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Tyson faces drug charges

29/12/2006

Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson faced drug charges today after being arrested by Arizona police in the early hours of this morning.

The 40-year-old was stopped by police after he nearly crashed into a sheriff's car outside a nightclub in the town of Scottsdale.

He was charged this morning with driving under the influence of drugs and possession of cocaine.

"(Tyson) was actually very co-operative, very calm, and just acted like a complete gentleman," the Reuters news agency reported Sgt Larry Hill of the Buckeye police department as saying.

Tyson served three years of a six-year prison sentence between 1992 and 1995 for the rape of a beauty queen in 1991.

He infamously bit off the ear of boxer Evander Holyfield in 1997, prompting condemnation from many groups for his barbaric attitude to the sport. A career comeback in the 2000s achieved only limited success and he retired from boxing last year.

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