By Luke Furman
It took several years and both fighters were past their best, but heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson came together to make the biggest fight in boxing in 2002. At the time, it was the highest grossing fight in boxing history and made enormous revenue with nearly 2 million purchases on pay-per-view. The pay-per-view event was the first time where rival networks, HBO and Showtime, came together as Tyson was contracted to Showtime and Lewis to HBO.
The same situation is happening now with the mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather is contracted to Showtime and Pacquiao to HBO. Both fighters are in the final chapters of their careers and it's still the biggest match that can be made in the sport.
"There's a few fights I want to see in 2015 but Mayweather-Pacquiao is still at top of my list. Stop the madness and make it happen. If we could make Lewis-Tyson happen with HBO and Showtime, they can get it together for Mayweather-Pacquiao and make history again. People say Lewis-Tyson was years too late. I agree but it didn't stop it from being highest grossing fight in history at the time," Lewis stated.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org