BOXING: Nevada State Athletic Commissioners were meeting yesterday to consider granting troubled boxer Mike Tyson a licence to fight world champion Lennox Lewis in the light of the American's latest bout of wild behaviour.

Tyson, who was expected to answer questions from the five commissioners for much of the afternoon, sparked a brawl at a New York press conference last week and he also faces the prospect of new rape charges.

The American fighter must convince at least three of the commissioners that he deserves a chance to fight again in the state despite a decade of antics that have often overshadowed his fearsome presence in the ring.

All five commissioners, who are appointed by Nevada's governor, have vowed to keep an open mind about the matter until after they have heard Tyson.

But chairman Luther Mack has said that he wants to hear a commitment from the 35-year-old fighter, who in the early 1990s served three years of a six-year prison term for rape, that his wild days are behind him.

Tyson triggered the brawl at the news conference in New York convened to promote the scheduled April 6th fight against Lewis, the current World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation champion.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas prosecutors are considering filing rape charges against Tyson stemming from the allegations of a local woman. They are expected to make a decision later this week.

Several TV satellite trucks were lined up outside the building in downtown Las Vegas to broadcast Tyson's appearance, his first since last week's brawl.

Tyson's management team cancelled an interview on Monday with CNN's Larry King just hours before the scheduled broadcast.

One of the five men charged with deciding whether Mike Tyson deserves a licence to fight in Las Vegas insists that protecting the integrity of boxing remains the Nevada State Athletic Commission's primary concern.

John Bailey, a Las Vegas attorney, has denied suggestions that the ailing state of the Las Vegas economy in the wake of September 11th will influence him or his colleagues to give the green light to a fight which will generate hundreds of millions of dollars.

Bailey said: "We're there to regulate and protect the integrity of boxing. We will ask questions about what has happened in the last two or three years since he had a licence and try to get a sense of what he's been doing."

Exactly what Tyson has been doing makes for painful reading. In the ring he has bitten Evander Holyfield, tried to break Frans Botha's arm, hit Orlin Norris after the first-round bell, failed a drugs test after a bout with Andrew Golota and knocked over referee John Coyle having refused to stop hitting Lou Savarese.

Outside it, he has been accused of sexual assault, entered into divorce proceedings with his wife Monica Turner, gone to Cuba and thrown Christmas tree baubles at photographers, threatened to eat Lennox Lewis' non-existent children, brawled before a New York press conference and hurled obscenities at the watching press.

Tyson has been ordered to appear in person before the panel for what would normally be the simple task of renewing a licence application.

Bailey claims every aspect of Tyson's tumultuous life can be brought up. He said: "Everything is pretty much fair game, although I feel that we as a commission cannot draw any inferences from the rape allegations because of his presumption of innocence until proven guilty."

Before last week's brawl, the NSAC were expected to hand Tyson his licence by a majority of 4-1. This time it could be closer, but the outcome remains grotesquely inevitable.

Meanwhile, the World Boxing Council (WBC) insist the fight will go ahead even if the Nevada State Athletic Commission does not grant Tyson a licence.

"The World Boxing Council ordered this mandatory fight which will be sanctioned by our organisation in any city or country where it is held," WBC president Jose Sulaiman said in a statement.

Lewis is also keen for the bout to go ahead. "I definitely want the fight to go on," Lewis said. "I have been waiting for it since I beat Evander Holyfield in 1999. It will be a disappointment if it doesn't go on because the public want to see it happen."