In a news conference in New Yrok on Tuesday to announce the April 6 title bout between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, Tyson triggered a melee that might kill his chance of fighting for his WBC and IBF titles.

　　The fight would be a WBC mandatory title defense for Lewis who regained the WBC and IBF titles from Hasim Rahman on November 17. Tyson is the WBC's No. 1 contender who last fought for a title on June 28, 1997 when he was disqualified for biting WBA champion Evander Holyfield's ears.

　　Should he win over Lewis, Tyson will be crowned as world heavyweight champion for the third time, a feat only achieved by a trio of boxers, Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Lewis.

　　However, Tyson started a brawl that ruined the news conference. When he walked across a stage to Lewis, Tyson shoved a man from Lewis' entourage and threw punches to trigger off the chaos when Lewis tried to defend his man.

　　"Tyson just walked over with anger in his eyes," said Gary Shaw, Lewis' U.S. promoter. "I haven't seen Mike like this before. It was a terrible exchange that shouldn't have happened. I was wondering if this was Mike Tyson's way of backing out of the biggest fight of his life."

　　While promoters, financial backers and sanctioning bodies were uncertain if the show would go on as planned, Lewis said in a statement that "as a result of today's events I will evaluate my options after the relevant boxing commissions have ruled."

　　Lewis even claimed that Tyson bit him on the toe during the incident.

　　No arrests were made but the news conference never resumed. And Shaw even spoke of the planned fight in the past tense, saying that "Lennox Lewis would have knocked him out within four rounds. It would have been a short fight. This could have been a cowardly way for Mike to avoid fighting Lennox."