Boxing needs another Tyson

Will a phoenix rise from the ashes of South Africa's xenophobic shame?

I say xenophobia, but in reality the attacks on the foreign shop-owners is nothing more than thuggery.

These dark clouds of hatred have developed into the more shameful moments of our new South Africa, but then I started wondering if maybe, just possibly, there might be a silver lining.

Perhaps waiting to break out of the criminality is a future boxing great, South Africa's own Mike Tyson, waiting to conquer the world.

Tyson was a young thug before he was turned, his aggression and passion being channelled into the ring.

Then again, he was hardly a shining example of rehabilitation, given how his moral compass has spun out of control on the occasions when his personal magnet has approached trouble.

But at the peak of his powers he thrilled boxing fans like no heavyweight had since Muhammad Ali.

Fast, explosive and devastating, he restored faith in a division that had fractured into three champions who held the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles.

Between Ali and Tyson there were 15 other claimants - although they did include Larry Holmes, who was probably the most legitimate champion. But in less than a year, from November 1986 to August 1987, Tyson won all three belts and then, for good measure, stopped an ageing Holmes in four rounds. Then, three days before he turned 22, he demolished Michael Spinks.

Spinks, unbeaten at the time, was the last contender for Tyson's throne.

The brother of Leon Spinks, the former heavyweight champion, the skilled Michael was the first man to beat Holmes in a professional ring and was unbeaten when he faced Tyson. Admittedly, he had relinquished his IBF crown rather than face Tyson earlier, but eventually he was persuaded to get into the same ring.

The fear showed - he lasted 91 seconds.

Whatever his personal faults - and he has plenty of them - Tyson gave boxing fans an undisputed champ, across all divisions. He fought everyone out there and he beat them.

Floyd Mayweather, who turns 38 next month, also has his instincts of thuggery, although he has greater skills and has earned more cash than Tyson.

But he is not doing boxing any favours as he drags his heels on signing to fight Manny Pacquiao.

When the fight eventually happens - and it will surely have to happen at some stage - it will be too late; it should have taken place six years ago.

When Holmes and George Foreman were fighting beyond their sell-by dates in the 1990s, there was talk of them finally meeting - 20 years after they should have.

It would have been a fascinating fight back in the day, but the market was not interested in geriatrics. It never materialised.

Mayweather and Pacquiao will surely not wait that long, but whenever it materialises, you can bet that the paying public is going to be short-changed.

I doubt it will match the intensity of the first bout between Roberto Duran, then 29, and Sugar Ray Leonard, 24, a 15-round war that was appropriately dubbed the Brawl in Montreal.

Boxing needs another Tyson.