Lewis fired up for Rahman

By Paul Upham: Former undisputed champion Lennox Lewis is primed and ready for his rematch with WBC, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman on November 17 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The match will go a long way in determining the manner in which both boxers will be remembered by history.

Lewis, 38-2-1 (29), will be looking to prove that his fifth round knockout loss to Rahman last April in South Africa was just an aberration while “The Rock” is equally determined to show the world that he is not another one fight wonder like James “Buster” Douglas.

“For me I realise that I can’t walk in the ring without getting wet. These things happen,” said Lewis.

“Other fighters have gone through it in history where something has happened, they have been knocked down and the fight has been stopped and they have come back and recovered their title. This is just one of those fights. I think with this fight we are just looking at putting a bit more intensity, more focus and hopefully everything will come out the way we want it to.”

There was great speculation that Lewis overlooked Rahman as a threat in April and did not train as hard as he had for other fights, even participating in the filming of a movie in Las Vegas immediately prior to flying to South Africa.

Lewis’ legendary trainer Emanuel Steward refutes any suggestion that his boxer was under prepared and puts the loss down to one good punch from Rahman.

“Lennox trained extremely well for the first fight. I think the biggest difference with this fight will be a lot more intensity and focus,” said Steward. “Lennox is the more talented fighter and I think with more focus and intensity he will have a great victory.

“I have looked at the fight and even spoken to Rahman himself and he told me, he’s a little different now that he turned out to be a great speaker, that the exact same round that Lennox lost was the round where he was about to quit himself. If you look at the tape, it will pretty much point that out.

“His eye was bleeding, at one point he looked over to the referee to kind of stop, he was in the ropes and he almost started to walk back to his own corner even. Just out of pride and to put on out on a good show so he won’t be criticised as bad as Tua was and just everything happened just right. He threw a perfect punch, Lennox bouncing off the ropes, the perfect time and the perfect angle.”

Steward went as far as saying that, in his opinion, Lewis was winning the fight comfortably on points. “Lennox, had pretty much without exerting much effort, had control over the fight out there. I was not worried about a decision by any means,” he said.

Lewis refutes any suggestion that he was “brutally” knocked out, putting his loss down to a fast count from the referee. “No, I didn’t get knocked out brutally in the last fight,” said Lewis.

“What happened was that I got knocked down and I was getting to my feet and the referee did stop it. This fight is going to be more intent, more focus for me. This is why I feel I am going to win this next fight.”

After losing his titles in the ring, one of the few highlights of the trip to South Africa for Lewis was the opportunity to met and spend time with former South African President Nelson Mandela.

“I admire him because, even after the loss with Hasim Rahman, he said to me that he has been watching boxing for years, and he has been in the game for such a long time and these are the things that happen. I can definitely come back and beat Rahman. Just be more focused and make sure I don’t get caught by that punch again,” said Lewis.

“He was very forthgiving to me and made me feel a lot better, especially coming off after that loss. Even speaking with him and talking to him about his life really makes me respect the man and admire the man tremendously.”

Despite weighing in at his career high of 253.5 lbs. in April, Lewis has not been weighing himself during training camp, rather working on his fitness and adhering to the principles that worked so successfully in his two world title reigns.

“I’ve been training pretty hard and I believe that my weight should come down a couple of pounds and I should be fully prepared for this fight,” said Lewis. “Just concentrating on the little things around the edges that definitely need sharpening.”

The movie “Oceans 11”, which was pointed to as a major distraction in Lewis’ pre-fight preparation in April has not been released as yet and, after portraying the heavyweight champion in the film, he is definitely planning on correcting history before its release.

“I’ve seen the previews in it and it looks pretty good,” said Lewis, who would not blame his movie role for his loss. “When you look back in retrospect there is a lot of things I could have done and that was one of them.”

The press tour for this fight in August included the now infamous scuffle between Lewis and Rahman in the ESPN studios where there was great speculation as to whether it was genuine and who had the upper hand. According to Lewis, all it did was make him mad.

“For me it was just the tone and the manner he was going on with. I wouldn’t say it really got to me that much until I he kind of pushed me into that table and it collapsed. That’s when I was really upset. That’s what really got me upset and caused me to get angry and start chasing him around,” said Lewis.

“I’m a warrior in that sense. I’ll fight right now anytime. I was ready to fight, get the money at that ESPN thing. When it comes to the promoters they want people to pay for it, so I realise I have to store it up and save it for the fight and do my damage in the ring.”

Never before has Lewis gone into a fight with so much anger for his opponent, though he believes that he may have felt a similar way if a fight with former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe had ever taken place in the 1990s.

“One of the fights would have been the ultimate fight with Riddick Bowe. Riddick Bowe always seemed to call me names when there were a hundred people to protect him and to stop us from getting to each other,” said Lewis.

“I have always said ‘Chicken Bowe’, definitely knock some of the stuffing him, but I didn’t get a chance to because Riddick Bowe went and joined the army instead. I figured that would have probably been the only fight that I would have been self-motivated and there would be a vendetta to definitely go in there and sort out.”

As for Rahman, Lewis cannot understand why he has continually tried to brag about using him as a stepping stone to more money. “He’s a freshman in the game. I’ve been in this game a long time. He’s coming in saying that it’s because of me that he is able to buy his mother a house, he is able to buy this gold chain,” said Lewis.

“I’ve been making money long before he’s even been around. I don’t even know what he is talking about. If he wants to talk about who’s made the most money, I’ve definitely made more money than him and have more money than him.”

Trainer Steward points to the vast experience of Lewis as the key to the fight and feels that if “The Rock” truly believed he could win, he would never have gone to court to avoid the fight.

“Rahman tried to get out of the fight, but was forced by the judge to go back into this fight and that, to me, showed if he was that confident of beating Lennox that easy he would not have gone through all the fighting he did in the court system to avoid fighting Lennox,” said Steward.

“I think when history is done Lennox will still be very much respected because of what he did - if he wins this fight impressively and defeated the two men he lost to and fought all challengers of his era who would fight him.”

Lewis, who represented Canada at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, but holds a British passport, sees himself not as Canadian or British, but simply a champion of the world.

“I see myself as a world champion representing the whole world. I’ve got a unique background where I have friends all over the world and that’s how I see it,” he said.

Lewis has always had an intimidating presence in the ring, backed up by a magnificent physique and impressive boxing skills and, at 36 years of age, is as dangerous as ever.

At his best, it is difficult to see Lewis losing to Rahman, but the unknown factor here is not what physical damage the knockout right hand from Rahman did, but more of the lasting mental effect, if any.

“Definitely, I would love to knock him out. But I remember the last fight that is what I was trying to do and I’m not going to get caught up in trying to knock him out. I’m going to wait until the opportunity presents itself and take advantage of it,” said Lewis.

“I definitely believe that I have learned from my mistake. In that fight you could tell that I was a bit lackadaisical when that punch came by and he was able to catch me with a great punch. I don’t believe that will happen again.”


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor