BOXING: Ali will greet Tyson after jail

BOXING

Mike Tyson will be greeted by his boyhood idol, Muhammad Ali, when he is released from prison on Saturday and joins the former world heavyweight champion in Islamic prayer.

"Ali will greet Mike when he comes out and after he gives him a hug we're heading for prayers," Muhammad Siddeeq, Tyson's spiritual adviser, said yesterday.

He said that the morning prayers at a mosque not far from the prison near Indianapolis where Tyson has been jailed for the past three years for a rape conviction will be open to all.

After his release Tyson is expected to travel to Ohio to begin four years of probation, and probably to resume the lucrative boxing career that in 1986 made him the youngest heavyweight champion of the world.

A sum of £200m is being estimated for a deal with the cable network Showtime, the pay-per-view outlet in the United States of the promoter, Don King.