by T.K. Stewart
 
Mike Tyson turned 42 on Monday, has not been heavyweight champion since 1996, and has been out of boxing for three years, but he still has the ability to make sensational headlines around the world.
 
For the second time in as many weeks, Tyson's name has been mentioned by another government witness in a racketeering trial taking place in Brooklyn - the New York City borough where Tyson was born and spent his childhood.
 
Tyson's name came up during the trial of the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), a gang led by brothers Damion "World" Hardy and Myron "Wise" Hardy. CMB allegedly transformed a Bedford-Stuyvesant housing project into their own personal drug market and war zone.
 
In 2004, the Feds charged several of the gang's members with multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, drug dealing and gun possession. Some of those charged pleaded guilty and agreed to became informants for the government against Abubakr Raheem, an alleged ringleader, and Damion "World" Hardy, who will be facing the death penalty at another trial later this year.
 
Last week, the story was that Tyson, according to the testimony of a government witness, swore that the former champ had put up $50,000 of revenge money for a hit on "World" who was rumored to have been responsible for the June 2000 murder of Tyson's former bodyguard, Darryl "Homicide" Baum.
 
Through a representative, Tyson issued a short and tersely worded statement saying that he knew nothing about any contract hit, had not put up $50,000, and that if the allegations continued he would take legal action.
 
This week, another witness in the case stated that it was Tyson who was later put on the "hit list" of the CMB gang as revenge for putting up $50,000 to kill "World". 
 
According to court transcripts, the witness stated that a contract was put on Tyson's head and that the only thing that saved the former two-time heavyweight champion from being taken out was the fact that he was a Muslim, as were some of the top shot callers in the gang.
  
The government witness claims that he was one of a group of gang members that once saw a blue Range Rover in the Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn neighborhood which they believed Tyson was a passenger in.  One of the CMB members wanted to kill Tyson, but the hit was not carried out because Tyson was a Muslim.
 
So, nearly 22 years after become the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history, the name Mike Tyson will not go away.
 
Happy Birthday, Champ!