NEW YORK -- The boxer who was punched after the bell by Mike Tyson during a fight in Las Vegas in October sued the former heavyweight champion Monday, charging that he broke an oral agreement for a rematch.

Orlin Norris, 34, of Lubbock, Texas, says in court papers that he was promised that he would be Tyson's next opponent in exchange for a statement that Tyson's blow after the first-round bell on Oct. 23 was "accidental."

Norris' complaint, filed in Manhattan's State Supreme Court, asked that Showtime cable television be required to withhold $2 million of Tyson's purse from his Jan. 29 fight with Britain's Julius Francis in Manchester, England.

Judd Burstein, Norris' lawyer, says $2 million is what his fighter was promised for his next bout with Tyson. He said Norris' lawsuit is a reply to claims by Tyson's camp that there was never a rematch agreement.

The Oct. 23 fight in Las Vegas was stopped immediately and declared "no contest" after Norris went down, got up and limped back to his corner with an injured knee that he apparently hurt when he hit the canvas.

Norris' papers say Tyson's manager, Shelly Finkel, asked him to speak up for his fighter because he was "desperately concerned that the flagrant foul committed by Tyson would lead to another suspension" by Nevada officials.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission had suspended Tyson two years earlier and fined him $3 million for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a fight on June 28, 1997 at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel.

Burstein said he has at least four witnesses who heard Finkel propose the agreement in Norris' dressing room after the fight. Norris was against making the statement, Burstein said, but eventually he made it.

Last Oct. 29, the commission decided not to punish Tyson for the late hit on Norris -- delivered after the bell had rung five times --- and voted 4-0 to release his $8.7 million purse that they had held since the fight.

Tyson's lawyer, Jim Jimmerson, said he filed papers Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, asking the court to declare that no oral agreement exists between Norris and Tyson.

"My client wants to be free to fight whomever he chooses," said Jimmerson. "It's not so much that he doesn't want to fight Norris. He just doesn't want to be bound by some nonexistent agreement."

Norris officially got $800,000 for the Oct. 23 fight, but because of liens and taxes he received a little more than $200,000.

Tyson's boxing license in Nevada expires Dec. 31. Boxing commissioners there have warned Tyson's people that he will have a difficult time being licensed again. They suggested that he fight elsewhere for a while to show that he can learn to obey the rules.