Monday, June 23, 2003
Saturday's bout will be the first heavyweight title fight in Los Angeles since 1958.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The last time Lennox Lewis was in the ring for real, he gave Mike Tyson a beating the former champ still hasn't gotten over.
Lewis enjoyed it so much, he wanted to do it again.
Tyson wouldn't bite, though, and Lewis finally had to look elsewhere if he wanted to continue as heavyweight champion at the age of 37. Finally, through a set of circumstances bizarre even by boxing standards, Lewis returns to the ring Saturday night to defend his heavyweight title against Vitali Klitschko.
Inspired
Klitschko is not Tyson, but he's not Kirk Johnson, either. Because of that, Lewis says he's inspired to fight again in a heavyweight division starving for a lack of decent fights.
"I am the last great heavyweight," Lewis said. "I don't see others accomplishing what I have throughout my entire career."
How long that career lasts may depend on how Lewis does against Klitschko, who stepped in two weeks ago to take the fight after Johnson was injured in training.
Klitschko is a big but ungainly puncher and the top-ranked heavyweight in the WBC. He was supposed to fight on the Lewis-Johnson undercard and meet Lewis later this year, but got his chance earlier than expected.
He intends to make the most of it, and suggested Lewis should have ended his career after beating Tyson.
"He decided to fight again," Klitschko said. "In my opinion, this is a mistake."
Oddsmakers don't think so, making Lewis a 4-1 favorite in the scheduled 12-round fight, which is expected to begin about 10:30 p.m. from the Staples Center.
It's the first heavyweight title fight in Los Angeles since Floyd Patterson stopped Roy Harris in the 13th round on Aug. 8, 1958, at the old Wrigley Field.
Good opportunity
Lewis (40-2-1, 31 knockouts) wants to make sure the town remembers this show, too.
"It's a good opportunity to show the world how great I am and how well I can adjust," Lewis said.
Just how excited Lewis is about fighting Klitschko remains to be seen. He weighed in Thursday at 256 1/2 pounds, the heaviest weight of his career and 7 pounds more than he weighed against Tyson last year. The 6-foot-7 Klitschko weighed 248 pounds.
"Klitschko is a big guy," said Lewis, who stands 6-foot-5. "I do well against big guys."
Both Klitschko (32-1, 31 knockouts) and Lewis have had only two weeks to adjust to each other, and both brought in bigger sparring partners to help. Klitschko's brother, Wladimir, filmed a fight scene for the movie "Ocean's Eleven" with Lewis and believes he found some weaknesses during the filming for his brother to expose.
Lewis knocked out the last fighter who was taller than him, stopping Michael Grant in the second round, and plans to take full advantage of Klitschko's unorthodox style.
"He said he has seen some weaknesses in me," Lewis said. "I've seen a whole heap of weaknesses in him."
Goals in mind
For Lewis, the fight is a chance to sharpen his skills while waiting for possible fights with Roy Jones Jr. or even Tyson. Klitschko, meanwhile, has his own heavyweight dreams, along with his brother.
The sons of a Soviet helicopter pilot, Vitali and Wladimir had hopes of becoming heavyweight champions at the same time but those dreams were dealt a blow when Wladimir was knocked out by Corrie Sanders. But Vitali said both he and his younger brother are still destined to achieve their goal.
"I've been waiting a long time to fight Lennox Lewis," Klitschko said. "The first reason is for the title. The second is so my brother and I will, at the same time, be champions."