By Mark Vester
Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis is said to be very supportive of Mike Tyson's recent return to the ring in way of staging four-round exhibition bouts all over the world.
Lewis revealed to numerous overseas media outlets that after he retired from boxing, he was seriously considering doing the same thing as Tyson, staging exhibition bouts all over the world.
"I've always looked at other people's careers, Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, and they've done that," Lewis said. I thought of myself doing that at one stage after becoming undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, winning, retiring, doing some exhibitions around the world, because there's other parts of the world that people haven't seen Lennox Lewis. I decided against it, because I don't need to financially. If I needed to financially, I probably would have done."
Lewis made further comments on the status of the heavyweight division, and why the four major titles are currently being held by European fighters. He still feels that the lack of amateur experience, mixed in with a "get rich quick" mentality are the two factors killing American heavyweights in today's boxing era.
"A lot of the American heavyweights are not in depth with their amateur program, they want to turn pro fast and try and make money," Lewis said. But they still lack a lot of skills they need to turn pro, especially the experience aspect. I'd been to two Olympics before I'd turned pro, some of these guys have three (amateur) fights and then they turned pro. This is what made me great as a professional because when I turned pro, I'd had 200 fights."
