The deep lacerations on Vitali Klitschko's face will be known from now on as The $30 million Cuts. Tens of millions of dollars have been added to the value of a Lennox Lewis-Klitschko rematch by virtue of the inconclusive ending to their fight on Saturday night. Boxing's ring masters love nothing more than the unresolved.
A day after the bloodbath at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles, Lewis was unwinding in a Beverly Hills Hotel where Chaplin, Gable and Garbo had stayed before him. He was no recluse. "If the money's right, there'll be a rematch," he announced in the wake of his bloody victory over a Ukrainian giant.
Along Rodeo Drive, where the movie set shop for clothes, Klitschko's portrait was framed in the window of Hugo Boss. With all this Hollywood glamour, it was easy to forget that Lewis had disfigured Klitschko's eye and cheek so violently that the California state physician refused to allow him to come out for the seventh round.
While Britain's first undisputed heavyweight champion for more than a century was promising to slice up "the other half" of Klitschko's face, the challenger's retinue were plotting to have him back sparring in 55 days. Plainly, the two available rematch dates in November and December have warped their critical faculties. Up in 'The Pink Palace' where the victors were ensconced, Lewis's trainer, Emanuel Steward, theorised that "eight weeks" would be needed for Klitschko's cuts to heal. Objective experts have mentioned six or even nine months.
Lewis says this: "His face will never be the same again because it's so easily cut. I knew that. Even if he has plastic surgery, one jab will open that cut up again. There's no way his face can take the kind of punishment I'm going to give it in the next fight."
With his own face swollen and cut, Lewis was displaying a playful and self-justifying spirit. He can live with the criticism that attached itself to his ominously clumsy performance because he knows the rematch has become a major American event. "The greatest commercial is to show people the tape of the first fight - two big guys covered in blood and punching and kicking," Steward said without a trace of irony.
The party line is that Lewis the businessman ordered Lewis the fighter to honour the June 21 Los Angeles date even when a weaker original opponent, Kirk Johnson, pulled out. This, Lewis wants us to believe, explains the jelly in his legs, the shortage of air in his lungs. "The Kirk Johnson fight would have been a great warm-up fight for Vitali in November. That's how I planned it. I've been off a year and so I'm allowed to get tuned up. That's how it was supposed to go. But the Vitali fight came up sooner and I thought I might as well get it out of the way. It turned out to be a much harder fight than I expected."
For all this mostly convincing bravado, Lewis is in danger of entering the realm of the scrambled senses. He says the gym will whisper to him honestly when it's time to go. "In training I prepare with good sparring partners. I don't get people in there I can beat up. I get people who challenge me," he explains. "If they beat me up I think - wow, I shouldn't be in the ring. That's how I measure myself. I'll know in the gym when it's over."
Steward ushered Muhammad Ali's tragic example into the discussion: "When Ali was training for his last fight, we were down in the Bahamas and he was training with Tommy Hearns from my gym. Tommy, just for fun, hit him with a right hand, and when I saw it I said to Ali's people afterwards, 'He shouldn't be in there'."
If Lewis and Steward are right, the champion will come in lighter and sharper for what will almost certainly be his 45th and final bout. "If the rematch comes, Vitali's gonna get done because I always come back better the second time, like I did with [Hasim] Rahman," Lewis said. "There's no way his face is going to hold up in the second fight.
"I wish I'd had a little more time to prepare for this one. I basically had four rounds of sparring with a big guy to get ready. In the fight I was just thinking about going after him, because I don't think his heart's that great. I definitely want the opportunity to mess up the other side of his face." Predictably the idea of Lewis fighting the former middleweight champion and current World Boxing Association heavyweight belt holder, Roy Jones, is in retreat. Lewis said: "We haven't really discussed Roy Jones too much."
East against West, black against white, aggrieved challenger against declining champion: all the ingredients (some toxic) are there, together with buckets of blood.
