/ 19 November 1999

Lewis eager to defend his titles

Gavin Evans Boxing

Now that he holds the long-overdue honour of being undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Claudius Lewis will be the man to beat in the premier division.

The 34-year-old Jamaican-Canadian- Englishman has opted to spend the next two years cashing in on his titles and status.

Of course he will have the little matter of fulfilling his mandatory title defences once a year, which might make it difficult to hold on to all his title belts – particularly that of the discredited International Boxing Federation (IBF).

Lewis is now in his fourth year as champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC), whose top contender is a nondescript Puerto Rican-American, John Ruiz, who was blown out in the first round by David Tua (rated third by the WBC). His chief asset is that he is promoted by Don King, who enjoys an extremely cosy relationship with each of the sanctioning bodies. But there is hope: the WBC is currently angling for an elimination fight between Ruiz and former world champion Mike Tyson, who would make a rather more lucrative mandatory contender.

Lewis has more than 11 months before he is obliged to make his next WBC title defence, which means he can wait for Tyson to regain some of his credibility with a few easy victories, and then take him on late next year. There is no doubt that this is the fight Lewis desires the most. “If he can prove … that he’s worthy to face me, then there’s no problem. I’ve wanted him ever since he came out of prison five years ago, but he avoided me, preferring to give up his WBC title rather than fight me … I don’t see how he’ll be able to beat me. I’m just too big, too strong, too quick.”

Lewis also wants to tangle with two giants: Michael Grant, the 1,98m, 115kg American, unbeaten in 31 fights, and Vitali Klitschko, the 2m, 110kg Ukrainian, who is unbeaten in 27 fights and holds the low-rent World Boxing Organisation title. Lewis’s plan is to take on one of them in April 2000, probably Grant. “Love the opportunity,” he said with a grin. “Grant may be bigger than me, but he hasn’t been through the wars I have … I love fighting big guys because something gets in me that I want to go and beat them up.”

And what about Klitschko who stopped the Nigerian-born Englishman Herbie Hide in two rounds and has won all his fights on knockouts. “Love to fight him too. These are what I call the hurry-ups. They come up in a hurry and all of a sudden they feel they can step in against the kings. They need to go to school first.”

Ironically, the IBF has the most credible mandatory contender. With 35 wins (30 knockouts) in 36 fights Samoan David Tua can fight.

The 1,93m, 109kg champion says he will have no problems with this 1,75m, 106kg wrecking ball. “He comes under the same list as Tyson: a great power puncher. But … he would have to race in to get inside me, which he would find very difficult.”

The World Boxing Association’s (WBA) number one is the 1,98m, 108kg Nigerian- raised Henry Akinwande, who in 1997 gutted out against Lewis by clinging on desperately until he was disqualified. Lewis hinted that he would prefer giving up his WBA title rather than fighting the boring, grab-and-run Akinwande for a second time.

“It doesn’t make sense, really because he got disqualified against me,” he said with a sigh. “Akinwande needs to prove himself again before getting a second chance – prove that he’s not going to go out there

and hold again.”

ENDS