King Denies Allegations He Cheated Tyson

Don King, the promoter for imprisoned former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, denied heatedly Tuesday that he cheated Tyson of money from fight purses.

However, King said he would not answer specific allegations made in an affidavit Monday by Joe Maffia, a former accountant for Don King Productions.

In a rambling, 52-minute conference call with reporters, King said, “This is nothing but a lot of junk, nothing but lies. There is no truth to any of it. We will respond (in specifics) in time to all of Mr. Maffia’s charges, but not now.”

Maffia, whose affidavit was filed in connection with a suit brought against King by Tyson’s former manager, Bill Cayton, alleged numerous financial improprieties by King, ranging from using Tyson’s money to pay a $2-million rights fee to promoter Murad Muhammad to putting King’s daughter on a $52,000 salary for serving as president of the “Mike Tyson Fan Club.”

King spokesman John Solberg read a statement, which said, in part: “This affidavit is Bill Cayton’s latest effort to direct attention away from his conduct (while he was managing Tyson), which is the issue in the lawsuit brought by Mike Tyson against him.

“The (affidavit) is filled with lies, fabrications and half-truths by a disgruntled former employee who was so incompetent my company is still recovering.”

It has been strongly rumored that Tyson is having difficulty paying the $2-3 million in legal bills he ran up during his defense and subsequent appeal of a rape charge in Indianapolis last summer. Tyson was convicted in February and is serving a six-year sentence in Indiana.

King, who had just said that Tyson made $10 million for his first fight with Razor Ruddock and then “$6 or $7 million” for the second one, was asked if it is true that Tyson is having difficulty paying his lawyers.

“If you’d ask me a question that wasn’t in hieroglyphics, maybe I could answer it,” he said.

He was asked: “Is it true you’ve taken a million out of his insurance annuity and have taken control of all his real estate?”

“I have no control over anything that belongs to Mike,” he said. “But you just told us you have his power of attorney. I had his power of attorney before he went into prison, but that was to pay his bills.”

King spent most of the conference call talking about Tyson’s being sent to solitary confinement at the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield, Ind., after an alleged threat against a staff member. King said Tyson told him by telephone he was afraid guards were trying to “set him up.”

Said King: “They’re trying to destroy this man, and they’re trying to set the climate for having to carry him out of prison on a slab, then tell everyone he was too incorrigible to control.”