"If you a fighter, and you just have a big heart, you wind up in the cemetery. But if you got heart and skill, then you got what it takes to be champion of the world, and Francois Botha has both. He will fight Mike Tyson and win."
The words come from Panama Lewis, boxing's most notorious trainer and the man who has masterminded Botha's preparations for a contest in Las Vegas tomorrow which would surely end Tyson's career if the South African prevails.
In 1983, Luis Resto battered "Irish" Billy Collins to defeat in an undercard contest at Madison Square Garden. Collins sustained horrendous facial injuries. When Resto's gloves were checked, postfight, it was found the padding had been removed and replaced by water. Collins, effectively, had been savaged by a bare-knuckle fighter.
He never fought again. Wrecked by the experience, he developed an alcohol and drug dependency and later the same year he died in a car crash. Panama Lewis was Resto's chief cornerman.
Lewis served three years in jail for his part in the gruesome episode, and is still banned in the United States from taking his place in a fighter's corner. Tomorrow, he will be allowed nowhere near Botha at fight-time as the man who has employed him for the last four years embarks on the most searching challenge of his professional boxing career.
Instead, Botha will have his comanager Sterling McPherson giving advice alongside his father, Jan, but the 30-year-old former International Boxing Federation world champion believes he will not be seriously disadvantaged.
"I wish Panama could be there. In his time with me, he has never done anything wrong. He'll be out there, shouting and hollering. Maybe I won't be able to hear him, but I know what he would be saying. We know what to do, we have a plan," says Botha.
It would be wrong to dismiss Botha as another Peter McNeeley, the hopelessly over-matched club fighter unearthed as Tyson's previous come-back opponent in 1995 after Tyson ended his 3 1/2year jail sentence for rape.
Lewis and Botha have studied the former champion's fights on tape, particularly the two most recent defeats at the hands of Evander Holyfield. Lewis says it is vital Botha takes an early initiative: "Francois has got to get Mike dizzy. He has to feel leather. If he feel nothing, he just keep on coming and then you in trouble."
Botha also seems ready to resort to any tactic to force Tyson to lose composure. It is clear he not only means to fight rough, but also plans to give Tyson a verbal clouting.
"I always talk to my opponent," he says, "but there'll be a bit more for Mike. If he snaps, then you have your best chance, Evander showed that. He makes mistakes, and you can step in."
During his upbringing in South Africa, the big blonde-haired lad showed little academic inclination, but was captivated by the sport of boxing. "I remember watching Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in 1974 and saying to my dad, `One day I will be champion of the world'."
After first earning a living as a fireman, while continuing to compile a brilliant amateur record which brought him 28 titles in South Africa and only 25 defeats to set against 378 wins, Botha turned professional in 1990 and moved to the United States.
If he had not been aware previously, Botha quickly found any white heavyweight worth a lick is deemed marketable in America. A string of quick wins brought him under the influence of Don King and soon he had world title opportunities.
On December 9th, 1995, he defied a hostile, bottle-throwing crowd to out-point the German Axel Schultz in Stuttgart, which should have been testimony to his spirit and ability were it not that he tested positive for anabolic steroids. A month later he was stripped of the title by the IBF, although he still protests that the offence was a result of being prescribed medication.
A year later, once again fighting for the IBF title - this time on the undercard of Holyfield-Tyson I - he showed huge courage against Michael Moorer and was ahead on all three score cards before running out of steam.
