Lewis Brands Tyson an 'imbecile'

Lennox Lewis has stoked up the war of words with Mike Tyson ahead of their June 8 heavyweight title fight by calling him "ignorant, arrogant and an imbecile".

The comments came after Tyson said during an interview at his training camp in Hawaii last week that his main objective in the bout was to be "professional - but to kill Lewis".

Lewis said he had not paid much attention to Tyson's remarks.

"Some of the things he's been saying make him sound like a cartoon character to me," he said. "When he was incarcerated he said he was reading books - but it seems to me he must have been reading comic books.

"I don't think he's off his head, he's maybe looking for an excuse to not even fight me."

Lewis said the only thing he was afraid of in life was losing - but that helped drive him on. He also jokingly referred to the high-profile brawl between the two men in New York in January when Lewis claimed Tyson had bitten him on the thigh.

"I'm the top of the food chain - but hopefully he's not going to get a bite out of me again," he said.