Tyson sentenced

Mike Tyson will spend 24 hours in jail [GALLO/GETTY]

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been sentenced to 24 hours in jail and three years’ probation for drug possession and driving under the influence.

The 41-year-old had pleaded guilty in September to a single felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor DUI count.

Tyson had faced a possible maximum sentence of four years and three months in prison.

The charges stemmed from a driving violation in Scottsdale last December.

Police pulled Tyson over after the boxer had spent the evening at Scottsdale’s Pussycat Lounge.

An officer said he saw Tyson wiping a white substance off the dashboard of his black BMW, and that his speech was slurred.

Authorities said they found bags of cocaine in Tyson’s pocket and in his car.

Tyson told officers later that he used cocaine “whenever I can get my hands on it,” and that he preferred to smoke it in Marlboro cigarettes with the tobacco pulled out, according to court documents.

He also told police that he used marijuana that day and was taking the antidepressant Zoloft, the documents state.

Since his arrest, Tyson checked himself into an inpatient treatment program for what his lawyer called “various addictions.”

County Attorney Andrew Thomas had said after the plea was entered that Tyson should be put in prison, noting that Tyson was convicted of rape in Indiana in 1992 and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland in 1999.

In 1986, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history when, at 20, he knocked out Trevor Berbick. He lost his title four years later when he was knocked out by James “Buster” Douglas.

By 1997, Tyson’s career hit a low point when he bit Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight.

Tyson recently had been trying to revive his career with a series of boxing exhibitions.