England may offer another sacrificial lamb to Tyson

Mike Tyson seems certain to return to Europe to fight again after fans cheered him to the rafters as he demolished British heavyweight champion Julius Francis in two rounds on Saturday night in Manchester. With Tyson admitting that he had "a long way to go" before any fight with world champion Lennox Lewis, his management team are weighing an offer for their fighter to face Sheffield's Johnny Nelson, the WBO world cruiser-weight champion, who was among the many boxing stars watching at ringside in the MEN arena on Saturday.

"I've been told it's 90 per cent certain to happen," Nelson said, "and I would love the chance. Against Julius, Tyson looked so easy to hit. He's square-on and slow, and he can only look good if you stand there in front of him like Julius did and let him hit you."

Certainly Francis offered little creativity in the fight, which was stopped after one minute and three seconds of the second round when the 35-year-old Briton had been knocked down for the fifth time in just over four minutes. Francis, who had been escorted in by the British army, forgot to take cover as reality hit.

Tyson, fighting at his heaviest weight ever, threw the first blow and had Francis on the canvas with some 30 seconds remaining of the first round. His first count of nine, after an uppercut to the body, was followed by another seven count on the bell.

Two more counts of eight followed in quick succession at the start of the second round and the 21,000 crowd began to make plans for the rest of the evening.

"I was surprised he kept getting up," Tyson said afterwards. "I hit him with some good body shots."

Tyson said he "knew he (Francis) would show a lot of heart in his hometown."

Francis had been warmly welcomed on his entry to the arena, but the ripple of soccer crowd-style cheers of "England, England, England" soon turned to boos.

"He's very powerful. What surprised me was the short punches inside," said Francis. "All those punches hurt me.

"I went in thinking I had it right to fight Tyson but you don't always get it right. Few boxers will stand up to Mike Tyson," he said after his eighth career defeat.

Tyson admitted that his plans now centre around Lewis, the world's top heavyweight.

"(Fighting Lewis) is what I want to do," he said. "In a couple of fights I'll be victorious. I think I have a long way to go before I fight for the title, but I'm still trying. I wish I felt as good as everyone says I looked."

Tyson's manager, Shelley Finkel, also believes his man will eventually fight Lewis, though no date is in sight because of the battle between the rival American television companies who hold the two fighters' contracts.

Lewis's promoter Panos Eliades has offered Tyson £25-million for the fight, but does not expect the bout to go ahead until at least next year.

Lewis takes on American Michael Grant at Madison Square Garden on April 29th in his next fight.

Whether a Tyson-Lewis bout could go ahead in Britain is questionable since Tyson, who has convictions for rape and assault, had to be granted special leave to enter Britain by Home Secretary Jack Straw. But Frank Warren, who promoted Saturday night's fight and is part of the Lewis camp, was bullish after Tyson's victory.

"I don't see any problem why he shouldn't be let in again. There wasn't a problem this time, it was something that was created three or four weeks after the event was announced," he said.

Tyson may never again be the fighter he was, and Lewis may have chosen to sit on a Jamaican beach and scorn an invitation to watch a potential opponent from ringside, but everyone in boxing knows the old champion is still a dangerous loose cannon. He proved on Saturday night the truth of the old adage that the punch is the last of the skills to be eroded.

In the last two weeks he has taken a small step forward in the ring towards regaining the title he holds so dear. More importantly, in his quest for rehabilitation as a human being, he has made huge strides to regain his self-respect while in the public eye.

Britain can now perhaps get back to its normal sport and news diet - until the next time.