Sad, mad, bad and tattooed

BOXING: Mike Tyson's descent from being the "Baddest Man on the Planet" to the maddest has been so well chronicled that by now it seems an almost normal state of affairs.

It is hard to know what is more surprising: Tyson's bizarre antics of the past week, which led to tonight's fight here against Clifford Etienne being scuttled and then un-scuttled in the space of 12 hours, or his docile behaviour leading up to last summer's fight against Lennox Lewis in the same Memphis arena.

The common supposition is that Tyson was on medication then and wasn't last week, when he was skipping training to hit the tattoo parlours of Las Vegas. We will probably never know, but if any light is ever shed on the subject it will not come from the Tennessee Board of Boxing and Racing.

There are advantages to staging a fight like this in a backwater venue promising a lack of scrutiny for the participants. Last June against Lewis, Tyson not only acted like a zombie but fought like one, too. In the absence of post-fight testing we can only guess that his handlers - who in many cases were also his creditors - insisted that he maintain his daily dose of psychotropic drugs lest he jeopardise a $17.5 million payday.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Tyson and Etienne both passed their pre-fight physical examinations on Thursday, clearing the final hurdle for tonight's 10-round fight. Neither man was asked to produce a urine specimen in the course of the cursory examination performed by Dr Jonathan Brody, and neither was drug tested.

Different strokes for different states, it appears. When Tyson tested positive for illegal drugs in connection with his fight against Andrew Golota in Michigan a couple of years ago he was fined a few thousand dollars, but any positive for Etienne - not that there is any suggestion he would have failed a test - could have had far more dire consequences. The Black Rhino is still on parole from a 40-year armed robbery sentence in his native Louisiana, and a violation could have him sent back to pound rocks on a chain gang.

Just as well for him there was no alcohol testing, though. Etienne "broke training" and celebrated the cancellation with an all-night party of his own.

Tyson reconsidered his position and decided to fight after it was pointed out that not only would he be risking a $5 million payday, but also imperilling his proposed June 21st rematch with Lewis. Etienne, after first declaring his refusal "to be Mike Tyson's yo-yo" in fact did an about-face the next day.

In contrast to the dark mood swings which characterised his behaviour over the past week, Tyson was almost ebullient as he showed off the new tattoo on the left side of his face at the Thursday press conference. He said he had been contemplating the New Zealand Maori design for the past two years. What he did not explain was why he had decided to get it less than 10 days before tonight's fight. The wounds produced by the tattoo needle will still be scabbing over, and a punch from Etienne could leave Tyson bleeding.

After missing nearly a week's training, Tyson's handler Freddie Roach had him sparring in a ring set up in a Tunica casino two days before the fight. "Two days ago I had some reservations about going through with this fight, but after Thursday's workout I have none. Mike looked better here than he did the entire camp," said Roach.