Rooney was the protege and spiritual heir of Cus D'Amato, Tyson's original mentor and guru, and he inherited D'Amato's philosophy and methods. He knew his man inside out, and without his hand on the tiller, Tyson has floundered.His decision to be "trained" for his comeback by friends from his ghetto days showed commendable personal loyalty, but in professional terms was rather like Martin Edwards sacking Alex Ferguson in order to replace him with an old school pal to whom he owed a favour. When the incompetence of the corner crew was revealed so starkly in the Holyfield fight, Tyson's promoter, Don King, insisted that Richie Giachetti be put in charge of the camp. It was not the first time they had worked together: Giachetti had been part of the team in 1991 and his name came up in a conversation I had that summer with Tyson's estranged co-manager Bill Cayton.Cayton was scathing about him. "Can you imagine a more stupid choice for King to inflict on Tyson that Giachetti?" he asked "Giachetti ridiculed Cus's teaching. They had confrontations in the newspapers where they called each other terrible names.

Cus said Giachetti should not be allowed to be a trainer, even though he had Larry Holmes at the time."Of all the trainers in the world, King picked the one who detested the man who made Mike Tyson. Five years of teaching and training by Cus D'Amato, whom I regard as the finest teacher and trainer of all time, made Mike Tyson such a great fighter. So who do they put in to get him back to being a great fighter? A guy who thought Cus D'Amato was a phoney. Holyfield could actually beat Tyson, but he wouldn't have a chance against Tyson and Rooney."Despite Tyson's claim that "I'm in great condition and I've never been fitter" the overwhelming consensus in the trade is that he needed the postponement because, for reasons either of discipline or morale, he would not have been ready to face Holyfield on 3 May. Herol Graham, the former world middleweight title challenger who is now in the throes of a comeback himself, spoke for many when he told me: "Everybody has his nightmare opponent, somebody he'll always find difficult to handle even though he is a far better fighter than the other guy. Ali had it with Ken Norton, and I believe Holyfield is Tyson's bogeyman I think Tyson knows that, and has let it get to him His confidence has gone.

Frankly, I think the guy has lost his bottle."It is a chilling measure of Tyson's decline that such an allegation, which would once have been laughed out of court, now sounds all too plausible.. Q. In 1990 Oldham Athletic beat West Ham United 6-0 in the first leg of the semi-final of the then Littlewoods Cup. Has there been a bigger winning margin in the final stages of a national cup competition? A There have been two such 6-0 defeats. In 1903 Bury beat Derby County 6-0 in the FA Cup final played at Crystal Palace, while in 1953 Pegasus, a team of former Oxbridge blues, defeated Harwich and Parkeston 6-0 to win the FA Amateur Cup. In European competition, London were beaten 6-0 by Barcelona in the second leg of the first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final, losing 8-2 on aggregate, while Milan lost 6-0 in the second leg of the European Super Cup in 1973, losing 6-1 on aggregate to Ajax. In 1977, Liverpool defeated Hamburg 6- 0 in the same competition, winning 7-1 overall.Whether any of these teams had any valid excuses, such as injuries, I do not know.