LONDON – Don’t let Lennox Lewis’ bravado fool you.
He seeks, craves and needs to whip Mike Tyson to galvanize, solidify and legitimize his so-called supremacy as merely one of the better heavyweight champions of his time.
Of course, he turns his native British nose up at the mere suggestion, because, as he’ll keep reminding you, “I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, so everyone must come to me.”
But the fact is, Lewis needs Tyson and he’s gone as far in recent days leading up to his jog-around-the-Thames warmup bludgeoning of Frans Botha Saturday night at the London Arena as threatening to retire if Tyson doesn’t step into the ring with him.
Lewis knows Tyson is the last remaining fight that means anything to his career, and he knows a win over Tyson would perhaps finally allow the boxing public to offer him the respect he believes he deserves.
Lewis’ career has been caught somewhat in the middle of no-man’s land, with no truly great, memorable accomplishments despite a sterling record that deserves some recognition.
He and Tyson never got it on while Tyson was in his intimidating peak – and they still haven’t met in the ring.
He never got to fight Riddick Bowe as a pro (he beat Bowe in the 1988 Olympics), though he badly wanted him and still regrets never making that happen.
And by the time he got to Evander Holyfield, whom he fought to a draw once (a controversial decison that Lewis deserved) and defeated him once, many considered Holyfield past his prime.
Take those Holyfield bouts away and here’s a partial list of some of Lewis’ 37 victims: Shannon Briggs, who’s closer to a TV career than he is a legit boxer, Henry Akinwande, who was disqualified in the fifth round in ’97, Oliver McCall, who beat him in ’94 (Lewis’ only loss) and then had a psychological breakdown in the ring in their rematch in ’97, Tommy Morrison, a fabricated “white hope” heavyweight, and Frank Bruno, who in Lewis’ words “froze like a statue” against Tyson.
Those are the so-called big names Lewis has beaten. Some of his other opponents have included the likes of these household names: Justin Fortune, Phil Jackson (not the Lakers’ coach), Levi Billups, Mike Dixon and Lionel “The Train” Butler.
Granted, to a degree, a boxer can only fight those opponents put in front of him, but because Lewis’ resume is so soft in terms of true threats in the ring, he’ll never receive the reverance he so desperately wants.
For example, much of the boxing public perceives Holyfield as a much greater heavyweight champion than Lewis. Why? Because Holyfield entered the ring against the beast of Tyson and came out a winner – twice.
A win over Tyson, even in his seemingly crazed psychological state, will help win Lewis some of that respect he craves.
Will that fight ever come off? Bet on it. There’s too much money to be made on the part of all involved parties. Lewis’ promoter, Panos Eliades, said after Saturday’s bout that he’s offered Tyson $25 million and a $5 million bonus to make the fight happen. That, of course, means Lewis would earn even more than that.
The bottom line is this: This is the only fight the boxing public will pay big pay-per-view money to see. The HBO (representing Lewis) and Showtime (representing Tyson) suits in the game see that and they’ll find a way to put it together – likely sometime within the next year or so – providing Tyson doesn’t get himself hurt or back into jail before that.
Lewis’ problem is this: Tyson is a much more compelling figure than he is, though certainly for many of the wrong reasons. A Lewis fight against one of the inferior challengers in the division is a difficult sell. A Lewis-Tyson fight is possibly the largest big-money draw in the history of the sport.
To Lewis’ credit, he fought a flawless bout on Saturday, even though he thoroughly outclassed Botha in talent. Lewis didn’t mess around, methodically sizing up the inferior South African and pounding him into submission while not even sustaining a blow in anger from Botha.
Though the fight was brief, Lewis put on a good show, displaying some significant power in sending Botha airborne through the ropes with his final punch of the fight, a brutal roundhouse right.
“You saw only a glimpse of the Lennox Lewis I’ve known for the last five years,” Emanuel Steward, Lewis’ capable trainer, said after the fight. “There is still a lot more to Lennox Lewis the world hasn’t yet seen.
“I would give him an A-plus for this fight,” Steward went on. “He couldn’t have been better. He kept Botha in a zone where he was totally ineffective. Botha could never figure out what [Lewis] was going to do.”
Indeed, Lewis spent most of the first round-plus stalking Botha, feigning attacks at him to see how he’d react. Meanwhile, Botha, with some 10 inches less reach, seemed afraid to make a move on Lewis and spent most of his time flinching at Lewis’ fake attacks and moving away from the champion.
“There’s still a lot more the public hasn’t seen of Lennox Lewis,” Lewis said.
All that matters to Lewis and anyone who observes him and his career is Tyson. Anything else, such as Saturday night’s fight, is a meaningless money-making diversion doing little to nothing to further Lewis career.
In fact, if we were reminded of one thing from Lewis-Botha Saturday, it’s just how thin the talent pool is in the heavyweight division, which is exactly what has kept Lewis from attaining that label of greatness he believes he deserves.
