Good, bad or ugly, Mike's a salesman at heart

There may be those of you who, like me, feel contempt for Mike Tyson, who despise him for what he has done in the name of sport, and who believe his actions in and out of the ring deserve not the slightest respect.

Well, the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world would politely like to dispute certain opinions that may have been drawn against his character.

In the week of the fight involving Tyson that threatens to plunge boxing to new levels of shame and insanity, he showed no shame at all in suggesting we might have got it wrong about him.

On Friday, at the 20,371 capacity Palace Arena here, Tyson tackles Andrew Golota, a Pole whose record of outrage within the ring is almost equal to his own.

But if Tyson is feeling at all nervous about the potentially explosive nature of the bout, he is disguising his emotions masterfully. Even for a man who takes special medication designed to curb his wildest excesses, Tyson is exuding a remarkable calm.

In moments of public contemplation, he has explained his motives for saying and doing some of the things that have sullied his reputation.

Like the outburst after his victory over rival American Lou Savarese in Glasgow, when Tyson confessed a desire to eat the babies of London's reigning world champion Lennox Lewis.

"You know, Lennox doesn't have any kids," said Tyson. "I knew that." So it was a joke. It was meant to be funny. That being the case, perhaps Tyson should be condemned for nothing more than employing the wrong scriptwriter.

Then there was his curious antics at a recent press conference to hype the Golota fight, at which Tyson leapt on a table, ripped off his shirt, and issued further venomous thoughts.

"Some of it you can believe, but some of it was bull," he said. The point this convicted rapist, thug and ear-biter has been attempting to make is that he is in the business of selling himself, and no-one buys the image of a nice guy.

Tyson explained: "I had no personality when I started fighting. Now I do. There's nobody nicer than Evander Holyfield, at face value that is. Nobody nicer than Lennox Lewis. But they can't sell tickets. I can."

This week at least, that much is beyond dispute. The Palace venue, north of Detroit, has been enlarged to cater for the demand for tickets.

The television broadcaster is so confident of the 10-round non-title fight's appeal to the American public that it has set the pay-per-view subscription at a record $49.95 - about £35.

That is five dollars more than the one-off payment to watch Lewis defend his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation championships against Samoa's David Tua in Las Vegas on 11 November.