Boxing: Samuel Peter, the new Tyson

Some experts - and liars - claim it was the night in July 2000 when Peter, who was just 19 and was in his 17th amateur fight, lost 3-2 to Audley Harrison. Nine weeks later Harrison won the Olympic gold medal.

Others insist that it was after his first three professional fights, which took place in Kazakhstan, Arizona and Chile and lasted a total of five rounds. The opponents for all three brief and painful encounters were dismal fodder, and during Peter's first year or so as a professional he beat some terrible stiffs.

Peter turned 25 just three weeks ago and in 24 professional fights he is undefeated and, in many ways, untested. However, 21 of his victims have failed to hear the final bell and 15 left the ring before the end of the second round. He has been compared during the last year to Mike Tyson, Rocky Marciano and George Foreman.

He was born in Nigeria and represented the African nation as an amateur before deciding to move to Las Vegas and agree terms with the Bulgarian fight insider Ivailo Gotzev.

At 6ft 1in or 6ft 2in, depending on who is doing the measuring, Peter is shorter than a lot of heavyweights but he is 17st 7lb, and most of the weight appears to be across his chest. In the gyms of Las Vegas he has built a following among the sport's most cynical and greedy, which in the modern sport is very rare because fight men in Vegas seldom applaud or praise unless they are on the payroll.

"Samuel is an old-fashioned style fighter," said Pop Anderson, the 69-year-old coach who is straight out of a Rocky script. "He is like the heavyweights used to be before all this started."

The "all this" is the fractured and often comical state of the modern heavyweight division. The long and continuing days of decline started when Lennox Lewis withdrew his services two summers ago.

Peter and his team of Anderson, Gotzev and the irrepressible Cornelius Boza-Edwards, who was born in Uganda and raised in London and briefly held the world super-featherweight title in the 1980s, are now at a critical stage. The long line of carefully selected opponents is at an end. But in boxing terms, Peter's apprenticeship has been textbook.

"It has been a team effort because that is the only way for a fighter to develop," Gotzev said. "A boxer's life doesn't start and end in the gym and ring, when he is training or fighting. It is the boring things that can go wrong and with Samuel that has never been a problem.

Just a few years ago another young Nigerian heavyweight arrived in Las Vegas and looked certain to dominate the division. His name was Ike Ibeabuchi and he was undefeated in 20 fights when the police used tear gas to rescue a dancer from his hotel room in 1999. He remains in a Nevada prison cell and all efforts to release him have failed. Peter, it should be noted, has shown no interest for his compatriot's taste in diversions.

Last December, Peter knocked out a one-time contender and marginal name, Jeremy Williams. He was expected to win but the ending was both sickening to watch and guaranteed to secure Peter a following and a reputation. Williams was caught clean by a left hook and slept through the one-second drop to the canvas and the full 10-second count. In Las Vegas the referees are particularly starry-eyed, and count over unconscious men and let fights go on far too long.

In 2005, Peter has blasted three other heavyweights, all of whom had decent records for men booked to lose. Back in July, in his last fight, Peter secured tonight's showdown with Klitschko by taming and leaving in a heap Taurus "The Bull" Sykes. At the time Sykes had lost once in 25 fights and had a good chance of getting a world-title fight.

"Sykes made the mistake of trying to knock me out," said Peter, who is not a great talker. "It was perfect for me and a disaster for him because he met the Nigerian Nightmare."

The press in America's unofficial fight capital were converted and that, sadly, meant that his nickname, the "Nigerian Nightmare", has stuck. The "new Tyson" tag has been pushed back but it remains a perfect description of the fighter.

Tonight's fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City is not just an enormous risk for Peter. It is also the last chance for Klitschko, and that is what makes it such a terrific attraction. There is also nothing at stake, no tacky baubles or empty promises from promoters.

Klitschko, the younger of the two Ukrainian brothers at 29, was considered the best heavyweight in the world in 2003 but two dreadful and alarming defeats ruined his progress and he is now in one of boxing's darkest places.

His critics claim he has no heart and, more alarmingly, no chin, and the evidence from his losses to the unknown Lamon Brewster and part-time golfer Corrie Sanders appears to support the most unpleasant of the accusations.

However, he is tall, moves well and can still punch. He also has Manny Steward, the sport's No 1 mercenary trainer and guru, in his corner.

Steward believes tonight's fight will be easy for Klitschko but the bookies in Las Vegas disagree with the great Detroit sage and they have installed Peter as the slight favourite.

"People are always saying Sam is too slow, too easy to hit. They say he struggles with a tall guy [Klitschko is six inches taller]. All I know is that Sam hits them and they go. Don't matter none how slow and easy to hit he is," Anderson said.

Tonight, if he can hit Klitschko clean, he will become boxing's No 1 heavyweight attraction.