Lightning struck twice with Tyson's arrival

      Long ago, when the concept of "Team Tyson" had occurred to exactly no one and the man who would become the most feared heavyweight in the world had yet to hit puberty, a historic meeting took place in New York City.
      "Muhammad Ali and I were in New York, and we wanted to visit a reform school, but one where no celebrities go," said Gene Kilroy, Ali's longtime business manager and now an executive at the New York-New York. "We found a place like that. We were always visiting hospitals, grade schools and many, many reform schools."
      In attendance that day to meet and touch Ali was a youngster named Mike Tyson.
      "There were so many kids that I don't remember Mike, and neither did Ali," Kilroy said Monday at the MGM Grand Garden. "But a few years later, we were talking to Cus D'Amato and he said, `Lightning is going to strike twice. I've got someone special.' "
      D'Amato, who generations earlier molded reform school product Floyd Patterson into a heavyweight champion, was referring to Tyson.
      "Cus wanted to do the same thing for Tyson as he did for Patterson," Kilroy said. "Lightning did strike twice."
      A few years after Ali's visit, when Tyson was a teen-ager, D'Amato arranged for a phone conversation between the former and future champions.
      "Mike got on the phone and said, `Hey, man, this is Mike Tyson, and I remember you visiting my school. I want to be the biggest hoodlum ever,' " Kilroy said. "They were laughing, and Ali was saying, `You want to be the biggest hoodlum, but I'm the greatest of all time.' Through all of that, he and Mike became close, and Mike and I became friends."
      Close enough that Kilroy is privy to Tyson's inner circle and invited into his "Iron Curtain" training camp. Tyson is said to be in excellent condition -- he could come into the fight at around 215 pounds, five pounds less than expected -- for Saturday's World Boxing Association championship rematch with Evander Holyfield at the MGM.
      Tyson has said little since an interview session Monday at the home of promoter Don King, leaving the media feast to Holyfield.
      "Mike is very misunderstood. He is a good person with a good heart," Kilroy said. "I remember when my mother was ill years ago and he came to visit her. He came in, sat next to her, petted the dog and talked to her many times."
      Kilroy is one of the few in Tyson's camp (outside of King) to speak at length this week about the former champion. Tyson, as well as co-managers Rory Holloway and John Horne, have made it clear that honing a media-friendly image is not a priority.
      "The problem is Mike is too busy with his own world to deal with a lot of things and do the things he'd like to do," Kilroy said. "He's a prisoner of his own success in a lot of ways. I know there are other people he'd like to be with. He'd like to see his brother, Rodney, who's a doctor in L.A., but the way his life is he can't do those things very easily."
      Kilroy said fans who criticize Tyson's willingness to align himself with the often-controversial King are off base.
      "Whether you like Don King or dislike him, he's the best boxing promoter in history," Kilroy said. "Look at the purses these guys are getting now. Before Don King, there was no such thing as this type of promotion."
      Tyson and Holyfield are each guaranteed $30 million for Saturday's fight.
      "The fighters are taken care of financially," Kilroy said. "That's the job of the promoter, and King does it very well."
      After watching Tyson's workouts, Kilroy said he anticipates a sixth-round knockout of Holyfield.
      "Mike didn't take Evander seriously in the first fight and didn't train hard enough," Kilroy said. "Ali would do the same thing. He'd work 10 times harder for Joe Frazier or George Foreman than Jerry Quarry. But Mike's learned his lesson, and Saturday night people will see that."