BOXING: The world is waiting for Tyson

Sport-by-sport guide to 1995: England awaits the European football inva sion as rugby union's World Cup takes over

Mike Tyson will be back in 1995. Heavyweights are forming a disorderly queue stretching from his prison cell to the madcap towers of Las Vegas. Many see Tyson as the pension scheme they neglected. Tyson will walk free in May, will fight by June an d withDon King at his side and the Koran in his pocket, he will control the hearts and minds of a curious sporting public.

He also stalks the retirement dreams of several British heavyweights. Lennox Lewis fell and lost his World Boxing Council title to Tyson's friend, Oliver McCall, in two sad rounds last September. His wake is finally coming to an end and he fights in Vegas, the recidivists' favourite retreat, in March. Lewis wants Tyson.

Frank Bruno needs Tyson again. He was left gaunt and static in 1989. First, Big Frank will challenge McCall. Herbie Hide. Herbie who? Well, he is the World Boxing Organisation champion, born in Nigeria but raised in Norwich, who meets Riddick Bowe in Vegas next March. He really needs Tyson.

However, outside tip for the first British heavyweight to meet the fallen idol is Derek "Sweet D" Williams. The former Commonwealth champion from Peckham is ideal.

Last year, Bradley Stone, a slight kid with wide innocent eyes, died after a British title fight. At the start of January, a bronze statue of Stone will be unveiled at a gym in east London. Stone's death was the first in a British ring for eight years.

One British fighter will dominate next year. Naseem Hamed, only 20 years of age, will win a world title at either bantamweight or super-bantamweight. Hamed, honed to irreverent perfection in Sheffield by Brendan Ingle, could meet Cardiff's Steve Robinsonfor the WBO featherweight title. But Hamed's natural challenger is Belfast's easy-to-hit Wayne McCullough. They will meet as soon as one suffers defeat.

Luton's Billy Schwer has been lured to Vegas where he will meet Rafael Ruelas for the International Boxing Federation lightweight title. It is a weird match, a hard fight and, with Schwer's tender facial tissue, a bloody end to a typical British effort appears most probable.

Manchester's Carl Thompson will fight Orlin Norris for the World Boxing Association cruiserweight world title in March. Thompson, a former kick boxer, has been ignored for nearly two years. Hackney's former triple world light-heavyweight champion, Denni s Andries, who is pushing 50, fights Norbert Ekassi in France for Thompson's old European title.

Watch for Paul Denton, Jason Rowland, Dean Francis, Michael Brodie and the return of Colin McMillan. As young boxers go in search of glory in 1995, heavyweights of all shapes, sizes and ages will go in search of Mike Tyson, the final pay day for the desperate and crazy.