Tyson Is Told to Sign Contract by Today

Mike Tyson has been given an ultimatum by Staples Center president Tim Leiweke: Sign up by 1 p.m. today or risk being left at the curb.

A news conference will be held at Staples beginning at that hour to announce a June 21 fight card featuring heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis against Kirk Johnson.

The semi-main event, as big an attraction if not bigger, was supposed to be Tyson against Oleg Maskaev in a non-title bout.

It still might be.

But with Lewis and Johnson in place, tickets about to go on sale, an auction set up for 300 high-priced seats and ads poised to roll off the presses, Tyson’s name is still not on a contract.

“We are cautiously optimistic,” promoter Gary Shaw said, “but we are in the Mike Tyson business.”

Which means it’s business as unusual.

None of the three key negotiators for Tyson -- Shaw, manager Shelly Finkel and attorney Judd Burstein -- offered a major obstacle to finalizing a deal.

Tyson has the opponent he wants, the financial terms he requires and a guarantee of approval by the California State Athletic Commission.

What else he wants, no one seems to know.

Tyson is not expected to join the other fighters at today’s news conference, but he could agree to the deal before the start of the proceedings.

And, of course, if he should decide belatedly after his deadline has passed, it’s safe to assume Leiweke would accept him with open arms considering the money at stake.

With Tyson on the card, the top ticket will have a face value of $2,000, extremely high for L.A. but a necessity considering Leiweke is paying a site fee of close to $8 million.

If Tyson fails to get on board, all those numbers can be expected to shrink considerably.

Whether Tyson meets the deadline or not, uncertainty is something Leiweke will have to get used to over the next two months.