"I've been workin' on the night train, brother," Evander Holyfield drawled, the sweat drying on his face in little grooves and tracks as he shuffled his feet, looking and sounding like boxing's answer to James Brown.

But Holyfield's final sparring session before facing Lennox Lewis on Saturday night was again more of a homage to god than the godfather of soul. Hymns of praise - instead of Sex Machine or even a less profane Night Train - still echoed through the old fighter's new training routine.

"But I feel good," Holyfield insisted with a sly grin. "I'm a night owl now." In February, before his first fight against Lewis, Holyfield began serious work in the gym at 5.30 every morning. If he yawned often during each pre-dawn stretch, Holyfield has since suggested that his worst moments of "sleepiness" unfolded at Madison Square Garden on the night of March 13th.

"When I stepped into the Garden," Holyfield argued, "it was at a time when my body was used to resting. This time round, I've been training at night. So I'm gonna be wide awake and ready to put Lewis down for that count of 10." Holyfield's eyes widened. He could suddenly imagine Lewis falling beneath "the black lights" that Muhammad Ali said a fighter always sees just before being knocked unconscious. Yet Holyfield had already claimed that his intensity against Lewis had been diluted by a virus before the fight, cramps in his legs during the bout and dejection after he failed to fulfil his prediction of a third-round knockout.

"I don't call them excuses," Holyfield protested, sounding like every other ageing fighter who tried to justify a disappointing performance instead of accepting that perhaps there had just been too many fights in his boxing life.

But one of boxing's sustaining themes is the idea of a second chance. Don King calls it "the irresistible and inevitable rematch" whereas Holyfield speaks of a "God-given opportunity for redemption".

After watching himself and Lewis on video, Holyfield suggested that "you could tell I wanted to get out of there. I was being hit by punches I should never get hit by. I felt embarrassed in the ring. But I didn't quit. I made mistakes and so I've had to go back and correct them. Even the best fighter slips, and when you slip you have to have the attitude to go out and redeem yourself.

"Every night since, I've worked on the basic lessons I now need to apply. And, yeah, I been working on body punches. You can't go for the head all the time. You've got to go to the body first and break it down. Eventually, you can take him with head shots. You've got to use everything that's necessary to win. So I'm giving my heart and soul to this fight."

Holyfield's plan to attack the bigger man's body at least supports his reputation for being a better and far smarter fighter in a rematch. Although he lost to Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer, he avenged both defeats in decisive fashion. Similarly, he was an even more dominant force against Mike Tyson in their second fight - when Iron Mike was reduced to his ear-biting despair.

Holyfield needs to make an even greater leap against Lewis. He has to implement clinical technical improvements while recovering his once-unquenchable desire. But, despite such difficulties, Holyfield has been in remarkably good humour all week, most notably when cornered by a Japanese television crew.

"Well," Holyfield murmured, "I have a message for all of my Japanese friends out there. On November 13th, I will be there to pick up the belt. I'm not just an American champion. I'm the world champion - which also means I'm the champion of Japan."

The thrilled men from Tokyo then made another demand of the amiable fighter. He had to repeat, after them, his trademark saying - "I'm Evander Holyfield, heavyweight champion of the world, watch me and wow-wow" - in slurred and halting Japanese.

But, at least in English, he had already found his most cogent words of boxing faith. Despite the bleak end he may yet face against Lewis, it was still possible to believe in Holyfield's stirring conviction when he sat on the edge of the ring after his last round of sparring.

"I've got the knowledge," he said simply. "I know this game, the game of boxing, and it's not an emotional thing. It's about applying your craft any time that you want to.

"Unfortunately you're only human - and so you have your ups and downs. But, in boxing, you always have another opportunity to redeem yourself. And so on Saturday people will see a better Evander than they've ever seen in my whole boxing career. I will redeem myself."