Tyson's Career Still Alive

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 9, 1999 / 10:01 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson entered an early prison release screening program on Tuesday that could get him out of jail and back in training within four months, Maryland officials said.

After being sentenced last Friday to spend a year in a crowded county jail for assault, the 32-year-old fighter was expected to undergo psychological tests this week that would help Montgomery County authorities determine whether he should be given an early transfer to a work-release centre.

Tyson will qualify for probation in three months. But officials said the most likely course for his return to the ring would be to opt for a transfer to a pre-release facility that would enable him to box during the day -- possibly even at out-of-state venues -- if a judge gives the O.K.

The only question is how soon Tyson can hope to secure such a transfer.

"Between three and four months," said Claire Gunster-Kirby, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. "If everything went well, he'd have no infractions. But that doesn't usually happen. Most people on a 12-month sentence are going to serve eight to nine months." The pre-release screening process was expected to last two weeks, meaning that authorities could set a tentative date for his release from jail by the end of the month.

Tyson's attorneys have yet to say whether they will appeal the jail term the boxer received after pleading no contest to charges that he punched a 62-year-old motorist in the jaw and kicked another 50-year-old man in the groin following a minor traffic accident last August.

He has been given 30 days to appeal. His failure to do so thus far has fanned speculation that the fighter's best chance of saving his career may be to sit quietly in prison and take his medicine.

Tyson's supporters have warned that jail time could jeopardise his boxing license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which allowed him to fight again in October after suspending him for biting Evander Holyfield's ears during a June 1997 title bout.

He also faces the prospect of added time behind bars in Indiana, where his probation period after a 1992 rape conviction was due to end late next month.

Lawyers for the Nevada commission began reviewing the transcript of last Friday's sentencing hearing on Tuesday. But executive director Marc Ratner declined to speculate about what action, if any, the commission might contemplate. "We're going to sit back and see what he actually does," he said.

Tyson has his own private jail cell in the protective custody section of the Montgomery County Detention Centre, a 450-bed facility strained to overcapacity by 650 inmates.

Mike Tyson could see an early return to the ring. (AP)

If he manages to qualify for the local jail system's pre-release programme, he could be free for 10 hours a day to train and even to fight. "Boxing is his profession. And we would try to allow him to practice his profession, just as we would allow an accountant or a dentist or a lawyer," said Gunster-Kirby.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler, the prosecutor who asked for the boxer's incarceration, has not decided whether he would argue against Tyson leaving the state for a prize fight. But such a request would be nothing new.

"Typically, it's done. People ask court for overnight passes for weddings and graduations and even extraordinary work obligations," he said.