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| Boxing: Prosecutors to seek jail for Tyson |
1/8/2007 |
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Mike Tyson could be facing another spell behind bars after prosecutors vowed to push for a jail sentence against the former heavyweight champion on drugs charges.
Tyson, 40, was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of drugs last Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona after nearly crashing his car into a police car as he left a bar.
Police found three bags of cocaine in the former boxer''''s car during a roadside test. Tyson admitted using a mood stabiliser, marijuana and cocaine.
The former boxer once known as the "baddest man on the planet” has already been to jail twice for rape and assault offences, and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas warned he would seek prison time over the latest charges.
“He has run out of second chances, at least in my book,” Thomas said. “I believe some period of incarceration is necessary to help this man break his self-described addiction to cocaine and to protect the public.”
Tyson has been formally charged with two felony offences — possession or use of narcotic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia — and two misdemeanour counts of driving under the influence.
If convicted on all counts he could face a maximum sentence of seven and a half years in prison.
The two-time heavyweight champion announced his retirement from boxing after he lost to unheralded Irishman Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005.
Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) squandered an estimated 300 million dollars in earnings and declared bankruptcy in 2003, and recently fought in a series of exhibition bouts in order to improve his finances.
Last week"s arrest is the latest in a series of brushes with the law Tyson has had since he exploded onto the boxing scene in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986, at the age of 20.
Considered unbeatable for the rest of the decade, Tyson’s career went off the rails when he suffered a shock upset to James “Buster” Douglas in 1990.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty queen at a pageant in Indianapolis, Indiana and was sentenced to six years in prison.
He was released in 1995, and although he regained two of his world titles in 1996, he was never to recapture the aura of invincibility he had once enjoyed.
He was knocked out by Evander Holyfield in 1996, and the following year was banned from boxing after he bit a chunk out of Holyfield’s ear during their rematch in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tyson was jailed again in 1999 for assaulting two people following a traffic accident.
After his release, he sought a money-spinning bout with British heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, which was delayed after a January 2002 press conference where Tyson sparked a mass brawl in which he sank his teeth into Lewis’s leg.
He was comprehensively beaten by Lewis when their fight eventually took place and subsequently suffered a string of defeats against journeymen which prompted him to retire last year. AFP
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