Few should have the stomach for farcical fight between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones | Kevin Mitchell

Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr - both in their 50s - meet in Los Angeles in an unsanctioned exhibition bout

Nobody in the history of paid fighting has used the language of violence with as much undiluted enthusiasm as Mike Tyson. Iron Mike gave credible voice to the expression bad intentions" and, from 1985 until 2005, he scared the pants off 50 lesser mortals until he began to rust and they started beating him up.

Yet, on his return to the ring at 54 in the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday night, the man who once threatened to ram an opponent's nose bone into his brain and said he would eat Lennox Lewis's babies (he didn't), is being asked to collude with fellow 50-plus retired pugilist Roy Jones Jr in the biggest public love-in California has seen since hippies hugged in Haight-Ashbury in the 60s.