LAS VEGAS -- Mike Tyson may have disproved the adage that any publicity is good publicity.

Tyson's tirades ...

Excerpts from Tyson's tirades last week: To a question on whether he feels support from the common fan: "I don't feel love from them because there's no love. They don't know me as an individual, they know me for what I actually do. Because they pay to see me smash anybody. If they're white they pay, (it's) because the only thing they have respect for is my ability as an athlete. But if I was in court and I had to use them to testify against me on my character, they wouldn't testify positively against me and they would think I'm a cad..." More on fans: "I think the average person thinks I'm a (expletive) nut and I deserve whatever happens to me. That's what I believe." On his time in jail: "You have to understand, Frank Bruno would not have been champion if I had not been in prison. Oliver McCall would not have been champion if I had not been in prison. A lot of these guys would not have been champion. Michael Moorer would not have been champion. Those guys would not have been champion if I had been around. They would have had no legacy. None of those guys would have had a legacy. More ...

The former heavyweight champion's PR agency evidently quit this week, a month before his lucrative title fight with Lennox Lewis.

Tyson's profanity-laced tirades in a series of interviews arranged by New York-based Dan Klores Communications in Hawaii last week apparently prompted the company to sever its ties.

The agency's name no longer appears on Tyson news releases, and former Tyson spokesman Adam Grant confirmed he was hired by Showtime to handle PR for the boxer. Grant worked for Klores before leaving the company several months ago.

Klores and Tyson public relations representative Scott Miranda didn't return phone calls from The Associated Press.

"I think Dan Klores just decided to step back," Grant said. "I'm just kind of contracting this one out. It's kind of a natural fit because I've worked with Mike so long now."

Tyson manager Shelly Finkel, though, insisted there was no change in Tyson's publicist.

"I think he just stepped away for a few weeks," Finkel said. "There's really nothing to do right now. We got all the publicity last week."

Dan Klores Communications has represented Tyson since the dark days following his infamous "Bite Fight" with Evander Holyfield in June 1997. It stuck with him through a series of episodes in and out of the ring, including two rape investigations earlier this year that were never prosecuted.

Klores is also a top adviser for Andrew Cuomo, who's running for the Democratic nomination for New York governor.

After inviting reporters and TV cameras to Maui last week for interviews, Tyson likely left the agency with no choice but to quit because of his outbursts.

In one exchange, Tyson told a female television reporter he normally doesn't "do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them." In another, he said he wished reporters had children so he could kick them in the head or "stomp on their testicles so you could feel my pain because that's the pain I have waking up every day."