At 5.40 p.m. yesterday Mike Tyson emerged into the arrivals area of Heathrow's Terminal 4 building, and the British immigration service breathed a huge sigh of relief. In the end, no one had to tell the fearsome Tyson that he was not welcome in the country. Not that there were many volunteers for the task in the first place.
Tyson, accompanied by two police officers, gave a gentle smile and a brief flash of his gold teeth to hundreds of waiting fans who greeted his emergence from underneath a "No entry" sign with frenzied adoration.
All eyes at Heathrow eagerly anticipated the arrival of one man. Not even the presence of George Michael, who was on the same New York Concorde flight as the boxer, drew the crowd's attention as he slipped out of the airport like any other traveller.
Tyson spent two seconds at an immigration counter before being handed his passport back and being told to "have a nice stay". As he emerged from the baggage reclaim area, scores of fans rushed through the terminal building trying to get close to the former world heavyweight champion.
Submerged in the middle of it all, Tyson gave a brief smile and a clenched-fist salute as he was bundled into the back of a Mercedes and whisked off to a central London hotel to begin training for his first fight in Britain, on January 29th against Julius Francis.
The future of the bout in Manchester was thrown into doubt after it was discovered that immigration rules prevent from entering anyone who has been convicted for 12 months or more for a crime that would carry a similar sentence in Britain.
Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and sentenced to six years, leading to demands that he should be prevented from entering Britain. The only way he was able to get in was with the permission of the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, who used his executive powers.