LOS ANGELES -- Mike Tyson has taken the first step to apply for a license to fight heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis at the Staples Center this spring.

Rob Lynch, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, said Friday a fax was received from attorneys for Tyson requesting consideration for a license.

"First, we're going to have to gather a lot of information from Nevada," Lynch said from his Sacramento office. "That's going to take some consent release forms to get the information we need. And then the commission, in concert with our attorneys, will decide when they want to hear it."

Tyson's adviser, Shelly Finkel, has said the Staples Center in Los Angeles has expressed interest in holding the fight.

Tyson lost his bid to fight Lewis in Las Vegas on April 6 when the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday to deny Tyson a boxing license.

Lynch said a hearing probably would be held late this month, and "certainly before the proposed fight date."

Lynch said the matter definitely wouldn't be on the agenda Feb. 9 when the commission has its next scheduled meeting in El Segundo.

To receive a license in California, Tyson would need four affirmative votes from the six commissioners.

Staples Center president Tim Leiweke, who wasn't immediately available for comment Friday, has stated interest in a Tyson-Lewis matchup.

Leiweke has said if Staples Center is occupied on the date requested, the Great Western Forum in nearby Inglewood is another option. The Los Angeles Kings play the Edmonton Oilers in an NHL game at Staples Center the night of April 6.

Also Friday, Las Vegas police recommended that Tyson be charged with sexual assault in two cases.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon told The Associated Press that police are seeking arrest warrants from prosecutors for Tyson on multiple counts of sexual assault in each case.

Herndon said he requested police submit information about Tyson's 1991 rape conviction in Indiana and a sexual battery allegation made by a woman last year in Big Bear, Calif. Tyson was cleared of the allegation in California.

Herndon said it would be several weeks to a month before prosecutors decide whether to charge Tyson.

Lewis addressed the situation Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"First of all, you have to realize that Mike Tyson needs some help," Lewis said. "I think he should get the proper help first before he thinks about boxing.

"You have to ask Mike Tyson if he wants to fight me, because basically, he doesn't show that he wants to fight me. He attacked at a press conference the other day and then takes a bite out of my leg. ... It doesn't seem like he wants to fight at the moment, so he's doing everything to stop it."

Lewis said he had a tetanus shot and was taking antibiotics as a precaution following the biting.

"You know, that's what I say, Lennox Lewis is fighter and Mike Tyson is a biter," Lewis said.

California is just one of several locations where a Lewis-Tyson fight could take place.

Finkel said six other states and two foreign countries also are interested. Finkel declined to name the other possible sites.

One state where the fight will not be held is New York. Madison Square Garden had been the second highest bidder for the fight which was to be held in the MGM Grand on April 6. Then came the melee -- and Lewis' claim that Tyson bit him -- at the New York news conference and Tyson's outburst of obscenities that led to the Nevada commission action.

Ray Kelly, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission as well New York City police commissioner, said New York would abide by Nevada's decision.

A sold-out Staples Center was the site of Shane Mosley's decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC welterweight title June 17, 2000.

The last heavyweight championship fight held in California was April 27, 1968, when Jimmy Ellis won the vacant WBA title on a 15-round decision over Jerry Quarry in the Oakland Coliseum. At the time, Muhammad Ali was banned from boxing for his refusal to accept the military draft.

It also appears that Texas could be a player in a proposed bout.

According to the New York Daily News, Dickie Cole, the boxing administrator for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, said Tyson is welcome to the state anytime he wants to fight there.

"We have no reason not to license him here," Cole told the newspaper. "There's no way we could deny him a license. We're not altar boys down here. We don't hold church in our boxing arenas.

"I'd love to see it (Lewis-Tyson) happen and I want to see it happen. I don't care where it happens. But I'd love to see it happen in Texas."

Cole has the authority to approve boxing licenses. He could be overruled by the executive director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, but he said that would be unlikely, the Daily News reported.

"I don't see any way I could be overruled unless they were threatened by the governor," Cole said.

Officials from The Amsterdam Arena in The Netherlands, home of the Ajax soccer team, would also like to stage the fight.

"We are trying to get the event," Arena spokeswoman Lucia Jansen van Velsen said Friday. "It is a possibility we are aiming for."

Van Velsen said Amsterdam would be a suitable site because of its central European location and easy access.

The 50,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof would be "a superb venue" if the event were to be held outside the United States, said Roger Broomhall of International Events Partnership in Birmingham, England, the company negotiating the bid on the Arena's behalf.

"The first thing will be to find our whether the fight will move out of America," Broomhall said. "I am approaching both the Lewis and the Tyson camps and I am expecting a positive response."

The Dutch boxing union NBB said it would authorize the Amsterdam fight.

"The union has granted permission for the event and is in talks with the English organization," union president Paul Hartog told the Associated Press through a spokesman.

Meanwhile, in Johannesburg, Rodney Berman, who promoted a title fight between Lewis and Hasim Rahman last year, is eager to bring Lewis back to South Africa.

"I am talking to the Lewis camp and plan to give them an offer (for the fight)," Berman told Reuters.

"It would be a great thing if the Lewis-Tyson fight was staged here," Phil Nyamane, a veteran boxing writer and commentator with the Johannesburg-based Star newspaper, told Reuters. "Just the name Tyson conjures up pictures of violence. If he came, mobs would greet him at the airport."

One country ruled out by Finkel was Denmark, the site of Tyson's last fight and where promoters have expressed interest in having him back.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.