Mayor Rob Ford has found himself a new spokesman for his “nobody’s perfect” redemption narrative: former boxing champion Mike Tyson.

Tyson, who has been convicted of rape and other crimes, met with Ford for more than 40minutes in the mayor’s city hall office on Tuesday afternoon. When they emerged, Tyson offered a full-throated defence of a man he called “the best mayor in Toronto’s history.”

Ford returned the favour — praising, defending and likening himself to an eccentric fighter with a face tattoo who famously bit off part of an opponent’s ear.

“We’re cut from the same cloth,” Ford said. “There’s no nonsense. I respect him.”

When a reporter asked about Tyson’s past, Ford returned to his familiar refrain: “And you guys are perfect?” He said he has “idolized” Tyson since he was a teenager.

The bizarre hallway spectacle, which attracted both Ford supporters and Tyson fans, took place during a mayoral election campaign in which Ford’s rivals have accused him of turning city hall into a “circus” and spending more time acting like a “celebrity” than leading the city.

Five participants in the Rob Ford Must Go sit-in outside the mayor’s office pointedly turned their backs on the journalists who waited for Tyson’s arrival. They expressed displeasure with both the coverage and the Ford-Tyson summit itself.

Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and assault in 1998. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to cocaine possession and driving under the influence. His ex-wife, Robin Givens, has accused him of domestic violence; he has not been convicted.

“We’re welcoming a rapist and a wife-beater to city hall with open arms, and he’s banned in the U.K. for those charges. It’s just not acceptable to me,” said protester Carmen Celestini.

Ford was asked earlier in the day whether he has any qualms about meeting with someone who has been convicted of rape. He said: “I’m not going to comment on his personal life.”

Many of Tyson’s remarks echoed Ford’s own talking points of past and present. Tyson said “we all make mistakes,” that Ford has “overcome adversity,” and that Ford has a troubled past only because he has been under “24-hour surveillance” by the media.

“He’s a human being,” Tyson told a reporter. “We have no idea what you do behind closed doors, what your habits are.”

Tyson said he doesn’t know “anything” about Ford’s history of racial slurs. He joked about the violent caught-on-video Ford tirade in which Tyson’s name is mentioned by someone off camera as Ford threatens to kill an unnamed adversary.

Tyson is in town to perform his one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night. According to Ford, Tyson requested the 2 p.m. meeting.

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“I’ve just never met the man before, and interested in seeing what he has to say,” Ford said.

Ford has met at city hall with comedian Dave Chappelle, Toronto rapper Snow, banned-for-life former sprinter Ben Johnson, and Trailer Park Boys actor Sam Tarasco, who hosts a marijuana-smoking show. He also used the Johnson meeting to promote his message of second chances.