IT IS one thing for Mike Tyson to step into the ring while people question his mental health. In fact, it is most common. It is another thing altogether for him to box when he has acknowledged that he is not physically fit, either. The right-minded, thus, will object to tonight’s bout in Memphis: it shouldn’t go ahead, of course it shouldn’t. And Tyson will go into it fully subscribed to the one-whack salvation school of pugilism.

Accounts vary as to how little training Tyson has done in preparation for Clifford Etienne. Two days’ training in nine? Not one in a whole fortnight? We know for sure that he missed most of last week, was laid up with sickness over the weekend, pulled out of the bout on Monday and changed his mind on Tuesday. That gave him Wednesday and Thursday to train and Friday to rest and that is not enough.

The problem, Tommy Brooks says, is that he has done it before and believes that he can make it work. Brooks trained Tyson for six contests from 1999-2001. “None of this surprises me,” he said. “This is Mike’s modus operandi. He just thinks that he can whack a guy with one shot. I was fortunate, when he was with me, that there were a couple of fights when he didn’t train and he got away with it.”

Brooks detailed Tyson’s history of short cuts: “For our first fight, against (François) Botha, he trained real hard. This was because it was a sort of a comeback and he had something to prove. Two fights later was Julius Francis (in Manchester). Mike started working real good but towards the end he wasn’t bothered and he got away with that because his lack of training wasn’t exposed.

“Lou Savarese (in Glasgow) was the worst. Mike had a friend who’d passed away and he completely shut down. Savarese was nobody to play around with. Mike wouldn’t listen. He ended up doing just two weeks’ work — and he was lucky; he managed to get him in the first round.

“By the time we got to (Andrew) Golota (October 2000), Mike would come to the gym, then he’d not come. He’d sometimes arrive and walk straight out. We’d sit around playing pool, waiting for him and he’d never show up.

“I never challenged him over this, though. Mike’s a grown-up and I’m not a babysitter. I’m a trainer and I can give information and it’s up to him if he wants to take it.”

Brooks’s tenure ended before the bout against Lennox Lewis, when the respected Ronnie Shields took over. “I didn’t have a problem at all,” Shields said. “Mike was one of the easiest guys I ever trained.” Brooks is disbelieving. “That’s bullshit,” he said. “It didn’t look like a fit Mike Tyson to me.”

But Shields is insistent, saying: “There were a couple of days when he said he didn’t feel good, but I told him it was for the heavyweight championship of the world, that he had to train. And he did. I had more than a few days when I said, ‘You look like crap today’. And he said, ‘Thank you for being truthful’.”

Tyson was clearly motivated by the stature of the Lewis bout and quality of opponent. But if he did train hard, it suggests that his predicament is even worse. If Tyson was a spent force after one round against Lewis when he had put in the work, how long can he go now when he hasn’t?

“I would tell him not to fight,” Shields said. “He should put it off for a couple of months. They say he’s only sparred 40 rounds. I had him spar 150 rounds. Maybe Freddie Roach (Tyson’s trainer) thinks the sparring’s not important, maybe he thought he just needed the conditioning. But the sparring’s what he’s missed, so he’ll end up with nothing. And that’s where I think he’s at.”

So Tyson is expected to follow his Savarese approach: hit him hard and quick. Etienne is 30, comes from the sugar-cane fields of Lafayette, Louisiana, and has done a ten-year stint in prison for armed robbery. He has won 24 of his 26 bouts, yet is nowhere near the top ten in the world and, against a fit Tyson, would barely stand a chance.

“I think Mike’ll be in big trouble,” Shields said. “It just depends on the other guy.” Brooks agrees. “It’s a matter now of whether Etienne really wants it,” he said.

If Tyson hasn’t landed his one crucial blow by the end of the third round, Etienne can probably have it, and in taking it, he will be nudging Tyson’s career towards a close.

If Tyson wins, he gets to take on Lewis next and his ring life is extended. If he loses, there is nowhere left for him to go. So this is an important fight for Tyson. And he’s not even fit for it.

• Vitali Klitschko is taking legal action against the WBC in an effort to force Lennox Lewis to let him box for the world title. The Ukrainian claims that the WBC is violating its own rules by refusing to order Lewis to face him. Klitschko, the WBC’s No 1 contender, claims that Lewis has to box him by June 8 if WBC rules for mandatory title defences are followed. Lewis had been negotiating with Klitschko, but then began to line up a rematch with Mike Tyson.