The words of Julius Francis were brave but, as he came face to face with Mike Tyson for the first time only two days before they were due to meet in the hugely-hyped heavyweight contest in Manchester, he chose to hide his emotions from the watching cameras.

He spoke of a certainty that he would win, but his body language screamed anxiety. While reporters hung on Tyson's every word at a press conference in the centre of the 21,000-seat MEN Arena, Francis sat on the other side of the promoter Frank Warren with his eyes hidden by dark glasses.

While question after question was directed at the former world champion, Francis fielded only one. He has been brought to Manchester as the fall guy; a nice man who it is hard not to like, but here was evidence, if it were needed, that this is the Tyson show and few give the British champion an earthly chance.

"I'm gonna win, because that is what I believe. I've trained hard and I've worked hard." Francis spoke the words any fighter should utter in public, but they were without menace. "I have watched Mike . . . er, Mr Tyson throughout his career. He's had a great career and I give him respect for that, but this is my time. It's all about Julius Francis."

"Respect is more powerful than love," Tyson would tell the eager quote-hunters 15 minutes later. By then, Francis was forgotten by a disrespectful media and left to chuckle nervously at the asides of his manager Frank Maloney as Tyson explored the dark cocktail of emotions which makes him so fascinating to so many.

"I am an animal in the ring," said Tyson. "I don't know how he feels about that, but I am who I am."

Nobody asked Francis for his reaction. With Tyson saying he had been "wrongly convicted" of rape and adding, "I'm just here to fight, and I don't care what you think really," Francis was not creating the headlines.

The two men stared eyeball to sunshades for the benefit of the cameras, as Tyson's cheerleader Steve "Crocodile" Fitch promised impending mayhem. Frank Warren looked like he had struck oil in his back garden.

Behind a stage curtain, away from the analytical stares and, perhaps more than anything, distanced from Tyson, Francis was a different man. His four-week stay at the army camp in Aldershot meant the Tyson publicity circus was kept away. Now the reality of the situation must have smacked him in the face like a left hook.

"I don't feel intimidated. I believe Mike Tyson was, and is, a great fighter, but I am not prepared to be intimidated," he said, although he was clearly struggling with self-doubt.

By his own admission Francis found a hostile atmosphere too much to handle when he fought the huge Vitali Klitschko two years ago in Germany and sought the safe refuge of the ring canvas to be counted out in only two rounds when he might have fought on.

With such doubts over his ring pedigree, yesterday's fighting words had a hollow ring.