By Terence Dooley (Click Here To Read Part 1)
In Part I, we weaved in and out of the parallel careers of Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis to see just how clear it was that Lewis would always beat Tyson. In Part II we will look at the series of events that exploded in 2001, and gave us confirmation that Lewis would win their clash.
Firstly, there was the bout between Tyson and Brian Nielsen in Denmark. In this fight Tyson got in a few rounds but there were still the Tyson traits that routinely show themselves when he goes beyond the first couple of rounds.
Firstly, he was complaining to the referee Steve Smoger on a regular basis. Secondly, his firepower dipped and, possibly claiming a moral victory, his opponent decided to quit on his stool after 7 rounds had elapsed.
Given all this it could still be argued that 2001 was a better year for Tyson than it was for Lewis. Tyson, in beating Nielsen, went 1-0 (1) for the year whereas Lewis, who, as we shall see, lost to and then defeated Hasim Rahman, went 1-1 (1) for the year. However in this year Lewis again proved just why he always had more mettle and, therefore, the beating of Tyson.
After complacently walking onto a thunderbolt right hand in round 5 of their African showdown Lewis was left in limbo as his vanquisher, and new heavyweight Champion Hasim Rahman signed a deal with Don King. This left the tangible possibility that Lewis would again be frozen from the heavyweight scene.
This was not to be the case, a rematch was signed, Rahman “won” the pre-fight psychological battles (boxing parlance for “he insulted his opponent that little bit more”), and in many eyes this fight was going to show us the negative Lewis we had seen in the past. However this did not come to pass.
Lewis, in his first fight as a bona fide title challenger, came out for the fight to the song ‘Payback’ and his cold countenance was backed-up by stiff early jabbing.
Rahman came out to the inane babbling of his cheerleaders, and could be seen mouthing “show them the belts” as he walked to the ring, perhaps sensing that this would be the last time he would have them on show.
In the fight itself Lewis looked like an aged fighter fighting on skills. A 1st round jab stiffened his legs but he kept to his own jab, including a beauty in the opening seconds of round 3, and befuddled Rahman early.
After a jab-jab-jab approach Lewis turned his left into a slight left hook, which in turn disguised a monstrous right hand that laid Rahman out, fittingly he fell in such a way that the Don King canvas ring logo of a crown was resting atop the deposed Champion’s head. It was a right hook that could have KO’d God himself, God being traditionally weak on his left side.
Lewis, once again, had served notice that he could do what Tyson could never do; suck-up a loss then beat the man who had defeated him, without imploding in the process. In turn he made Rahman look like a man who was in front of the camera for the 1st time, and could only mug in disbelief.
After the finish Lewis, in a rare display of buoyancy, looked to the camera, dripping with the belts, and declared: “He’s (Rahman) a freshman in the game! Seen?”
Yes Lennox, we saw, so, one must presume, did Tyson, who was the only logical “test” left for Lewis. After the shock of Africa, and this the immediate return, Lewis, for the 1st time, looked and spoke like a man who had come to terms with the nature of heavyweight boxing (KO’s can happen anywhere and to anyone) and this made him all the more formidable. For the 1st time, perhaps, Lewis was now completely at ease with the nature of heavyweight boxing, and its danger. All that was left was to put the bogeyman Tyson to rest.
However, in the press conference to finally announce their fight Tyson once again blew his gasket. Despite being told to stick to their podiums Mike decided to march up to Lewis, leaving Lewis’ bodyguards nervous. One of them tried to step in, Tyson threw a left hook, Lewis threw a straight right that hit Tyson, a melee ensued, and Tyson bit Lewis on the leg.
After this Tyson imploded even further, offering to do a number of unsavoury things to a journalist who had dared to comment on his actions, all the while Tyson looked like he was close to tears.
For some it was a clear sign that macho Mike was still the tough guy they loved and respected. For others, this writer included, it was the conduct of a cornered guttersnipe looking for one last excuse to back out of a fight that may have carried too high a risk-reward ratio for him. Lewis was wrong to hit Tyson, given that fact he still attacked Mike within the accepted rules of fighting, he threw a punch. Tyson’s retort, the bite, summarised the Tyson mind-set and was a clear a get-out cry. The world’s baddest bully knew he was on course for another beating and would do anything to stave it off.
Still, the fight went ahead, in New Orleans (2002), the hype blew through the roof and was taken to the nth degree when an in-ring security cordon was brought in to separate both fighters. Or perhaps they were ensuring no pre-fight hollering broke out between Michael Buffer and Jimmy Lennon Junior.
Prior to the fight Tyson had talked, brooded and showed just enough in training, glimpses to convince his die-hard fans he was going to mentally cow Lewis. This overlooked the fact, given in their careers, that Lewis had cowed Tyson years before, now he was about to lay a final beating upon him.
Many felt Tyson won the 1st round of the fight with his pressure but, in standing up to Mike with a right uppercut late in the stanza, Lewis won the fight in this 1st round. Tyson attacked wildly and Lewis responded with a wild right uppercut and right hand. That was it, Tyson was done, Lewis merely had to out-jab him, tie him up, back him up, cut him, and then, as is always the case, knock him out.
By round 2 Tyson was looking to the ref and slumping in his stool. You might say that this was an old Mike Tyson; it was also an old Lennox Lewis, if they were both young? Same result. Anyone who fails to see that has misread the psychological make-up of both men and has not heeded the pattern of their losses. Tyson loses whenever he is in danger; Lewis never loses when he senses danger.
