In 1990, his fight with Alex Stewart was postponed when Tyson supposedly got a sparring cut. Not so, reported "New York Newsday." Trump Plaza staffers said that a woman hit him over the head with a champagne bottle in one of the hotel rooms. Security guards found the woman "not in great shape," with a bleeding Tyson yelling, "The bitch deserved it!"

Events took a more serious turn on July 20, 1991 when Desiree Washington, then 18, filed rape charges against Tyson in Indianapolis, where she was competing in the Miss Black America Pageant. On February 10, 1992, he was convicted of rape and two counts of criminal deviate conduct. Although sentenced to six years, Tyson steadfastly denies the rape, saying he and Washington had had consensual sex. He was released after three years from the Indiana Youth Center minimum-security prison, during which time he converted to Islam.

After prison Tyson seemed to settle down, and he punched his way through a group of "unfits" toward Holyfield. In April 1997 he married his current wife, Monica Turner, a pediatrician (the mother of two of his children). They live in a sizable house that borders the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington. He also has large homes in Las Vegas and Ohio, and an estate in Connecticut. Recently, he considered selling the Connecticut house to shore up his dwindling finances. He changed his mind and earned extra cash appearing at a wrestling pay-per-view event and accepting an acting job.

It wasn't until this past winter that he found trouble again with the law. Tyson was at a Georgetown restaurant in D.C. in the early morning when he reportedly got into an altercation with two women who claimed he verbally and physically abused them. A lawsuit is pending.

Playboy sent freelance writer Mark Kram, who has interviewed such heavyweights as Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali, to check in with Tyson at this crossroads in his life and career. Kram reports: "It took half a year to get Tyson to sit down and talk. His new management company in California kept saying that Mike was eager to get together, but he broke one engagement after another. The first interview took place in his Bethesda home. Present was his wife, Monica, a pleasant and charming woman who sat with us the entire time, remaining silent except to request that the name of a psychiatrist be expunged.

"We arranged to meet again three weeks later at the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan, just off Central Park. It wasn't a good day. I had to switch the tape recorder off whenever Tyson sulked, then we would talk quietly as I tried to bring him around. At one point he said, 'The interview is over,' yet he kept sitting there. I just let the silence surround him until he agreed to talk more.

"He was in a foul mood. He answered some questions in a crazed stream of consciousness. He kept slapping me on the thigh with his finger for emphasis. He frequently digressed from the subject without returning to it. Mike Tyson is the darkest figure in sports I've ever encountered. I left thinking that I had never before met a 32-year-old man so eaten up by rage, so hostile, despondent and absolutely convinced of his irredeemability."

Playboy: A lot of fans, foes and boxing commentators are asking the same question: Is it over for Tyson?

Tyson: They said the same thing about Ali after his losses. No. It's not over. Not over at all.

Playboy: Still, particularly after Holyfield, some people say you've lost the crown for good. How do you respond?

Tyson: Hit you upside your head, maybe. How's that?

Playboy: We understand you're upset. Has it been particularly difficult for you to have fallen so far -- prison, the suspension from boxing -- after being the champion?

Tyson: I don't see myself as a superstar or icon. Other people might, but I don't. My record is not hype. It stands on its own. What do you want from me?

Playboy: We want to learn about you. Are you looking forward to getting in the ring again?

Tyson: I don't give a fuck. The people don't give a fuck about me. There will be others after me.

Playboy: While waiting to be allowed to fight again, you refereed a pay-per-view wrestling event. Why?

Tyson: It was cool.

Playboy: You didn't consider it to be undignified?

Tyson: You remember Joe Louis?

Playboy: Louis refereed after his boxing career was over. But wrestling isn't boxing; it's phony.

Tyson: The checks aren't phony.

Playboy: Aren't you worried about your image?

Tyson: What image do I need to worry about? I've been in prison. I've been convicted of rape. I've had problems in and out of court. Are you kidding me? I do what I want. I'm not going to dance to nobody's tune.

Playboy: But after being the heavyweight champion of the world --

Tyson: Which I deserved. What can I do? What I really want now is to hang out and deal with the problems in my life. Real life. Send the kids to school, go to PTA meetings and all that stuff. These are the things I'm trying to grasp now.

Playboy: How hard have you been training?

Tyson: Me and a friend are just working out. Getting in shape. I've been cautious. I have tried to make better decisions. I consult my wife about everything. She was mad that I fought too soon after I got out of prison. I got out in March and fought in August.