by David P. Greisman
Promoter Gary Shaw didn’t have a fighter on HBO’s televised co-feature on Saturday night — he was in Atlantic City to see his lightweight titleholder Antonio DeMarco face Adrien Broner in the main event — but he nevertheless had advice for Seth Mitchell following the heavyweight prospect’s second-round loss to Johnathon Banks.
“I represented Lennox Lewis when we first fought [Hasim] Rahman in South Africa, and he went down and they probably could’ve counted to 60 and they’d still be counting,” Shaw said. “And he came back and was better than ever and greater than ever. So to you, Seth, don’t give up, don’t give up the dream, and I’m sure you’ll come back.”
Lewis famously came back from both of his knockout losses to exact revenge. After being stopped in two by Oliver McCall in 1994, Lewis rebuilt and then defeated McCall in a rematch via fifth-round technical knockout in 1997.
And then after losing to Rahman by fifth-round knockout in April 2001, Lewis got an immediate rematch and put Rahman flat on his back in the fourth round that November.
Lewis fought three times after that, winning each and then retiring in 2003 with a record of 41-2-1 with 32 knockouts. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009.
Mitchell will have plenty of rebuilding to do. The 30-year-old entered boxing late in life after playing college football. He became a pro boxer in 2008 and was guided carefully. Yet in his two step-up fights this year, he got hurt. Mitchell was able to recover from being badly wobbled by Chazz Witherspoon in the second round of their fight this past April, coming back to stop Witherspoon the following round.
Mitchell never was able to recover this past Saturday in Atlantic City. Banks hurt Mitchell in the second round, then knocked him down three times en route to the technical knockout victory.
He’s now 25-1-1 with 19 knockouts.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
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