"Vitali can't get better than he was. I'll definitely get better than I was," Lewis insisted. But age is attacking him. It attacks us all.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=%2Fsport%2F2003%2F06%2F24%2Fsohayw24.xml
A day after the bloodbath at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles, Lewis was unwinding in a Beverly Hills Hotel where Chaplin, Gable and Garbo had stayed before him. He was no recluse. "If the money's right, there'll be a rematch," he announced in the wake of his bloody victory over a Ukrainian giant.
Along Rodeo Drive, where the movie set shop for clothes, Klitschko's portrait was framed in the window of Hugo Boss. With all this Hollywood glamour, it was easy to forget that Lewis had disfigured Klitschko's eye and cheek so violently that the California state physician refused to allow him to come out for the seventh round.
While Britain's first undisputed heavyweight champion for more than a century was promising to slice up "the other half" of Klitschko's face, the challenger's retinue were plotting to have him back sparring in 55 days. Plainly, the two available rematch dates in November and December have warped their critical faculties. Up in 'The Pink Palace' where the victors were ensconced, Lewis's trainer, Emanuel Steward, theorised that "eight weeks" would be needed for Klitschko's cuts to heal. Objective experts have mentioned six or even nine months.
Lewis says this: "His face will never be the same again because it's so easily cut. I knew that. Even if he has plastic surgery, one jab will open that cut up again. There's no way his face can take the kind of punishment I'm going to give it in the next fight."
With his own face swollen and cut, Lewis was displaying a playful and self-justifying spirit. He can live with the criticism that attached itself to his ominously clumsy performance because he knows the rematch has become a major American event. "The greatest commercial is to show people the tape of the first fight - two big guys covered in blood and punching and kicking," Steward said without a trace of irony.
The party line is that Lewis the businessman ordered Lewis the fighter to honour the June 21 Los Angeles date even when a weaker original opponent, Kirk Johnson, pulled out. This, Lewis wants us to believe, explains the jelly in his legs, the shortage of air in his lungs. "The Kirk Johnson fight would have been a great warm-up fight for Vitali in November. That's how I planned it. I've been off a year and so I'm allowed to get tuned up. That's how it was supposed to go. But the Vitali fight came up sooner and I thought I might as well get it out of the way. It turned out to be a much harder fight than I expected."
For all this mostly convincing bravado, Lewis is in danger of entering the realm of the scrambled senses. He says the gym will whisper to him honestly when it's time to go. "In training I prepare with good sparring partners. I don't get people in there I can beat up. I get people who challenge me," he explains. "If they beat me up I think - wow, I shouldn't be in the ring. That's how I measure myself. I'll know in the gym when it's over."
Steward ushered Muhammad Ali's tragic example into the discussion: "When Ali was training for his last fight, we were down in the Bahamas and he was training with Tommy Hearns from my gym. Tommy, just for fun, hit him with a right hand, and when I saw it I said to Ali's people afterwards, 'He shouldn't be in there'."
If Lewis and Steward are right, the champion will come in lighter and sharper for what will almost certainly be his 45th and final bout. "If the rematch comes, Vitali's gonna get done because I always come back better the second time, like I did with [Hasim] Rahman," Lewis said. "There's no way his face is going to hold up in the second fight.
"I wish I'd had a little more time to prepare for this one. I basically had four rounds of sparring with a big guy to get ready. In the fight I was just thinking about going after him, because I don't think his heart's that great. I definitely want the opportunity to mess up the other side of his face." Predictably the idea of Lewis fighting the former middleweight champion and current World Boxing Association heavyweight belt holder, Roy Jones, is in retreat. Lewis said: "We haven't really discussed Roy Jones too much."
East against West, black against white, aggrieved challenger against declining champion: all the ingredients (some toxic) are there, together with buckets of blood.
"Vitali can't get better than he was. I'll definitely get better than I was," Lewis insisted. But age is attacking him. It attacks us all.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=%2Fsport%2F2003%2F06%2F24%2Fsohayw24.xml
