Boxing's black eye...

Well, Mike Tyson is at it again, this time being arrested and earning a misdemeanor citation on December 7 for the damage he did to a car outside a Scottsdale, Arizona nightclub after, get this, jumping on the hood of the vehicle!

On July 30, 2004, “Iron Mike” Tyson returned to the professional boxing ring and was knocked out by Danny Williams, the World Boxing Union International Heavyweight Champion in a fight that, despite losing, earned Tyson millions. It’s a good thing too, as he needs those millions to pay off debts to the IRS, creditors and his ex-wife Monica. But Mike’s very presence in the world of professional boxing proves how complacent we, as a nation of entertainment junkies, have become in regards to criminal athletes and their behavior.

If Pete Rose doesn’t belong in Baseball’s Hall of Fame for placing a few harmless bets, speaking as a boxer myself, “Iron Mike” has absolutely no place in the realm of professional boxing and because of past (and recent) criminal offenses should be banned from the sport indefinitely.

Mike Tyson’s behavior over the last two decades demands to be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not this man, once the greatest boxer in the world, deserves a place in the ring among boxing’s greats. His actions in the early nineties alone should, if we as a nation retain a national conscious, disqualify him from ever entering a professional bout for the rest of his life.

“Iron Mike,” still a fan favorite, is an alleged wife-beater and convicted rapist. Those actions alone should be enough to bar him from every boxing gym in the country. But wait, there’s more. Since his release from prison in Indiana where he served three years for raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, Tyson has been in and out of trouble with the law, in and out of the ring.

Aside from the rape conviction, Tyson’s most famous loss of control involved Evander Holyfield during a rematch fight in 1997 when he bit off Holyfield’s ear. Tyson claimed the bite was revenge for a head-butt he received from Holyfield earlier in the fight, a head butt referee Mills Lane ruled unintentional. The Nevada State Athletic Commission ruled unanimously in favor of revoking Tyson’s boxing license and fining the fighter $3 million.

Since then the accusations and convictions have kept rolling in. In 1998 Richard Hardick and Abmielec Saucedo filed criminal charges against the boxer for two different counts of assault. Hardick’s charges resulted in a conviction and Tyson’s return to prison for a one year term. Between the previous accusations and serving out his sentence in 1999, Tyson knocked out Francois Botha in the fifth round of a 1999 bout. After the fight Tyson admitted to trying to break Botha’s arm during the fight. Returning to the ring in 1999, Tyson hit Orlin Norris after the first-round bell and the fight was deemed a no- contest.

As the new millennium dawned, the year 2000 found Tyson in even more trouble with the law. In 2000, two women sought out a $7.5 million settlement after Tyson allegedly assaulted them at a nightclub in Washington D.C. and the two sides settled out of court. On June 24, 2000, “Iron Mike” again lost control in the ring when he knocked down the ring referee in order to continue pummeling his opponent, Lou Savarese, after the fight was stopped.

The early years of the new decade also saw Tyson accused of hitting a topless dancer in the chest, attacking retired heavyweight Mitchell Rose, sexually assaulting a fifty-year-old woman in Big Bear City, CA, and throwing glass as reporters in Havana, Cuba.

It should be painfully clear by now that Mike Tyson is a not only a hardened criminal but a menace to the men and women around him and a disgrace to the sport of boxing. The fact that this man is still allowed to box professionally is astonishing. Have we come so far in America that a mentally unstable criminal is not only allowed to pursue a career in professional sports but makes millions doing so, garnering a world-wide following in the process?

And speaking of money, according to British Broadcasting, Tyson’s purse earnings (merely the money he made in the ring) rounds out at $190 million. Yet, in August 2003, according to CBS News, Tyson filed for bankruptcy, claiming his lavish lifestyle had squandered the $300 million fortune he had amassed since becoming the world’s youngest heavyweight champ at the age of 20.

Why are we as Americans still allowing this kind of an individual a place in the ring? Why, after three decades of criminal activity and animalistic behavior is Mike Tyson not behind bars where the world is safe from his rage?

Fans of Mike Tyson would claim that Tyson belongs in the ring because, after all, everyone deserves a second chance. Or because Tyson pulls in big crowds and ticket sales and is an awful lot of fun to watch. But are these fleeting pleasures valuable enough to risk the name of boxing and the safety of anyone within Tyson’s reach?

The question lies not with the any professional boxing commission, not in any courtroom or prison cell, or even in the ring itself. It lies within us, the American public. We are responsible for letting a man of such sordid character continue to soil the name of “the sweet science.” And we should be ashamed.

Untold fame, massive stockpiles of wealth and a myriad of worshipers are the rewards we allow superstars in our current age, but at what cost? What are we telling our children, grandchildren and other nations when we allow a societal scourge like Mike Tyson access to our hearts, minds and fortunes?

There are criminals and individuals of ill-repute in every walk of life, who could forget the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Martha Stewart’s insider trading and Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades? But this kind of behavior need not be tolerated any longer. Removing Mike Tyson from the professional boxing ring would go a long way in showing that we as a nation are through putting up with this kind of behavior from those we shower with so many blessings.