Tyson’s team try to repair the damage

MIKE TYSON’S team were working hard yesterday to repair the damage caused by the former world champion’s wayward preparations for his Saturday night comeback fight in Memphis.

Tyson has apparently decided to fight Clifford Etienne after all despite reported severe health problems and allegations he neglected his training programme after a row over his purse.

Tyson arrived in the southern city two days later than planned with a large tattoo covering the left side of his face.

And his decision to turn up after all prompted his trainer Freddie Roach and conditioner Jeff Fenech to perform U-turns after last week leaving his camp and stressing he was in no condition to take the fight.

Yesterday Fenech told TalkSPORT's No Nonsense Sports Breakfast: "We had such good preparations.

"The only reason he had a day off training was he had a few personal problems nothing to do with women or drink.

"The only bizarre thing was one day he went out of the house and came back with a tattoo on his face he wasn't drunk, he was pretty sane.

"Prior to that little hiccup he had with his personal problem I have never seen him train better."

However, the fact is that Tyson's latest attempt to secure the financial rewards of an undeserved second meeting with British boxer Lennox Lewis is fast becoming a farce.

Now he might not even be fighting Etienne. His opponent began to break up camp when news of the postponement filtered through.

Yesterday, he stressed that he had not decided whether to proceed with the bout.

"I was here training and he's not. Tyson postponed the fight and I said cool, no problem, said Etienne.

"Now he says it's back on. I'm not a puppet. I have people on my camp who have already left."

The promoters insist they have up to four alternatives lined up if Etienne does decide to pull the plug.

However, the damage has already been done. Tyson's credentials for a rematch with Lewis, who comprehensively beat him in eight rounds last June, were already almost non-existent.

Neither the build-up to the Etienne fight nor the contest itself will do anything to persuade critics that Tyson is anything more than a crude money-making machine for Lewis next June.

Tyson, who has little remaining of his estimated $200 million boxing fortune and recently lost a costly divorce case to his second wife Monica Turner, has likely decided to show up simply to keep alive that most tenuous of rematches.

Certainly there are no signs that Showtime have buckled to his pay demands and increased his purse as he had initially insisted they must.

Even Lewis' camp could not have found a justifiable reason to proceed with their plans had Tyson gone AWOL before a bout designed to somehow reinvent him as a credible challenger.

Yet Fenech insisted: "I honestly believe we can have a very competitive fight (with Lewis).

"Lennox Lewis is a great fighter but Mike is always dangerous.

"If Lewis makes one mistake Mike will have the title. If he is just prepared to do the preparation and work we can give Lennox Lewis a fight."

Tyson's respected trainer Roach is a little more cautious.

He admitted: "I'm going to tell him not to take the fight, that's my advice, but he's a grown man and Mike will make that decision.

"Mike told me, 'I'm a fighter and fighters fight'.

"He felt better and he ran in the morning. We're going to go after this guy. We're going to back him up and we're going to try to take him out."