Actions Make It Look Like Tyson Severs Ties With King

Mike Tyson is out of prison. Is Don King out of the picture?

Various published accounts on Monday suggested that promoter King has lost his hold on the former heavyweight boxing champion, released on Saturday from an Indiana prison, where he served time for a rape conviction.

“Today, I don’t think Don King is out, but we’ll know in a couple of months,” promoter Dan Duva said from his office in Totowa, N.J.

“I think King is out,” promoter Bob Arum said from his office in Las Vegas. “I don’t care that much, except it facilitates a Tyson-Foreman fight.”

The 46-year-old George Foreman, promoted by Arum, more likely would fight Tyson if King, Arum’s archrival, is not involved.

Phone calls to King’s office in Florida and his Ohio home, located near Tyson’s residence in Southington, were not returned.

There were reports Tyson sent King away after the former champ returned to his home Saturday.

Promoter Butch Lewis was quoted in Monday’s New York Daily News as saying, “I was told that there’s some sort of rift between King and Tyson. I was told that Tyson wanted privacy and asked everybody to leave, including Don.”

On Monday, Lewis told The Associated Press that “all the rumors being circulated are second- and third-hand. I’m not surprised, nor should anyone else be, after being incarcerated for three years that the kid would want privacy. People are reading too much into it. I don’t take it as a sign that Don is on his way out.”

The New York Post reported Tyson was angry when he found a Showtime crew in his home, taping footage for a documentary to be aired in April. The newspaper reported it had been told King had made a $20 million deal on Showtime, with whom King has worked for some time, for a combination of the documentary and rights to telecast Tyson’s first comeback bout.

Several phone calls were made to the cable TV network, but Showtime would not comment.

“I don’t think the public cares who promotes Mike Tyson because I think they’ll buy tickets to see Mike Tyson fight, not because Don King is the promoter,” Duva said.

Arum, however, contends the public is interested in whether King resumes his promotional relationship with Tyson. “The public wants to know initially that King is out,” Arum said. He admitted if King is the promoter, “I think people will go to see Mike fight, but the whole aura changes.”

There were reports Tyson was upset because King had arranged for a welcome-home spread that included champagne and shellfish. Alcohol, shellfish and pork are forbidden by Islamic law.

Reports that Tyson had married his 28-year-old girlfriend Monica Turner, a Georgetown University medical student, in a Muslim ceremony in prison were denied Monday by Phil Slavens, assistant superintendent at the Indiana Youth Center.

“It did not happen, at least there was no official ceremony that I was aware of,” Slavens said. Tyson would need a license to be married legally.

It also was rumored that Tyson was thinking about changing his name to Malik Abdul Aziz.

“He ain’t changing his name” Muhammed Siddeeq, Tyson’s instructor in Islam while he was in prison, told an Associated Press reporter at a mosque in Plainfield, Ind., where Tyson prayed after being released. On Monday, Siddeeq said he had discussed a name change with Tyson nine months ago and Tyson nixed it.

“Change of name is not crucial, unless the name has meaning,” Dr. Sayyid Mohammed Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, said. “We think Mike Tyson is a nice name.”