The faltering and flawed fighting animal that is Mike Tyson will take his first steps towards ring rehabilitation when he makes a formal application to the New Jersey Boxing Commission for the return of his licence today.

It was revoked on July 9th last year for biting Evander Holyfield's earswhen they met in Las Vegas to dispute Holyfield's World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation heavyweight titles.

His suspension was for a minimum of 12 months. While many felt Tyson should have been excluded for good, it was never going to be the case. Boxing's morals generally extend only as far as the next financial fix, and the Tyson money-drug remains the biggest shot of all.

Now 32 and alienated from Don King, his former promoter whom he is suing for lost earnings of £60 million, Tyson is being advised by a former music promoter, Shelley Finkel. Surrounded by a battery of lawyers, and those who continue to profit from his career, the high-pitched, lisping voice of Tyson will seek to persuade the commission, meeting in Trenton, that he is fit to resume and that his punishment has been sufficient.

Tyson will probably not receive an instant thumbs-up to carry on but the commission, despite a front of moral rectitude, will already have its mind made up.

Tyson was banned in Las Vegas by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and the suspicion among his advisers is that that body would resist relicensing the former champion until 1999, scuppering plans for a fight in November. Enter Nen Jersey with the guaranteed support of Donald Trump's millions from Atlantic City.

It seems there is nothing Nevada can do to stop New Jersey relicensing him. Without the Tyson factor heavyweight boxing has stagnated. The World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis, good guy though he is, lacks genuine drawing power. Similarly, Holyfield needs Tyson to prosper.

Las Vegas has staged only one heavyweight title fight since Tyson was banned. That was Holyfield's successful defence against Michael Moorer and it lost millions.

What will Tyson do next? He remains headline news and, while Lewis and Holyfield contrive to avoid each other, the unpalatable fact is that the former champion is the only major pay-per-view attraction in the heavyweight division.

So Tyson will get his licence back, in due course. He will fulfil a television date in November and the public will be invited to buy into his myth once more.

The bottom line is that the whole escapade is a marketing con. As Tyson's former trainer Teddy Atlas once said: "Mike is no more now than a game loser. He knows it and the boxing world knows it."

Iron Mike just has to trust that his new management will keep the real fighters well away.

Unbeaten World Boxing Association featherweight champion Freddie Norwood of the United States will fight Koji Matsumoto of Japan in Tokyo on September 22nd.

Norwood (28), beat Colombia's Luis Mendoza by unanimous decision in Miami earlier this month in his second defence of the title he wrested from Venezuelan Antonio Cermeno in April.

"Norwood is so small for a featherweight. Since his body is different from mine, I will clash with him without any restraint and overcome him mentally as well," said Matsumoto, who is also 28.

The 12th WBA contender said he had seen Norwood's first title defence in Atlantic City in June, when he stopped Genaro Rios.