Boxing's plight rests on Tyson

You know boxing is in trouble," said a weary columnist of the great old fight town Philadelphia, "when its best bet of redemption is a convicted rapist."

How much worse is its plight, then, when, six years on, Tyson is still "the man" despite serving fresh time for attacking a couple of motorists who delayed his purchase of a Harley Davidson, biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear and now facing more accusations of rape?

At each new catastrophe, you are reminded of the prophecy of an old fight man when the 21-year-old Tyson was given a gold crown made of paste in a garish ceremony in Las Vegas which could have been conceived only by Don King.

"I can see this kid finishing up dead in some bar in the small hours," said the fight man. "He's going to push himself on to somebody and then someone is going to pull out a gun."

Yet this is a man who, long after the serious erosion of his once frighteningly brutal fighting skills, is still considered the old sport's most compelling box-office seller.

No, it does not say much for boxing. But then what does it say for us – or the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the great moral leader who was the bagman when Tyson's people reportedly tried to pay off the family of rape victim Desiree Washington?