Tyson takes first tentative step towards career second coming

LONDON, JANUARY 31: Ultimate rehabilitation for Mike Tyson depends on factors largely outside his control after Saturday's 243 seconds of ...

LONDON, JANUARY 31: Ultimate rehabilitation for Mike Tyson depends on factors largely outside his control after Saturday’s 243 seconds of controlled savagery at the expense of Briton Julius Francis.

In one of the bigger mismatches in the tarnished history of heavyweight boxing, Tyson clubbed Francis to the floor five times before the referee had seen enough.

While Francis returns to deserved obscurity, Tyson faces a torturous route to the world title fight he craves against Lennox Lewis.

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Tyson is tied up with the American Cable Network Showtime. Lewis is aligned with Showtime’s rival HBO.

Lewis, who defeated Evander Holyfield last year to win the undisputed world title, must fulfil his obligations to his paymasters starting with a defence against the imposing Michael Grant in Madison Square Garden on April 29.

Tyson is in line for a fight against New Yorker Lou Savarese who should at least provide more resistance than Francis.

Manager Shelly Finkel said Tyson, the youngest man to win theundisputed world title, could be only three contests away from meeting Lewis.

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Certainly both men want the fight to go ahead to ensure their places in the record books.

“For me, it is not only the money,” said Lewis, who declined an invitation to join a television commentary team for Saturday’s fight. “I have earned millions. Mike is the last heavyweight of my era left for me to defeat and I want my place in history.”

Tyson needs fight more than Lewis.

His personal and professional life went into freefall after a 1992 rape conviction and he is regarded as damaged goods in the United States.

He was suspended for a year for biting Holyfield’s ear, tried to break Frans Botha’s arm and hit Orlin Norris after the bell had rung for the end of the first round.

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Tysons’ handlers regarded Saturday’s exhibition as the first step in his latest comeback and they hope to return to Europe for possible bouts in France and Britain.

“Right now, if I fought Lewis, I wouldn’t do as well as I could but after acouple more fights, I’ll be victorious,” Tyson said.

Tyson, 34 this year, retains his aura of boundless menace although, as Holyfield twice demonstrated, his skills have irrevocably eroded. Francis can testify he still punches with brutal power.

“I’ve never been hit so hard in my life,” he said.

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To the mystification of visiting American fight writers, Tyson was treated like a celebrity from the moment the British government allowed him into the country.

His unremarkable exploits while he trained in London for the Manchester fight earned him prime exposure in Britain’s myriad national newspapers and on television. Seats for the fight were snapped up even though the only real debate was whether it would last more than a round.

The essential tawdriness of the spectacle was demonstrated by the British tabloid newspaper which sponsored the soles of Francis’s shoes in the certainty that they would receive maximum exposure.

Celebrities were not thick on the ground at ringside. Modelelle MaCpherson andManchester United footballer David Beckham accompanied by his pop star wife Victoria were the best on offer for a fight which will be forgotten as quickly as the hapless Francis.