Mike Tyson is being sued for £1.25 million by a former opponent who claims that the former champion broke an agreement for a rematch.

Orlin Norris, who was punched after the bell by Tyson during a fight in Las Vegas in October, has asked the US State Supreme Court in Manhattan to require the Showtime cable and satellite television station to withhold $2 million of Tyson's purse from his fight with the British champion Julius Francis at the MEN Arena on Saturday.

Judd Burstein, Norris's lawyer, says his fighter was promised $2 million for a rematch with Tyson. He said Norris's lawsuit is a reply to claims by Tyson's camp that there was never a rematch agreement.

Norris says in court papers that he was offered a deal by Tyson's manager, Shelly Finkel, when the Las Vegas fight was declared "no contest" after Norris injured a knee in going down to a Tyson blow delivered after the bell.

Norris claims he was promised that he would be Tyson's next opponent in exchange for a statement that the blow was "accidental".

Finkel is said to have asked Norris to make the claim because he was "desperately concerned that the flagrant foul committed by Tyson would lead to another suspension" by Nevada officials.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission had suspended Tyson two years earlier and fined him $3 million for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during their title bout in Las Vegas in 1997.

Burstein said that he has at least four witnesses who heard Finkel propose the agreement. At first Norris refused to make the statement, Burstein said, but eventually he was persuaded.

Six days later the commission decided not to punish Tyson for the late hit on Norris - delivered after the bell had rung five times - and voted 4-0 to release his $8.7 million purse.

Tyson's lawyer, Jim Jimmerson, said he filed papers on Friday in Las Vegas, asking the court to declare that no oral agreement exists between Norris and Tyson.

"My client wants to be free to fight whomever he chooses," said Jimmerson. "It's not so much that he doesn't want to fight Norris. He just doesn't want to be bound by some non-existent agreement."

Yesterday Tyson held his first open training session in his makeshift Grosvenor House Hotel gym then admitted: "I am a little nervous of the people here but I feel good."

Tyson intimated once again that he would like another fight in England when he briefly spoke to the press after the session.

"I want to have another fight over here after this one," he said. "As long as no political movements don't want me here, I'd like to fight here again."