YOU can bet your bottom dollars there will be one person not paying to view the big fight 'spectacle' in Las Vegas on Sunday.

The big TV networks may be holding the world's viewing audience to ransom.

And while most will be making a token gesture in ignoring the package offered by Sky Sports, many will still find the lure of the contest too great to resist.

Make no mistake about it, in a couple of years time the vast majority will not shirk from forking out to watch our favourite domestic football teams, never mind other top sporting events.

Desiree Washington, however, will never view Mike Tyson's brutal exertions as sport.

It was her rape ordeal which resulted in Tyson's three-year spell behind bars.

So she will not join the whooping and hollering Yanks as Bruno becomes the latest sacrificial lamb to the slaughter.

In her eyes, and mine, the fight will only serve to highlight the very thin dividing line between this particular sport and the wrong side of the law. Tyson has served his punishment and has every right to pursue any personal goals he wishes.

But to achieve those goals with the murderous intentions every boxer must have when he enters the ring is hardly the most laudable path to grace.

And 'murderous' is not too strong a word.

Threats to kill are often banded about between fighters in the build-up.

Every punch thrown is loaded with the desire to stun the opponent, causing temporary brain damage which can often become tragically more permanent.

And I will never pay to view athletes involved in such a perverse pursuit.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.