issue in the matter of Mike Tyson is what it always has been: the conduct of Mike Tyson.

LAS VEGAS -- In the aftermath of Mike Tyson's horrific, ear-biting run-in with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield on June 29, 1997, a riot broke out in the MGM Grand's casino.Gunshots were reported and more than 40 people were injured as gambling tables were overturned and looted.As a consequence, the MGM ended its contract with Tyson's promoter, Don King, and Tyson's boxing license was suspended indefinitely by the Nevada Athletic Commission.But nothing is forever in professional boxing, especially when the sport's biggest attraction is involved.

LAS VEGAS -- Trying to understand what makes Mike Tyson tick can be a ride on a runaway carousel.The former heavyweight champion inspires awe, shock, fear and loathing. As boxing's albatross, he is treated like a freak-show exhibit, with his mounting problems only adding to the public's fascination.Tyson's bizarre ear-chomping affair with Evander Holyfield in fall 1997 prompted the Hollywood Wax Museum in Los Angeles to move his likeness from the Sports Hall of Fame wing to the House of Horrors, alongside the cannibal Hannibal Lechter from "Silence of the Lambs."

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County judge sentenced boxer Mike Tyson to two years in jail yesterday for attacking two motorists last summer "in a dramatic example, a tragic example of potentially lethal road rage."A loud groan went up among the 200 people in the courtroom as Judge Stephen Johnson announced his decision: two years on each count of second-degree assault to be served concurrently, with a year suspended on each -- amounting to a one-year sentence.Tyson was taken from the room in handcuffs, with his wife sobbing quietly in the first row of spectators.

Hi, my name is Jerry Reinsdorf. I'm still a little sad, you know. Well, at least that's what I said. And what good is being an owner if you can't fib like the President? Or Pinocchio, for that matter?Truth is, Jan. 14, 1999, was Independence Day for the Chicago Bulls franchise. Thank goodness, we don't have to worry about that Jordan guy anymore.So much fame, so much power, so much money -- too much for one man! So many titles, so many contracts, so many rings to purchase -- too much for one owner!

A SUCKER IS born every minute. And about a week ago, thousands of them filled Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden to see boxing's version of the Cardiff Giant, the scheduled 10-round, non-title debacle featuring "Iron" Mike Tyson and Orlin Norris.The Cardiff Giant proved that you can fleece just about anyone with a big lie and the right mixture of hype and chutzpah. Consider this: In 1868, a con man buried a 10-foot-long stone carving of a man on a farm in Cardiff, N.Y. A year later, it was uncovered and the huckster claimed that it was a petrified man. The suckers lined up and paid two bits a peek.

BOSTON -- At least they didn't crown him the Mental Health Poster Child. They just said that Mike Tyson was "mentally fit to return to boxing." Whatever that means.The team of six doctors reported to the Nevada Athletic Commission that the champ of chomps did not have -- where do they get these names? -- "Intermittent Explosive Disorder."Yes, the "32-year-old right-handed gentleman" was troubled. He struggled with issues of trust and anger and "low self-esteem." But that didn't rule out the ring.

WOODLAWN -- Nearly 2,000 people helped County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger raise more than $300,000 at his annual political fund-raiser last night, tickets to which read "Four More Outstanding Years."Many observers expect the Democratic leader to stick to that plan and run for a second term, and he seemed to confirm the expectation last night. Ruppersberger began his remarks by announcing a statewide campaign, then said, "Oops, wrong speech."The two-tiered event featured a private gathering early for $500-per-ticket donors, and a $125-per-person affair later at the Martin's West catering hall.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Mike Tyson has applied for a license to fight in New Jersey and will face a July 29 hearing before the State Athletic Control Board to determine his fitness.Tyson, 32, a former heavyweight champion, has not fought since the Nevada State Athletic Commission revoked his boxing license last year and fined him $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ears in a Las Vegas title fight.Since Tyson's license was revoked, other states have voluntarily abided by Nevada's action. But Anthony Fusco Jr., Tyson's lawyer, said no law compels the states to follow Nevada's lead on a revocation.

Horse racing Jockey 'not likely to walk' after accident, agent says Jockey Rene Douglas may be paralyzed after being thrown from his mount during a race at Arlington Park, his agent said. Dennis Cooper said Douglas spent seven hours in surgery on Sunday at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and afterward doctors told him his client could not feel his lower limbs. Cooper said doctors won't know Douglas' status for certain until swelling reduces in about two weeks. "They said he might not walk again ... he'll probably have use of his upper body, but they gave it to me straight that he's not likely to walk," Cooper told Bloodhorse.

