When Mike Tyson returns to the ring on Friday night, his opponent will be a sacrificial lamb named Danny Williams.

Williams is a former British heavyweight champion with a record of 33 wins, 3 losses, and 26 KOs against mediocre opposition. Tyson (50-4, 43 KOs) will be fighting for the first time since a 49-second knockout of Clifford Etienne on February 22, 2003.

By all accounts, Williams is a lovely man. He has a baby daughter who will be two months old on fight night. And he misses her enormously, having left England to train in Huntington Bay, Long Island, for this fight.

At a press conference last week, Williams detailed the reasons why he thinks he can win.

REASON #1: “Tyson is taking me lightly.”

There is good reason for that. Williams has never beaten a world class fighter. In fact, Williams has never fought a world-class fighter.

REASON #2: “I have an excellent jab and I can punch.”

But in truth, Williams’s power is suspect. He has gone the distance with fighters like James Wilder and John Pierre, who had a combined record of 6 wins, 61 losses, and 4 draws at the time he fought them.

REASON #3: “I’ve been sparring with Sherman Williams, who throws vicious body punches.”

Now we’re getting delusional. In his last 13 fights, Sherman Williams has knocked out one opponent, a 6-19-1 fighter named Miguel Otero. Danny Williams will find out what “vicious body punches” are when he fights Tyson.

REASON #4: “Tyson is ready for the taking. He’ll be rusty because he has been out of the ring for seventeen months, and he’s not the fighter he used to be.”

True. But Danny Williams isn’t the opponent to take advantage of Tyson’s deterioration as a fighter. In fact, in his most recent fight – a victory over someone named Augustin N’Gou on May 13th of this year – Williams weighed in at a blubbery 264 pounds.

The reality of the situation is that Williams has been chosen as an opponent for Mike Tyson because of the belief that he’ll freeze and go quietly to slaughter. He himself acknowledges “I was chosen as Tyson’s opponent because I’ve got a good [won-loss] record; I’m big, so I look the part; and they think I’ll be easy to knock out.”

Moreover, Williams is known as a gym fighter. That is, he performs well in training, but falls apart when it counts most. Thus, Tyson’s trainer, Freddie Roach, observes, “Williams is a big strong guy, but he doesn’t seem like he’s the bravest guy in the world.”

And Williams acknowledges, “In the gym, there’s a relaxed atmosphere because there’s nothing to lose, but there’s a lot of pressure in real fights. I used to get so nervous [before a fight] that I would hardly be able to eat, or sometimes I’d burst into tears because of the pressure. Once, I was at a traffic light and I couldn’t stop the tears and had to pretend something was in my eye as people walked past. Oh, man, it was embarrassing.”

Last week, Williams was asked, “Which fight on your record would you point to as proof that you should be taken seriously as an opponent for Tyson?” He answered, “It’s very difficult to pick out one fight because I’ve never boxed at the class I’m going into now. But I showed glimpses of my heart in my fight with Mark Potter and threw some good combinations when I knocked out Shawn Robinson.”

Unfortunately, Robinson, who Williams knocked out on December 15, 2001, has one win his last 13 fights. In those 13 fights, he has been knocked out nine times.

That leaves us with Potter, who is a marginal British heavyweight. He and Williams fought on October 21, 2000. In round two of that bout, Williams’s right arm popped out of its socket.

British journalist Anthony Evans recounts, “Many ringsiders begged Williams to quit. But despite the searing pain, he began working his jab. By round six, Williams’s shoulder was grossly contorted and he was unable to lift his right glove much above waist height. Potter was coming forward relentlessly until a left-hand smash left him semiconscious on the canvas.

Within seconds of the bout’s unforgettable conclusion, the victorious Williams was screaming in agony as paramedics taped his arm to his side.”

Hope springs eternal in boxing.

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LAST WEEKEND’S RESULTS: Arturo Gatti successfully defended his World Boxing Council 140-pound title with a one-punch knockout over Leonard Dorin. A left-hook to the liver did Dorin in at 2:55 of the second round.

In the opening bout, 38-year-old Jesse James Leija showed his mettle by climbing off the canvas after a second-round knockdown, dominating the middle rounds, and pounding out a split decision over 21-year-old Francisco Bojado.

Bojado was faster and hit harder, but Leija was tougher and showed more heart. Two of the judges scored the fight 96-93 and 95-94 for Leija. The third judge had it 95-94 for Bojado.