Appetite for the ugly is unsated

Boxing was dragged into fresh disgrace by its arch exponent of obscenity, Mike Tyson, as he blasted out the transparently terrified Lou Savarese in 38 seconds at Hampden Park before aiming a tirade of abuse at Lennox Lewis, Britain's double world champion and a would-be future opponent. Tyson said he wanted to rip Lewis' heart from his body, adding: "I want to eat your babies." He must surely never be allowed to fight in Britain again.

The manner of his victory, against his intimidated opponent, was an irrelevance. The abiding memory will not be that of Savarese collapsing in an undignified heap to the first hay-making left-hander which connected, but of referee John Coyle being knocked to the floor as he tried to stop the fight seconds later with Tyson reigning blows on anything in his path.

"They should take his licence away. Boxing is a sport. That man is not a sportsman, he's a devil," was the response of the former world lightweight champion Jim Watt. Many echoed his sentiment.

The punches Tyson aimed at the stricken Savarese sickened fans who paid as much as £500 sterling to be at ringside, but the interview which the former champion gave after the fight also appalled those who coughed up to witness the tawdry exercise on pay-per-view television.

After his seconds had rushed into the ring to help pull him off Savarese, as the referee rose to his feet, Tyson was still spitting bile as he marshalled his thoughts.

"I'm the most ruthless, brutal champion," he said. "I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey."

Then, turning his attentions to a possible fight against Lewis, he went on: "I want to eat your heart. I want to eat your children. He (Lewis) is no match for me when I am right. I want to rip his heart out and feed it to him."

Perhaps one day Tyson will face Lewis, but it will not be with the support of Saturday's promoter, Frank Warren, whose wretched week was ended thus on a rainy night which left the audience, some 20,000, with acres of empty seats around the stadium.

Asked if Tyson would return on one of his promotions, Warren replied: "I will have to think long and hard about that." He was nursing a wickedly bloodshot right eye which he said was conjunctivitis but which many believed was a visible reminder of a violent disagreement with Tyson last week over an unpaid £500,000 sterling jewellery bill.

Warren chose to be at ringside after a week when he had no direct contact with Tyson after a bust-up which was reported to have caused him to suffer cracked ribs and a broken jaw. At least he was able to prove his jaw was sound by ostentatiously chewing gum.

Simon Block, secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, is the head of the British licensing body which took what now seems a surprising decision that Tyson was mentally fit to be in the ring.

He said: "We are very conscious of the image of boxing and worried about the damage which may have been done. We will take a day or two to assess all the publicity before deciding what action to take, if any."

The possibility of a fresh Tyson outrage was obvious in the run-up to the fight and should have been confronted when it emerged this volatile character was under strain over his marriage break-up, the death of a close friend and the row with Warren.

The yes-men who surround Tyson and who seem able to tolerate any boxing abomination provided the cash continues to roll in confronted the world's media.

His trainer, Tommy Brooks, a good man, said: "You had better ask Mike if you want to know about what he said. I can't be answerable," while Tyson's business manager, Shelley Finkel, offered a pathetic line in justification: "Mike went into the ring with a lot of tension in him. The fight didn't go long enough for him to let it out."

Tyson is often referred to as a "great student of the sport". If that is true, he should know boxing is as much about discipline as aggression. But he seems unable to grasp any concept of self-restraint. Without such qualities, boxing can only descend into the anarchic state where Tyson seems to wish to reside.

Finkel spoke of his desire to sit down with the Lewis camp and thrash out a deal for a fight with the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation champion.

"Yes, I believe very much it can happen. It would be the biggest grossing fight of all time," he said in a statement which may be correct but which provides its own sad indictment on the nature of heavyweight boxing and an element of those who watch it.

The only real conclusion to be drawn from this latest debacle is that Tyson remains a dangerously unhinged human being who should have no place in a boxing ring. He may bring excitement of a type but he alienates more sports fans than he enthralls and the sooner he is excluded from boxing for good, the sooner the rest can set about building a more respectable future for the sport.