His mansion in the Nevada desert featured lifesize marble statues of Mao Zedong, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, and he has a tattoo of Chairman Mao on his bicep.

So the former world heavyweight boxing champion was no doubt impressed yesterday when he visited Chechnya at the personal invitation of one of its most powerful and feared men, Ramzan Kadyrov, the deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Kadyrov, 28, has become the dominant leader in Chechnya since his father, President Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in a bomb attack at a sports stadium in the Chechen capital, Grozny, last year.

Although only deputy Prime Minister, he controls a large private militia, notorious for its unmarked cars, which human rights groups blame for, and many Chechens accuse of, kidnapping and killing hundreds of civilians.

Yet Iron Mike, 39, who arrived in an armoured Mercedes, appeared to hit it off immediately with Mr Kadyrov when they met in the latter’s home town of Gudermes. Russian television showed Mr Kadyrov, a keen boxer and head of the Chechen boxing federation, throwing his arms around a grinning Tyson in front of hundreds of fans at a local stadium.

“Salaam Alaikum!” the boxer lisped into a public address microphone before being enveloped in another bear hug. He said he hoped that peace could return to the region, where separatist rebels have been fighting Russian forces for more than a decade.

Samsadi Dudayev, the first vice-president of Chechnya’s boxing federation, told The Times that Tyson had been invited to Chechnya to watch a boxing competition at Mr Kadyrov’s Ramzan boxing club in Gudermes.

“No money at all. We don’t pay him. He just came to have a look at our suffering republic,” he said. “He is very happy to be here in the Chechen republic.”

But Tyson’s visit was, in fact, part of a tour that is sponsored by the Ukrainian vodka brand Nemiroff, which is negotiating a promotional endorsement deal with the boxer.

It is Tyson’s latest attempt to raise funds to pay off the estimated £4.5 million he owes since squandering all his prize money on mansions, classic cars and other indulgences.

Tyson arrived in Moscow last week and was supposed to meet the ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who had offered him political asylum in Russia. However, the Russian failed to turn up.

Before Tyson arrived by road from the neighbouring and chronically unstable province of Dagestan, a team of Polish, Russian, Belarussian and Moldovan bikers put on a stunt-riding display. Mr Kadyrov also entertained the crowd with his own display of wheelies on a quad bike, before exchanging it for an armoured Humvee that whisked him and Tyson away. “I think they have begun to be friends, ” Mr Dudayev said.

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