Heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis to fight Tyson - then both Klitschkos
Canadian Press
Thursday, January 30, 2003
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BERLIN (CP) - Lennox Lewis will first fight Mike Tyson, followed by both Klitschko brothers and then retire, his trainer said Thursday.
Emanuel Steward said he'd spoken with the WBC heavyweight champion, who has pulled out of a proposed bout with Vitali Klitschko and now plans a second fight against Tyson instead. "Lennox promised me that he'll beat Tyson first, then Vitali and at the end Wladimir (Klitschko). That's the way the plan looks. After these three fights, its over," Steward told the German sports Web site Sport1.de.
Steward said Lewis wants to bow out of the sport in London.
"Every time I speak to him he says the same thing: 'I want to fight in England. I want to be among my people,"' Steward told the Daily Express in England.
Lewis was born in London but raised in Kitchener, Ont.
The promoter for the Ukrainian brothers has appealed to the WBC to take action over Lewis pulling out of what he says is a signed contract for a fight with Vitali in April.
Hans-Peter Kohl says he and Lewis manager Adrian Ogen signed the papers in December for the bout, but acknowledged Wednesday the fight apparently won't take place at the moment.
Steward scoffed at charges from the Klitschko camp that Lewis is afraid of their boxer, calling the Canadian-raised fighter the greatest heavyweight champion since Muhammed Ali.
But Steward called the Klitschko brothers "the future of the heavyweight division" and added Lewis wasn't always too happy to hear this from him.
"I'm a big fan of them," Steward said. "For me they're already the No. 2 and 3 behind Lennox."
Steward said he knew very early the two brothers would be big and added he doesn't see any Americans that can threaten them. But he added that Lewis would emerge the victor from both Klitschko fights because he was still stronger.
"He's the No. 1," Lewis said.
The towering Klitschko brothers, both 6-7 or bigger, are huge in Germany and Ukraine and other parts of Europe and recently have started fighting regularly in the U.S. in hopes of conquering the American market.
Wladimir, who at 26 is five years younger than his sibling, is regarded by both brothers as the most talented of the two and by some as boxing's next great heavyweight.
Wladimir, the former Olympic super heavyweight champion from Atlanta, stopped both Ray Mercer and Jameel McCline in recent stateside fights, performing well enough to keep his reputation intact as the division's coming boxer.
Still, the Klitschkos' public relations campaign hasn't yet given them the name recognition of Tyson. A bigger payday was the reason the Ukrainian camp believe Vitali was bumped for Lewis-Tyson II.
"That's what counts," Steward said of Tyson's name recognition.
Wladimir Klitschko will defend his WBO heavyweight title on March 8 against South African Corrie Sanders in Hannover, Germany.
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