NEW YORK (AP) -- Boxing promoter Don King apparently was the victim of a prankster claiming to be jailed former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, the New York Post reported Saturday.
The newspaper said King received a telephone call Thursday night from someone with a high-pitched lisping voice claiming to be Tyson. The caller said he was at the Montgomery County Detention Center in Maryland, where Tyson is serving a one-year sentence for assaulting two motorists.The caller told King that, despite their falling out last year when Tyson slapped the promoter with a $10 million lawsuit over lost earnings, all was forgiven. The caller said he desperately needed to see King.
"The guy was asking for help," a King spokesperson told the newspaper.
So King traveled to the jail Friday, only to be told he was not on the list of approved visitors, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified prison official.
"King kept shouting, 'This man called me last night. He told me he needs me. Ask him yourself,' " the official told the newspaper.
Guards complied, but said Tyson refused to see King.
"He was stunned," the official said of Tyson. "He said he wants nothing to do with King. He hates him."