Iron Mike

THIS IS FOR THOSE who believe former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has flown over the cuckoo's nest. Animal Planet has announced plans for a reality show that will feature Tyson competing in the sport of pigeon racing. The working title for the show is "Taking on Tyson. " It is scheduled to begin taping this spring and will air early next year. The show will give viewers an inside look at the burgeoning sport that is "intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating.

He might be stronger than a locomotive, but World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is not Superman. He only plays him on pay-per-view television. "Mike is a human being. Human beings get sick," Tyson's co-manager, John Horne, said Wednesday in announcing the most feared fighter on the planet was postponing his July 13 bout with World Boxing Association champion Bruce Seldon because of a severe case of viral bronchitis. Seldon's camp announced the fight, which is for Seldon's title only, was rescheduled for Sept.

World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, we have finally concluded, is not putting on a brave front as he again prepares to do battle with the scariest fighter of maybe any era. Holyfield is walking through life with a confidence that suggests he can see the future and will be extremely pleased by the result. And, no, he isn't afraid of Mike Tyson. Not even a little bit. "There's no reason for me to be scared," said Holyfield (33-3, 24 KOs), who takes on former champ Tyson (45-2, 39 KOs)

Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson will square off May 3 in a rematch of their celebrated Nov. 9 battle. In the first meeting, Holyfield, a 6-1 underdog, lifted Tyson's World Boxing Association heavyweight championship on a stunning, 11th-round technical knockout. Holyfield, who was paid $11 million for the first fight, will receive a record $35 million purse. Tyson is getting $20 million-plus, down from the $30 million he was paid the last time. Showtime Sports executive Jay Larkin said the fight, which will take place on the same day as the Kentucky Derby, "officially" will be announced after Super Bowl XXXI, but he confirmed an agreement had been reached in principle Wednesday night during a conference call involving himself, Tyson's promoter, Don King, Holyfield and Holyfield's attorney, Jim Thomas.

After being taunted and disrespected the last few weeks by Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis defended his IBF and WBC heavyweight titles last night at the Pyramid with an eighth-round knockout of the man once known as "Iron Mike. " The end came at the 2-minute, 25-second mark of the eighth, in what may go down as the most significant performance of Lewis' career. "I showed boxing who's the best in the world. I showed that I can adjust to any style. I'm a pugilistic artist," Lewis said.

Since 1984, when the Chicago Bears began a string of six NFC Central titles in seven years, they are 47-12 against the other four teams in the division. And if you don't count 1989, the Bears' only non-championship season in that span, the record is 45-6. Chicago (7-2), which once again is in first place, plays the Vikings (5-5) tonight at the Metrodome in Minneapolis (Channel 6, 9 o'clock). The Bears beat Minnesota in the season opening game in Chicago, 10-6. Of course, the Vikes are viewed as one of the NFL's underachievers.

Mike Tyson is the proud father of a son, the New York Post reported today. The newspaper, citing sources in New York and Las Vegas, said a girlfriend of the former heavyweight champ gave birth to the child, as yet unnamed, Wednesday in an upstate New York hospital. The Post identified the mother as 24-year-old Los Angeles divorcee Natalie Fears. Iron Mike told a pal he was "very happy to be having a family," the Post said. However, Tyson, also 24, has no plans to marry the mother, the sources said.

Mike Tyson arrived for the postfight press conference wearing a dark suit, white shirt, gold-and-black tie and, the perfect topper to his sartorial splendor, a black homburg. Standing there at the podium, the former heavyweight champion looked sharp, very sharp. Buster Mathis Jr., whom Tyson had knocked out in the third round of their nationally televised fight Saturday night in the CoreStates Spectrum, stopped by a bit later and he, too, was impressed by Iron Mike's elegant headwear.

There are, as near as I can tell, two schools of thought about the fight before the fight. The first holds that, as heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis entered the New York news conference on Tuesday, challenger Mike Tyson stalked toward him for the ritual staredown to promote their April 6 fight. One of Lewis' bodyguards raised a hand to impede Tyson, who responded by throwing a punch. Next thing you know, the fighters are rolling on the floor trading blows, and the president of the World Boxing Council has - how perfect is this?

Soft-spoken, contemplative, weepy, the subject of James Toback's documentary Tyson - Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world - is not the ferocious, ear-biting, head-butting convicted rapist ("falsely accused," he insists) that the media have painted him to be. Well, he could be all that, too. A hugely engrossing documentary portrait - albeit one with an unreliable narrator sitting for the portrait - Tyson is an American Dream story with a decidedly bittersweet middle (and final?

