BRING BACK MIKE; BOXING OFFICIALS SHOULD LET TYSON RETURN TO WHERE HE BELONGS.

Byline: S. Louis Cook

HERE'S my confession: I miss Mike Tyson, and I want him back. And despite all the denials, I know I'm not the only one.

It's been more than a year since he turned his second heavyweight title fight against Evander Holyfield into Ear-gate, with the details having been rehashed and analyzed hundreds of times. Now, with his license in Nevada still revoked, Tyson has appeared before the New Jersey Athletic Control Board looking for the right to practice his trade in Atlantic City.

During this hearing he was repeatedly asked about the night he teethed on Holyfield. He displayed several emotions, choking up at some points, before finally becoming disgusted and dropping an F-bomb before his lawyer could calm him down. He was an angry man, and that should have come as no surprise.

This is the real Mike Tyson, certainly not the one many wish he would be. This Mike Tyson needs to fight again and should be allowed to do so. The boxing world isn't the same without him.

We all want Tyson back in the ring, even if it is hard for some to admit.

In the case of Polite Society vs. Mike Tyson, perception has become reality. From his A-frame eyebrows and child-like lisp down to his rock-hard form, Tyson exudes a warrior's instinct bundled within a determined sense of purpose.

With Tyson, what's next is never clear. On the surface he is the would-be brutalizer in dark trunks and short, black shoes. He scares people in a way Muhammad Ali could never have imagined. Maybe he should.

After all, isn't that what so many find addictive? The mystique and underlying belief that the pin holding this 220-pound grenade is always close to being pulled? Isn't this man as close as we can get to a 20th century gladiator, trading up from the ancient Roman Coliseum to the garish, intoxicating venues of the Las Vegas strip?

Deep down, this is the Tyson everyone wants.

Not a cuddly, deferential robot who happens to bob and weave for a living. Glaring and unpredictable, that's the idea.

When he was knifing his way through opponents early in his career, so-called experts said the competition was weak. At times this was true. But these observations dismissed the pure superiority the young bull possessed. Tyson made it look easy because he was fighting on a heightened level, tracking his opponents around the ring in his custom shoes with extra-thin soles, so he could always have the feel of the canvas. There were times when every step, every jab, every single snap-hook and uppercut were perfectly executed. It was a pleasure to watch someone perform with such precision and skill.

To some, he will never be more than a caged criminal. Though simplistic, it's easy to see why. A 1992 rape conviction in Indiana and a subsequent prison term. The volatile problems of his first marriage, not to mention his association with the blustery Don King. Given these examples, it becomes easy to vilify.

What many are eager to see is a contrite Mike Tyson, one on his knees, begging for the chance to entertain us again, a humbled, vaudeville pugilist. Over the past several months, some have written about the need for a ``changed'' man to emerge. But what exactly are they hoping for? Someone who'll be socially acceptable, whatever that may mean? In truth, they want nothing of the sort, though it gives them a perceived edge to pretend to believe it.

As we witnessed last week, Mike Tyson is an engaging, emotional and sometimes reckless contradiction. If you pick at him long and hard enough he will lash out, not unlike many others, fighters or otherwise. So how many more ludicrous hearings do we have to endure before we recoronate him as fit for our pleasure?

For those who stomp and scream and protest his impending return, one can only say the air must be very thin up there. But don't worry. When you crawl off into a back room to call the cable company to order his next fight, rest assured. You can hide out at home and enjoy the Mike Tyson show in solitude. Just be sure to pull the blinds.

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PHOTO At a hearing on his boxing license, Mike Tyson, left, raged at the New Jersey Athletic Commission before being calmed by his lawyer, Anthony Fusco.

Mike Derer/Associated Press