I Want to Be Snooker's Mike Tyson, Says O'sullivan

Ronnie O'Sullivan declared that he wanted to be discussed "like boxing fans talk about Mike Tyson" in the aftermath of his 10-2 trouncing of Stephen Maguire in the final of the UK Championship.

Ruminating on his ultimate place in snooker's pantheon the 32-year-old said: "I've not got long. It's too early to retire but I want to go out winning one of the big tournaments.

"I want people to talk about me like boxing fans talk about Mike Tyson. For all his faults, whenever he was in the ring he brought excitement and that's as important to me as records. Tyson was explosive, on the edge and with an edge."

But O'Sullivan admitted that matching the records of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry "will be very difficult now". With four UK titles he is within range of Davis's record six, but two world titles probably leaves him too much to do to emulate Hendry's seven. Moreover, three Masters is only halfway towards Hendry's six.

Continuing the boxing theme O'Sullivan likened Lennox Lewis to John Higgins, a model of textbook orthodoxy, who traveled extensively through continental Europe with his manager, Pat Mooney, last summer and found himself signing autographs on the streets of Moscow.

Largely through Eurosport's television coverage, continental Europe has become such a growth area that Higgins and Mooney are setting up a linked series of events next summer with dates already confirmed in Poland, Russia and Jersey, and Germany or Holland to host a fourth.

However, Higgins has reported a recent conversation with Sir Rodney Walker in which the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman said that smaller events featuring top players would not encourage the association to set up more world-ranking events than the existing seven.