Tyson hearing put on hold

It may be only a brief delay, but it's a delay and it's Mike Tyson caught in the middle.

The former heavyweight boxing champion was to have appeared before the Nevada State Athletic Commission this Saturday, with an eye toward being relicensed and approved to fight in the United States. But that NSAC hearing was postponed Tuesday afternoon, leaving Tyson's status in limbo.

"I don't understand what they're doing for him," commission chairman Dr. Elias Ghanem said of Tyson's team of advisers, who failed to get an impartial psychological evaluation to the NSAC by its Monday deadline. That report, compiled by a three-person panel at Massachusetts General Hospital, is now due to arrive at the commission chambers today.

But the NSAC determined that was too late to properly and fully examine by Saturday, so the commission will reassign the hearing to a later date, perhaps as early as next week.

"I don't think this is Mike Tyson's fault," Ghanem said. "He did everything we asked him to do. But it's like the people around him are playing games with us."

Ghanem was miffed that the report from Massachusetts General was not delivered on time in spite of assurances it would be.

"Flip Homansky (of the NSAC's Medical Advisory Board) called them and was told we would definitely have it," Ghanem said. "They wanted this done as quickly as possible and they knew we had to have it by Monday. Then they don't produce it.

"We don't have to do business like that."

The NSAC wants to be able to peruse the report from Massachusetts General, plus have Homansky and his staff examine it.

"We need more than a couple of days to look it over and check it out," Ghanem said. "We don't want to rush to any sort of judgment."

Two other factors contributed to delaying the NSAC hearing: Tyson's Friday hearing in Maryland on assault charges following a traffic mishap; and the fact the commission has not yet received a written waiver from Tyson allowing the Massachusetts General report to be read into public record.

The latter was also due Monday.

"The Maryland issue is still on the table too," Ghanem said. "Even if that hearing is postponed, we're going to ask questions about it and we expect to be given some answers."

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