There are times when the business of sports writing changes from a pleasure to a chore, or even worse. This has nothing to do with watching a match from a damp and draughty sideline or a wet and windy golf or racecourse.

It has a lot to do, however, with the ethos which is evoked by the word "sport" when questions are asked as to whether or not the word is an accurate description of what is actually happening. The question comes into stark focus on January 29th in Manchester when two boxers, both convicted of criminal activity, one of the horrendous crime of rape and the other of violent behaviour.

That, in itself, is bad enough but the fact is that the 21,000 tickets for this fight in Manchester were sold out within 48 hours and a total of 40,000 or more could have been sold, if the venue had been big enough, merely adds to the horror. One can only speculate on the reason for such extraordinary interest by the boxing public and why the biggest indoor venue in Europe has attracted a full-house. Most, if not all the speculation, surrounds the appearance of a man called Mike Tyson, a former world heavyweight champion for his first fight in Europe. There was a time when, as a young man, boxing people and others had some sympathy for him, taking into account his deprived childhood and upbringing. Taken into the protective care of a decent man called Cus D'Amato he mended his ways and it seemed that his days as a street fighter were over. The fact that he was devoted to the rearing of pigeons suggested a sentimental and even gentle, streak in his nature as his boxing career flowered and flourished. Sadly D'Amato passed away and Tyson reverted to his old ways. By then deprivation was no longer a valid excuse. He had a lot of money to spend and "friends" with whom to spend it.

He became world champion but never fully managed to live up to the responsibility that went with the title.

Eventually, and the chronicle need not be rehearsed here, he was charged and convicted of rape and served a jail term.

We were then told he was a reformed man and was back on the straight and narrow but we were misled. A number of scrapes with the law were to follow and then came that awful night when he gnawed a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear.

Sadly the people who run the sport shirked their responsibility. They refused to suspend him for life, most likely because they saw in him a number of big paydays. Now British boxing fans and television companies are ready to exploit the opportunity and "big bucks" dictate that he gets a huge pay-day in Manchester against a virtually unknown British heavyweight called Julius Francis. In the week in which Muhammad Ali was named BBC sports personality of the century, it is galling to contemplate that Mike Tyson stands on the threshold of a huge pay-day and the possibility of perceived respectability in the sport of boxing. No one can deny that the sport has an underlying aspect which might not be respectable. Many arguments have been made for it to be banned. However, rather than an unenforceable ban, what has to be done is for the people involved to have a high level of decent behaviour both as a protection for the sport and for their own peace of mind.

When one of the most powerful men in world boxing, Frank Warren, says of the Tyson - Francis fight: "I have never been more excited about a fight than this one", one can only wonder what is going on. Perhaps an explanation is available from a statement by, probably the most powerful figure in international boxing, Don King: "Martin Luther King took us to the top of the mountain. I want to take us to the bank".

That, surely, is the most honest and self-revealing statement that this ogre has ever made. Another man who has served time for violent crime has brought the boxing game into disrepute once again and his reference to Martin Luther King is one of the most grotesque that can be imagined.

Boxing needs more decency, more honesty, more of a return to its raw basics and its nobility as epitomised by men like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. It does not need the Mike Tysons and the Don Kings of this world.

What people like them do is give further fuel to the growing outcries for its abolition. The solution lies with those who have a deep respect for the sport and those who are devoted to it.