Against Lewis, who was perfect for beating Tyson, Mike could not get past the jab and could not open-up.
By the 3rd it was endgame. Tyson was backed-up and cut, with Lewis manhandling Tyson, in fact Lennox Lewis versus referee Eddie Cotton was more competitive than the fight itself.
Cotton would break clinches roughly, guiding Tyson away from them and shoving Lewis in the chest, all the while warning that points may be taken from Lennox. Lewis ignored this poor referee; points had been taken, over the years Lewis had noted them all down on his CV whilst Tyson had avoided them on his, the points of reference on the records of both men pointed to a Lewis win and he was not to be denied by a poor ref.
By the 7th Tyson was telling the corner “I can’t (get off), I’m done”, he was done, and dusted, but Mike, you was done years ago, the moment Douglas took a pin to the over hyped balloon of your invincible mystique; you had merely spent the years avoiding the fighters who could act upon it.
Tyson became a shadow caused by the greater light of Lewis that night, a footnote in the career of Lewis.
After the fight Mike was humbled, almost deferential towards Lewis. It was achingly sad to see Tyson reduced to thanking Lewis for the money and begging for a return match his performance did not merit, and his career had suggested he would not win.
The careers of both men had followed oddly similar paths. Both were defeated in shocking fashion in fights they were supposed to win but this similarity ended with the manner in which both came back from these defeats. Tyson never came back from any of them, defeat pulled him apart piece-by-piece until he was in the position of being memorably described, by Glen McCrory, as a: “Short fighter with small arms”.
In the end Tyson’s fans say Lewis defeated a shadow but, beyond the smoke and mirrors of his fear factor, Tyson had always been a shadow, a fighter who operated in the murky world of fear and intimidation who could not stand up for himself when his cloak of intimidation was ripped from him.
Coda:
You may think it preposterous, even in hindsight, to buy my theory that the parallel careers of both always pre-empted a Lewis win should they meet. In that case how do we explain the fact that after their fight both men again showed why Lewis was always the man who would win a rivalry between the two?
Despite claims that he would retire Lewis signed to fight Canadian compatriot Kirk Johnson only for Johnson to pullout of the fight. The then unheralded (and since ridiculously over-hyped, The Ring tried to make him linear Champion based on a few good rounds) Vitali Klitschko stepped in at short notice to fight Lewis (2003).
It was clear from the opening bell that Lewis was shot by this point, a friend who watched the fight with me (a die-hard Tyson fanatic, one of those crazy ones) turned to me, after 30-seconds or so, and declared that: “You are about to feel the pain that I felt last year!”
My friend’s declaration seemed apt as Lewis was slammed with right hands in the early going, his legs looked ‘gone John gone!’ and his reflexes/commitment had evidently slowed during the year since his Tyson win.
However a remarkable thing happened, something, which my Tyson-loving friend, perhaps due to his adherence to the Mike Tyson code, could not have envisaged, Lewis began to turn the fight around.
After round 3 Lewis began to doggedly go after Vitali, the great white hype seemed to tire after every shot and it was Lewis who was now landing ragged 1-2’s.
In the 3rd round the fight turned completely as Lewis landed a right hand, which shredded the face of Vitali. Perhaps knowing that Vitali’s chance of a KO win had gone Lennox stepped it up in the hope of finishing Vitali via a TKO.
Over the next 2 rounds the cut, a white fighter’s burden, worsened to the extent that the bout was halted in the 6thwith Vitali protesting.
It was clear, for a few, that one fighter, Vitali, had peaked early whereas the experienced, and better, fighter, Lewis, had withstood the traffic coming at him, landed the more effective, damaging, blows and had won the fight fair and square.
Vitali had a clear chance to defeat an aging and unfit Lewis; he blew that chance, lost the fight, and traded on two impressive rounds of boxing against a poor Lewis. Vitali got hit, he got cut and he lost. End of story, another footnote in the career of Lewis and one that showed, yet again, that Lewis, unlike Tyson, could dig-in and turn a fight around.
You can cry ‘controversy’ and reveal your own ignorance, as Larry Merchant did. The aloof, supposedly brittle Lennox Lewis did what Tyson never did, saw it through and won.
Vitali has since said that he could have beaten Lennox Lewis, yet he did not, and there has been no rematch, so he cannot.
On the other hand we have seen what became of Tyson post-Lewis. A gimme win against Clifford Etienne (2003) and the desperately sad spectacle of his fights with Danny Williams (2004) and Kevin McBride (2005).
In the Williams fight Tyson hit Danny with everything he had early, then faded, was cut, was backed-up and then was taken out in the 4th. Again the pattern is clear if you do not fear Tyson. A cry of contention went-up over a knee injury sustained by Tyson against Williams but the McBride fight reveals that such claims are fallacious.
Post-Lewis the fear factor was definitely gone. The movement was long gone. The silly numbered combinations honed with “great” trainer Kevin Rooney were gone. The cod-philosophy of turning fear into strength was taken to the grave with Cus D’Amato.
Perhaps if Cus had the strength to overcome his fear of disciplining Tyson when it was badly needed, when Mike was a young man, the story might have been different but Cus did not, and it was not. Tyson never had the mental capabilities to beat the likes of Lewis, who was also physically perfect for beating him.