1 MIAA soccer clash: The No. 4 McDonogh boys get back on the field after falling to Perry Hall and losing their top ranking. The Dons travel to No. 2 Mount St. Joseph for a 4 p.m. match. 2 No snap : Football coach Ralph Friedgen has his weekly news conference today, when he'll try to explain how he'll keep his Terps up for Eastern Michigan after their upset of California. 3 Same old September: Stumbling toward the finish again, the Orioles start their last road trip of the season tonight in Toronto (7:07 p.m., MASN2)

Dear Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: So, it's a black thing? Not a sleaze thing, not a betrayal-of-the-public-trust thing, not a breaking-the-law thing? Just a black thing? This would seem to be the message of the recent rally thrown for you at a black church in Detroit. It was, to judge from media reports, quite the shindig. Standing room only; gospel choirs doing that gospel choir thing; posters in red, black and green; chants of "I can make it through the storm!" The church's Cardinal Ronald Hewitt seems to have caught the spirit of the event when he declared, "Kwame Kilpatrick just happens to be the symbol of bold, uncompromising black power in this city.

Don King trailed his latest contender into a crowd yesterday, ready to pump up his fans for the big fight. Only this time he wasn't entering a boxing ring, but into some of Baltimore's rundown neighborhoods and a gathering of potential city voters. An American flag in each hand and a grapefruit-sized diamond cross hanging around his neck, King - the renowned promoter who is better known than many of the pugilists he represents - turned on the charm he usually reserves for selling the most buzz-worthy prizefights.

ATLANTA -- Glen "Big Baby" Davis pounded his chest, screamed to the heavens and saluted LSU's fans. In turn, they'll be talking about Davis and Tyrus Thomas for years. They carried LSU back to the Final Four. LSU's extra-large and extra-thin inside duo combined for 47 points, 22 rebounds and four blocked shots yesterday, and Davis' unlikely three-pointer in overtime sealed a 70-60 triumph over Texas in the Atlanta Regional final. The Tigers, a No. 4 seed, advanced to the Final Four for the first time in 20 years.

Hasim Rahman "won" the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship when his title bout with Vitali Klitschko fell through. But Rahman also lost the $4.2 million purse. The title belt might be nice, but it won't pay his bills - and Rahman has plenty of them. The Baltimore native filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 4, disclosing a debt of nearly $5 million to as many as 20 creditors, including $2.1 million in unpaid taxes and another $2 million to promoter Don King. How did it come to this for a boxer whose purses for two bouts with Lennox Lewis totaled nearly $5 million?

There may have been other champions who entered their kingdoms through the back door, but not lately. Nevertheless, Hasim Rahman is not about to get picky about how he became heavyweight champion of the world for the second time. His hometown shouldn't be picky, either. Not with a baseball franchise that yesterday, on the same day Rahman inherited his crown from Vitali "Quit-schko," got to revisit the biggest nightmare of its wretched season. And not with an NFL franchise that's off to its worst start since 1998, the last time it fired its coach.

Kevin Rooney acknowledges that when he was growing up, trouble always seemed to be right around the corner. Rooney said he considered himself a ringleader during those days in Staten Island, N.Y. - his fists earning him the respect of teenage peers on the streets as well as an occasional night in jail. Rooney later turned to fighting as a career, first as a boxer and then as the trainer who guided Mike Tyson to the heavyweight championship. That relationship ended in acrimony, but Rooney, 49, is still training fighters.

WASHINGTON - In the mixed martial arts, which incorporates wrestling, jiujitsu and boxing, Erin Toughhill rates among the world's best. Her Web site depicts her knocking out and even breaking the limbs of opponents. And at an earlier press conference, she told Laila Ali she would kick her "butt." But after nearly three rounds in the boxing ring with Ali at Washington's MCI Center last night, a bloody and badly beaten Toughill didn't look so tough. With her father, Muhammad Ali, looking on, Laila Ali scored a third-round knockout of Toughill (6-2-1)

WASHINGTON - Mike Tyson will no doubt be remembered, but the question as the aging fighter nears the end of his career is how history will rate him as a boxer. Will it be as one of the sport's all-time great heavyweights or as the ear-biting bully who sometimes lost his heart when a rival hit back? Tyson is now on a quest to regain the heavyweight title after an 11-month layoff that began when he was knocked out in the fourth round by journeyman Danny Williams of England. Tonight at MCI Center, Tyson (50-5, 44 KOs)