Tyson not mugging for TV cameras

      Evander Holyfield played his favorite role as boxing's ambassador Tuesday, shaking hands, grinning for the cameras and ensuring that all reporters had their fill of the "Real Deal."
      Then, there was Mike Tyson.
      In keeping with his policy of not working out in public during the week of a major fight, Tyson did not train at the MGM or appear at Tuesday afternoon's session reserved for television interviews.
      A day earlier, Tyson, who will fight Holyfield for the World Boxing Association heavyweight title Saturday at the MGM, said he doesn't feel the need for publicity tours or appearances. Holyfield has been a frequenter of the Larry King-David Letterman set, but Tyson grants few network TV interviews.
      "I never wanted to be on all those shows," Tyson said. "I could be on any show. The same shows that called (Holyfield), called me."
      Tyson said he felt he's been burned by the media.
      "I'm not friendly with these people," he said. "I don't want to sit down and pretend like I've known them my whole life. ... All the media has done is hurt me and my family."
      So it is left to promoter Don King to appear on Tyson's behalf, and it's a chore he appears to relish. King hung around the media center for more than four hours Tuesday before lighting a victory cigar and being chauffeured away.
      -- CHIN MUSIC -- Don Turner, who along with Tommy Brooks serves as Holyfield's trainer, spotted the ever-present image of King on a TV monitor in the MGM media center.
      "That man has the strongest chin of anyone in the country," Turner said. "He has to from all of the shots you guys have taken at him."
      -- ODD BEHAVIOR -- Tyson started the day as a better than 2-to-1 favorite, but bettors are jumping toward Holyfield.
      By Tuesday evening, Tyson had fallen from a minus-240 favorite at the MGM sports book to minus-205.
      -- HE CAN'T WEIGHT -- Tyson, entering Saturday's fight at 220 pounds, said Monday he remembers that one of the low points of his career coincided with his heaviest weight. It was in 1988.
      "I was being ripped off by my lawyers, I was going through a divorce (from Robin Givens), I was drunk every day," Tyson said. "That's where we started from."
      At that point, "Team Tyson" was assembled, with longtime Tyson friends John Horne and Rory Holloway climbing aboard as co-managers.
      The rest, as they say, is history.