Lennox Lewis was left searching for his future destiny among boxing's three
'Rs' after the Briton unwittingly took the sport back to some brutal but
beautiful basics on Saturday night.
It was not his intention when he set foot in the ring at the Staples Centre,
but his unconvincing performance in stopping Vitali Klitschko after six rounds
of their world heavyweight clash gave the division a much-needed shot in the
arm.
Damned with faint praise as the "boring" leader of a generation of faceless
heavyweights, Lewis's thrilling slugfest victory in Los Angeles showed there is
drama still to be had from boxing's blue riband category.
After the blood was washed away and a valiant Klitschko had departed to nurse
the stitches in his disfigured face, it was clear the evening had thrown up some
intriguing questions for the future.
Lewis, the WBC and IBO champion, knows he will find the answers by choosing
between the three 'Rs' -- a rematch, retirement and Roy Jones Jr.
Klitschko's manager, Klaus Peter-Kohl, joined his fighter in demanding a
rematch, not content with his boxer's self-annointed title as the "people's
champion".
The Klitschko camp claimed the eye wound which eventually brought an end to
the contest -- when Dr Paul Wallace ruled Klitschko could not see properly --
had come from a Lewis headbutt.
Lewis strongly rejected this, but his trainer Emanuel Steward suggested a
rematch was a possibility.
LAST FIGHT
"I think he could fight Vitali again and that might be Lennox's last fight,"
Steward said.
Lewis, however, said he would only grant a rematch if the money matched his
expectations.
Given the interest generated by Klitschko's impressive performance, and
Lewis's vulnerability, a pay-per-view event could generate the required revenue.
At the age of 37, though, time is not on Lewis's side. When asked whether he
might retire immediately, Lewis replied "I don't know how many more fights I
will have.
"I have been in there with all of them and there is nothing left for me to
prove. I am going to go back and talk to my colleagues and look at the tape and
decide from there."
He has always maintained he will only consider quitting when the blows start
to hurt. "I took some shots (from Klitschko) but they weren't really hard," he
added.
"I have been out of the ring for more than a year...I know I could have gone
the 12 rounds."
As Steward pointed out, Lewis is unlikely to want to "go out like that".
ALL-TIME GREATS
With a legacy to cement among the sport's all-time greats like Muhammad Ali
and Joe Louis, Lewis knows his cause will not have been helped by the sight of
him buckling under a barrage from Klitschko.
As for other fighters in the current heavyweight mix, Chris Byrd -- the only
other boxer to have beaten Klitschko -- tried to sabotage the post-fight media
conference on Saturday to demand a matchup with Lewis.
"You should go in with George Foreman," Byrd shouted at Lewis. "You look as
old as each other."
Byrd's display added more frisson to the occasion, but he got little response
from Lewis at the time and that will remain the case.
All of this realistically leaves Roy Jones Jr, the former middleweight
champion considered the best pound-for pound boxer in the world and a
mouth-watering prospect for Lewis and the sport's television paymasters.
Lewis wants to bring Jones down to size, fully aware of the respect held by
boxing critics for the American.
Victory over Jones would also provide a suitably grand conclusion to a
14-year professional career for Lewis, who has earmarked just one or two more
fights before hanging up his gloves.
Staples Centre officials, happy with the way Los Angeles' first world
heavyweight fight for 45 years panned out, suggested they had a spare date in
December this year. A Lewis-Jones fight has already been talked about for
November.
Whatever the exact date, this remains the most likely outcome, and should
help sustain future interest in a division which has long suffered by comparison
with its history.
