Despite horrible shape, depression, Tyson to get back into ring

"The best decision I ever made was to retire from boxing. Because I don't have any stress. I'm pretty simple. I like the person I am now more than I did. I don't like 'Iron Mike' -- I like Mike Tyson."

Tyson lived in the Youngstown area during his heyday and said the tour will start there because he's still wanted and comfortable there.

"I love the rain," he remarked of the former steel town's typically dreary weather. "The rain to me is like sun to some people. It may sound pretty morbid. That's why I stayed here so long."

He recently trained in a makeshift ring at a Las Vegas hotel to help pay off his debt.

"I truly hate fighting," Tyson told the Associated Press in August. "I've got a bad taste in my mouth."

It was that experience though that made him realize people still want to see him.

His goal on the tour, he said, is to entertain people and to enjoy boxing for a change.

"I want to have fun because during my boxing career I was too damn serious. That was my problem, I took myself too serious," Tyson said, comparing his younger self to Terrell Owens, the talented but problem-plagued Dallas Cowboys receiver.

"I look at him and he reminds me of me. How much we are in love with ourselves and only we count and nobody else counts around us. I say, 'Wow that was me."'

Tyson shot to fame by knocking out Trevor Berbick in 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history at age 20. He was knocked out by James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 and lost his world heavyweight title. He later served prison time for rape, returned to fighting and infamously bit Holyfield's ear in a 1997 fight.

Promoter Sterling McPherson is attempting to add former lightweight champ Paul Spadafora to the Tyson tour. Spadafora was paroled earlier this year after spending seven months in prison for shooting his fiancee in 2003 in Pittsburgh.

Also on the card is former 2003 Pan-Am Games silver medalist Juan McPherson, who unsuccessfully fought in court to win a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team after being medically disqualified because of a neck injury suffered in the ring.

No other dates have been scheduled for the tour.

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