Mike Tyson ordered by all-white jury to pay ex-trainer $4.4 million

Jet, Oct 21, 1996

An all-White federal jury ordered heavyweight champion Mike Tyson to pay his former trainer, Kevin Rooney, $4.4 million to settle a breach of contract dispute.

Rooney, who is White, sued Tyson for $49 million in which he claimed the boxer had broken a lifetime pact when he fired him in 1988.

Tyson promised he would appeal the decision. "I don't believe it was a just trial," Tyson said. But he refused to comment when asked if he thought the decision was racially motivated.

Tyson said he would have given Rooney $4 million if he had just asked for it.

Rooney accused Tyson in the lawsuit of failing to honor an oral contract made to him by Tyson's late mentor Cus D'Amato in 1982 when Tyson was 16 years old and under D'Amato's guardianship.

Rooney claimed D'Amato promised him a lifetime job with a 10 percent cut of the boxer's winnings. Tyson's lawyer said the boxer knew of no such contract.