Tyson gets green light to fight Lewis

Washington D.C. boxing authorities voted on Tuesday to give Mike Tyson a license to fight world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, despite concern that Tyson's troubled past could tarnish the city's image.

The Washington, D.C., Boxing and Wrestling Commission voted 3-0 to grant Tyson a license that would allow him to fight Lewis at the city's MCI Center, tentatively on June 8. "It has been moved that Mr. Tyson be granted a license to fight in D.C.," commission chairman Arnold McKnight announced.

Tyson, 35, had been set to fight Lewis in April in Las Vegas, but that state's athletic commission refused to renew Tyson's license after he and Lewis brawled during a January news conference in New York.

Tyson's boxing career has been riddled with legal troubles both inside and outside the ring. He was convicted of rape in 1992 and, in 1997, was banned from the sport for one year after he bit Evander Holyfield's ear during a world title bout.

Plans for staging a Tyson-Lewis matchup in Washington are supported by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, who believes it will bring a much-needed boost to the capital city's tourism industry, which has suffered since a hijacked airliner crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

Several groups, including the National Council of Women's Organizations, have urged local officials to block the fight.