According to the British boxing promoter Frank Warren, when Mike Tyson fought fellow American Lou Savarese at Glasgow's Hampden Park 13 years ago the former world heavyweight champion was, if you'll pardon the expression, "strutting around like a dog with two dicks".

Well, now we know why. Tyson claims in his new autobiography that he fooled the UK drugs testers by utilising what he calls his "whizzer" - a false penis filled with someone else's clean urine.

Tyson's story that he slipped it into his shorts before the post-fight test - a ruse he says he employed several times during his 21-year, 58-fight career - following his 38-second demolition of Savarese - will be of acute embarrassment to the testers.

It seems it was him and not them taking the pee.

No doubt the last thing Sir Craig Reedie, who took over as sport's anti-drugs czar last week, anticipated having to get to grips with Iron Mike's prosthetic penis.

Mike Tyson claims that he wore a false penis filled with someone else's clean urine to trick the drug testers during his career, including when he fought Lou Savarese ©Getty Images Europe


But the revelation will be of as serious concern to the freshly-elected President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as any current issues over the Jamaican, Kenyan and Russian testing systems, or the fall-out of the Lance Armstrong scandal which now includes Armstrong's own allegation that international cycling chiefs actually helped him cheat.

For how the druggies avoid being detected is very much on the agenda of the 72-year-old Scot who, allied to his vice-presidency of the International Olympic Association (IOC), is now the most influential figure in global sport, and one with surely the most crucial job.

For Tyson's alleged ruse is certainly not unique.

There are many instances where female athletes have been known to insert "clean" catheters before being tested, a favoured method in the dark days of Eastern bloc domination of women's athletics.

The use of masking agents and renal blocking agents - which do not secrete certain banned substances - still can be reasonably effective methods of avoiding detection.

Less sophisticated and supposedly more fallible a few years back was the consumption red wine before a test.

So too, I am reliably informed, was the ingestion of huge doses of oestrogen - also a masking agent - by some female athletes who persuaded friendly medics to prescribe it for alleged menstrual problems.

Until the whistle was blown, Lance Armstrong was sport's supreme cheat ©Getty Images


Of course, until the whistle was blown, Armstrong was sport's supreme cheat, skilfully avoiding doping controls. Those efforts included providing inadequate whereabouts information and dropping out of races to dodge testers.

The Bulgarians also had it down to a fine art. We now know that their weightlifting team would fast for two to three days before a competition.

Fasting, according to the experts "lowers the amplitude and pulsatility of luteinising hormone, thus, lowering the endogenous production of testosterone".

In addition, fasting also causes an increase in the excretion of steroids.

As a result, their urine samples would show lower levels of testosterone and other steroids because by the time they were tested, they virtually excreted most of the evidence away.

This trick was not the only one for which the Bulgarians were infamous.

Combating the tricks of the trade is a crucial aspect of the battle ahead for new WADA President Sir Craig Reedie ©AFP/Getty Images




They would use the diuretics to urinate out lots of fluid. By ingesting an abundance of water, the diuretics would just accelerate the clearance of steroids or other banned substances from the blood.

As for the Tyson technique, the chances of anyone getting away with such deception these days have diminished as much more intimate scrutiny of the genitals by testers is required while water is passed. Plus the advent of blood testing, which is far more difficult to fake.

But there will always be those who will try.

Combating such tricks of the trade - and they get dirtier by the day - is a crucial aspect of the battle ahead for WADA's new warlord. I suspect it is one Sir Craig will relish.

The retired financial adviser from Glasgow, who says he sees this as "my last big job in sport", is a man of quiet demeanour but, as he demonstrated as a principal architect of London's triumphant 2012 Olympic bid and leader of the IOC's 2020 Evaluation Commission, one whose diligence, integrity and masterfully diplomatic networking, commands worldwide respect.

He will require all those qualities as he leads the quest to counter what he describes as "the biggest current threat to the validity of Olympic sport".

Former British Olympic Association (BOA) chair Sir Craig, a founder director of WADA and latterly its treasurer, and a driving force behind the formation of UK Anti-Doping, was instrumental in drawing up the controversial BOA bylaw that prevented convicted dopers representing Britain at future Olympics, regrettably ultimately overturned.

So it was surely personally satisfying that in Johannesburg last Friday, when he assumed office, WADA finally endorsed four-year bans for first-time offenders, effectively forcing them to miss a Games.

Mike Tyson reveals all in his new book, Undisputed Truth ©WireImage




If he so wished, Reedie might have the opportunity for an admonitory tête-à-tête with Tyson when the self-styled one-time "baddest man on the planet" (or should that be maddest?) comes to Britain next year with his one-man stand-up show.

Though knowing ear-munching Tyson's propensity for blowing a fuse in the ring and out, one doubts the wisdom of any such confrontation.

What isn't in doubt is Tyson's reliance on drugs, so graphically disclosed in a new tell-all tome. He admits he spent a significant stretch of his turbulent career addicted to cocaine and marijuana.

He says his ferocious appetite for drink and drugs - "I was a full-blown cokehead" - dated back to trying cocaine at the age of 11 and first being given alcohol as a baby in New York.

Recalling his shock 2004 loss to Britain's Danny Williams, he revealed he was taking drugs until shortly before the fight.

He blamed a $200,000 (£124,000/€148,000) fine for testing positive for marijuana after a 2000 fight against Andrew Golota in Detroit on the fact that he was tested before having a chance to get the "whizzer" from an unnamed member of his team, whom he claims carried the device from fight to fight, including the one in Glasgow.

Frank Warren has said he is now considering legal action against Mike Tyson over his alleged use of a prosthetic penis ©Getty Images


Warren, who promoted the fight, told insidethegames he is now considering legal action against Tyson because if true, the fighter would have been "in serious breach" of contract.

Warren's in-house lawyers will also be scrutinising the explosive £20 ($32/€24), 600-page book titled "Undisputed Truth" when published here this week, some of which may be destined to become pulp fiction.

Warren's legal team have warned publishers HarperCollins that certain allegations made against the promoter "are untrue and defamatory" and demand their removal.

Warren also says he isn't sure whether to believe the false penis story of that Glasgow drugs test "which could be one of those things which sells books".

So is the tale of Tyson's "whizzer" wheeze really the Undisputed Truth?

Or just a wee fib?

Sir Craig is one Glaswegian who'd certainly like to know.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.