Almost from the moment Mike Tyson was reinstated to the rolls of practising pugilists this past Monday afternoon, the jackals have been baring their fangs. One former manager, John Horne, waited less than 24 hours to file a lawsuit demanding 10 per cent of Tyson's future earnings. His estranged promoter, Don King (against whom Tyson has filed a $100 million suit of his own), will also be looking for a piece of the pie. And the nastiest battle of all could be yet to come.

Now that Tyson's right to box has been established, the very people who guided him through the re-licensing process are ready to go at each other's throats for control of the former heavyweight champion.

Tyson won't fight in the ring until December or January, but former basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson and "adviser" Shelly Finkel appear ready to fight, with each other, right now.

Even though they went into Monday's hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission armed with a psychiatric evaluation from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital doctors which deemed the fighter, in somewhat fawning terms, "fit to fight", Tyson's team of advisers knew they faced an uphill battle. With one commissioner, Glenn Carano, a Mexican-American former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, solidly in Tyson's corner, and another, veterinarian James Nave, firmly opposed, their efforts had to be directed toward procuring at least two of the three swing votes.

Through a master stroke, they got all of them. Although the commission's Lebanese-born chairman, Dr Elias Ghanem, admitted to being influenced by Magic Johnson's eloquent plea, it was the presence and the words of Muhammad Ali which put Tyson over the top.

As Ali, whose Parkinson's Syndrome often limits his speaking ability, sat by with an earnest expression on his face, his wife, Lonnie, read a statement which struck at the sense of shame the boxing community still feels 30 years after it ostracised Ali for his anti-Vietnam War beliefs, denying him a chance to practice his trade at what should have been the peak of his career. When Lonnie Ali reached the sentence which read, "let this young man earn a living", the commissioners were staring at the floor.

"I, Muhammad Ali, ask that you give Mike the right to fight again," the statement continued. "Let this young man earn a living. Give him a chance to redeem himself in the ring,"

With that, almost 16 months after he tried to eat Evander Holyfield's ears, Mike Tyson was home free.

By design, neither Finkel nor attorney Dale Kinsella, who had each experienced confrontational moments with individual commissioners during Tyson's September hearing, attended Monday's meeting, and afterward Johnson was telling anyone who would listen that he, not Finkel, would be in charge of guiding Tyson's third career.

"I'll be the closest guy to him, making all the decisions," said Johnson, who retired from the NBA seven years ago after being diagnosed as HIV-positive, but returned a year later to lead the US "dream team" to a gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

"Shelly is still the guy," another source close to Tyson disagreed.

No matter who winds up pulling the strings, the first order of business will be to get Tyson back into the ring, and quickly.

HOW MUCH boxing needs Mike Tyson remains a matter of some debate, but there is no disputing the converse position: Tyson badly needs boxing.

One member of the psychiatric team told the Nevada commission that boxing would be "therapeutic" for the disgraced ex-champion. But there is an even more pressing urgency: Tyson is broke.

Although he earned nearly $100 million during his "second" career, which lasted from the time he was released from imprisonment following his rape conviction until June of 1997, when he lost control and bit Holyfield, Tyson's liquid assets are almost nonexistent. Moreover, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a $13 million lien against him for back taxes.

In theory, if Tyson has not begun repaying the money by New Year's Day, the IRS could begin seizing his assets and selling off a mansion here and a Bentley there until it has satisfied its claim, which is why Finkel & Co had targeted a December 5th date for Tyson's first fight.

Logistical problems, however, could push that date into 1999, and if there is a firmly established payday in place, the IRS might exercise a degree of patience before it starts auctioning off Tyson's toys.

Now 32, Tyson had already been training in a Phoenix gym for several weeks before his reinstatement. He earned a reported $25 million for his first post-prison fight, against Peter McNeeley, and could command a similar purse again this time around. But neither the Showtime network (with whom he has a multi-fight agreement) nor the boxing public will likely sit still for a foil as unskilled as the unfortunate McNeeley.

"Mike knows he's going to have to fight a real fight, against a real opponent," said one Tyson source. At the same time, Johnson warned, "don't look for him to be fighting no champions" just yet.

A quartet of names being bandied about include Lou Savarese, Axel Schulz, Vaughn Bean and Brian Nielsen, a Dane with a 44-0 record. All are top-echelon heavyweights, but if Tyson has anything left (and remember, he hasn't won a fight in nearly two years), he should handle any of them.

There is little question that Tyson yearns for a chance to redeem himself against Holyfield, who soundly beat him twice, but that fight, if it ever happens at all, looms far in the distant future. Holyfield and Lennox Lewis look likely to hold their unification bout at Madison Square Garden on March 13th. The winner of that will not only face mandatory defences against both the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association's top challengers (currently John Ruiz and Henry Akinwande, respectively), but will eventually have to face the winner of a four-man (Francois Botha, Ruiz, David Tua, and Hasim Rahman) tournament being set up by the IBF to identify its number-one contender.

That does not mean, however, that Tyson will be fighting in the shadows. His notoriety alone guarantees that he will continue to dominate the news.

"Mike Tyson long, long, long ago left the sports pages and leaped to the front pages," said Showtime vice president Jay Larkin earlier this week. "Tyson returning is the biggest news for boxing - and for pay-per-view television - in a long time."