APPEARING today: the most frightening man on the planet, the man who makes Mike Tyson look like a little lispy kitten. He's bald, he's 6ft 3in, he weighs 290lb, was 15lb when he was born and has a face which suggests that he has ways of making you talk.

Meet Alexander Karelin, 28 years old from Novosibirsk, a grimy Siberian industrial town 1,750 miles from Moscow. Karelin's most famous quote came several years ago.

"I do not like to appear immodest," he told Sports Illustrated "but I see fear in the eyes of most of my opponents."

The weapon which strikes fear into those opponents is his trademark reverse body lift, a patented move which involves the victim being tossed high in the air to a landing on the back or the neck. Several opponents have submitted on the spot when they have felt themselves in the maw of the reverse body lift.

The technique involved in this manoeuvre is phenomenal. Try throwing a 2801b man into the air above your head if you have any doubts.

If you are a 280lb man and should meet Karelin on a wrestling mat the rules are the same as for first dates. Don't let his hands wander down below your waist, he's only after one thing. He wants to move to your side, wedge an arm under your gut and lock his hands standing up then with you helpless in his hands. Often at this juncture he will smile to the slavering crowd. Then, in one motion, he will stand on his toes arch his back and begin heaving you high over his head. It is best to stop struggling at this point and position yourself to protect your neck on the way down.

Sadly as you cartwheel above him, spinning anti clockwise, your ordeal isn't quite finished. Still gripping you he positions himself to make sure you land on your back or shoulders. Just before you hit the ground, upside down, he will tuck you back under his body making sure he lands on top of you.

The closest Karelin has come to defeat in the past nine years was in 1993 when American Matt Ghaffari took him through a five minute match and into three minutes of overtime before losing. It should be pointed out that Karelin had a broken rib at the time.

Karelin has won every World and Olympic super heavyweight Greco Roman wrestling title since 1988 and hasn't lost an international bout since 1987. He won the 1988 Olympic gold dramatically. Trailing 3-0 with 30 seconds left he pulled off a dramatic, you guessed it, reverse body lift to win. Defeated finalist Rangel Gerovski of Bulgaria had the consolation of knowing that the lateness of the reverse lift made him the only Olympian to last the full six minutes with Karelin.

Off the wrestling mat, Karelin abandons his savage ferocity, enjoying opera, literature and playing with kids. Need a babysitter?