Boxing: Foul invective is last-ditch attempt to unnerve Lewis

Tyson stays silent as associates send out a stream of abusive propaganda against British world champion in build-up to big fight

Seventeen years ago the Reverend Jesse Jackson passed through Tunica, Mississippi, the casino boom town where Mike Tyson provided a fleeting glimpse of his preparation for the world heavyweight title challenge against Lennox Lewis here on Saturday.

Jackson described Tunica as America's version of Ethiopia. He said it was the nation's poorest town. Accommodation for the predominantly black population was a disgrace. A river of crude sewage ran through the town centre. It was known as the "sugar ditch".

Now 10 casinos pull in customers from all over the south and gambling profits rank behind only Las Vegas and Atlantic City. But some things do not change in the town 18 miles from here across the state line. Tunica still has a sugar ditch. It is currently being supplied by the Tyson camp, for whom co-trainer Stacey McKinley was the official spokesman after their fighter decided he had nothing to say to a public who have recently gorged on his profane streams of consciousness.

McKinley's opening statement : "Lennox Lewis has a lot of bitch in him. He's a bitch. Tell him I said that."

Whether it was entirely Tyson's decision to restrict his exposure to an almost derisory work-out in front of the assembled world press is not entirely clear. One theory is that Showtime TV, which is a partner of Home Box Office in presenting the contest that guarantees the fighters a straight split of $35m [£23m], are so anxious to avoid another fight-threatening outrage by Tyson that they have ordered his silence. The possibility of this is strengthened by the knowledge that back in its New York office Showtime, which is owed around $12m by Tyson, has an official count-down clock programmed to stop, to cheers and the popping of champagne, at the sound of the first bell on Saturday.

In the meantime, McKinley can clearly be counted upon to maintain Tyson's oratorical style. He went on: "I'll spit in Lewis's face and then I'll shake his hand and say: 'You laid down nicely.' I want to see Tyson break his nose, break his bones, I want to see him tear him apart. Lewis is a bitch. Lewis is a coward."

Tyson had the room temperature pushed up to 85 degrees before inviting his audience to watch him work briefly on the speedball – his maximum flourish lasted just 15 seconds – and simulate fast, inside work designed to get inside Lewis's much superior reach. He was supervised by McKinley and Ronnie Shields, but interestingly it was to the notorious Carlos Panama Lewis that he walked for an embrace when his work was over.

The man who was imprisoned for a year and banned for life after being found guilty of stripping the padding from one of his fighter's gloves has been called in by Tyson, news which can only have alerted the referee Eddie Cotton to the possibility of more foul play from the fighter who bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear and admitted that he tried to break Francois Botha's arm.

Panama Lewis, a tall, stooping, bejewelled figure, had nothing to contribute to McKinley's tirade, and the suspicion must be that he is saving his input for the ears of Tyson alone.

Certainly Lennox Lewis's insistence on contractual clauses that will keep the fighters apart until they step into the ring, branded as cowardice by McKinley, was scarcely discredited by the edgy mood of Tyson's camp. Both McKinley and Shields were unhappy with questions about the role of Panama Lewis – and Tyson's refusal to speak on his own behalf.

"I can't tell Tyson what to do with his ass out of the ring," McKinley said. "Who can? My job is to do with what happens in the ring."

There, he says, Lennox Lewis will be destroyed by the power of Tyson. "When you're a coward you put lots of things in a contract. A coward dies 5,000 times and a brave man dies once. Lennox Lewis is such a coward he doesn't want to see Mike. Mike comes from the ghetto. He was born to fight. He is a fighting machine. He is going to hurt Lennox, he is going to break him up. Tell Lennox hell is coming."

You didn't have to have a long memory to recall a similar pre-fight public performance by a Tyson crew. It was six years ago in Las Vegas, before his first fight with Evander Holyfield. The cast was different but the script was roughly the same. Tyson's co-managers, who are now being sued by the fighter, drew their hands across their throats and one of them, Rory Holloway, said: "If Holyfield wants to stand in front of Mike's power, the only way he is going to leave town is in a casket." Co-manager John Horne was not to be outdone. He said: "The only rape that's going to take place will be in the ring."

One of Tyson's first trainers, Teddy Atlas, was in attendance and he walked out, saying: "I need a shower – and plenty of soap."

Atlas says now: "You have to say that in the interests of a decent society it would be good if Lennox Lewis finally puts an end to Mike Tyson's career. It has gone on too long. It creates only hate and disgust."

Before his trainer-mouthpiece launched his attack on Lewis, Tyson sparred for four rounds. As in all his sparring for this fight, Tyson did it behind closed doors. He looks trim by his recent standards, but whether we are seeing a cosmetic effect or a truly honed fighter is a conclusion that will have to await the opening of the action at the Pyramid Arena.

Eventually, Tyson produced a written statement, which said: "I feel great. I'm as strong as I've ever been and in the best shape of my life. I haven't felt this energised to fight in 10 years. On Saturday night I'm going to do what I do best. I'm going to put a world of hurt on Mr Lewis with dramatic and spectacular power. It is my destiny."

Note the careful phrasing, the respectful reference to Mr Lewis. Tyson's trainer talks of the bitch in Lennox Lewis, and the breaking of his bones, and his fighter speaks of destiny and spectacle. Two minds, it seems, are at work in the Tyson camp, and the result is a stream of propaganda messages which may strike the essentially logical mind of Lennox Lewis as deeply troubling. On the other hand, he may just feel they should all be consigned to the sugar ditch.