All season long, one team after another frustrated itself in attempting to defend the Camden Catholic boys' basketball team. Gadget defenses, slowing it down, speeding it up. Nothing seemed to work particularly well. In last night's Tournament of Champions final at the Izod Center, Trenton Catholic used an old but reliable element: grinding in-your-face man-to-man defense. Second-seeded Trenton Catholic contested every shot with great quickness and defensive anticipation to defeat Camden Catholic, 53-39, in earning its first TOC title.

Camden Catholic boys' basketball coach Jim Crawford has the same pregame outlook for tonight's 8 p.m. Tournament of Champions final against Trenton Catholic that he did before competing in the state Non-Public A championship game. Will the result be similar? Despite being the No. 1 seed, Crawford said that Camden Catholic (29-1) shouldn't earn the favorite's role against Non-Public B state champion and second-seeded Trenton Catholic (27-3). And he's probably right. Before the state final against St. Peter's Prep, Crawford also said his team was the slight underdog, and again that was no stretch.

THIS IS FOR THOSE who believe former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has flown over the cuckoo's nest. Animal Planet has announced plans for a reality show that will feature Tyson competing in the sport of pigeon racing. The working title for the show is "Taking on Tyson. " It is scheduled to begin taping this spring and will air early next year. The show will give viewers an inside look at the burgeoning sport that is "intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating.

Soft-spoken, contemplative, weepy, the subject of James Toback's documentary Tyson - Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world - is not the ferocious, ear-biting, head-butting convicted rapist ("falsely accused," he insists) that the media have painted him to be. Well, he could be all that, too. A hugely engrossing documentary portrait - albeit one with an unreliable narrator sitting for the portrait - Tyson is an American Dream story with a decidedly bittersweet middle (and final?

The documentary "Tyson" confirms that Iron Mike was a fearsome champion and a seriously messed-up dude. The lone, unimpeachable source of this information is Tyson himself - the movie is a long extended interview with the fighter, conducted by filmmaker and friend James Toback, who simply turned a camera on his subject and let tape roll. The movie includes footage of Tyson destroying a series of champs and contenders, reminding us why he was the dying sport's last great heavyweight icon.

Trenton Catholic Academy's Dondre Whitmore is a blur of a guard who draws oohs and ahhs from fans and opponents alike. The 5-foot-9 junior started slowly and finished in his usual fast way last night, with his teammates following his blazing lead. Whitmore scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, including eight in a 17-4 third quarter, as Trenton Catholic Academy beat host Rancocas Valley, 63-47, in a Burlington County League Liberty Division basketball game. "That Whitmore is some player," said Rancocas Valley coach Jay Flanagan, whose team is ranked No. 8 in South Jersey by The Inquirer and fell to 11-3.

For about two minutes, the Sacred Heart girls' basketball team looked as if it would spend the night thwarting Trenton Catholic Academy with its crisp ball movement and sharp jump-shooting. Unfortunately for the Lions, that span produced just four points. Trenton Catholic then scored 10 consecutive points to launch it on its way to an 83-49 victory in last night's Non-Public B South title game at Jackson Liberty. It was the third straight South Jersey championship for the Iron Mikes (27-2)

Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson was charged yesterday in Phoenix with drug possession and driving under the influence of drugs, and the prosecutor said he wants to send him to prison. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said he will try to jail Tyson because of his criminal background. "He has run out of second chances, at least in my book," Thomas said. Tyson was charged with two felonies for drug possession and two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs.

So, how much do you need? Would a million do it for you? Could you get by on 10? A hundred? How about $400 million in cash? It is, of course, the all-American daydream. We've all had it, all stood in the shower or driven down the highway mentally spending some obscene pile of money that falls from the sky. Me, I figure I'd tithe 10 percent, invest 10 percent, then go shopping for a modest little Caribbean island with a helipad. Or not. The dream changes a little every time.

Amazing what you can find on the Internet. Why just yesterday, employing no more than my generally mediocre technical skills, I was able to locate a pair of Mike Tyson's boxing trunks - a rare pair, proclaimed the advertisement - available on eBay for only $489. Photographs, trading cards, posters, books, videos, postcards, screen savers, and other memorabilia emblazoned with Tyson's ferocious image that were only a keystroke away. Not only that, but in trolling the inner reaches of cyberspace, I came upon a helpful description of how to create my very own "bug-out bag," the kind of survivalist kit that alleged Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph may have used to sustain his five years as a fugitive in the woods of North Carolina.