BOXING: Bruno's little bit of eyeballing

Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson engaged in a stare-out in Philadelphia yesterday which lasted a second longer than Tyson's comeback bout against Peter McNeeley in August.

The eyeballing came at the end of a news conference that officially announced their World Boxing Council heavyweight title fight for 16 March at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

It was timed at 90 seconds, as Bruno displayed his gold and green belt to Tyson with one finger raised - and about half-way through the focal engagement, Tyson took a couple of steps forward to fix more firmly on Bruno's pupils.

The promoter, Don King, stood beaming during the heaven-sent opportunity for the army of photographers.

According to Frank Warren, Bruno's promoter, the Englishman will not be short of support. Warren claimed 3,000 will be flying in for the fight.

Bruno said: "I'm flying the flag for boxing and the WBC. I'm going to keep the belt."

He was at ringside to witness Tyson's victory on Saturday and observed: "I saw quite a few weaknesses."

Tyson answered in predictable terms. "He talks about wanting the fight today, yesterday, but won't he know it. I'm looking forward to this chance dearly. He will be minus his belt at the end of the fight."

The former undisputed world champion then left to hand out 1,000 turkeys to the needy folk of Philadelphia.