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Defining moment for Lewis
Time to live up to potential
He didn't know when it would happen or where. He didn't know who his opponent would be. Lennox Lewis just knew the opportunity would one day be his.
And tonight the bell will ring, the talk and analysis will cease, and there will be Lewis, alone, defining a lifetime of work in one evening of stunning significance.
Lewis has everything on the line at Madison Square Garden with his unification fight against the real heavyweight champion, Evander Holyfield. He will fight against Holyfield, against himself, against his critics and against his own history of both proud and dubious achievement.
This fight is for the unified world heavyweight boxing championship, but for Lewis, it is for his career, his reputation, his place in boxing history.
He has talked about how many fighters ducked him and that is both fact and fiction. He has talked about asserting himself, demonstrating his skills, taking the large step among the best heavyweights who ever lived. But so far it has mostly been talk.
"Win this fight and he becomes a great champion," said Emanuel Steward, Lewis' trainer. "Lose this fight and he becomes just another guy from England with dreadlocks."
Outside of the United Kingdom and outside of Canada, Lennox Lewis always has been more of a curiosity than a revered fighter. He has always looked so big, so strong, so powerful. And then his fights would begin and the doubts would creep in. Why is he so passive? Why is he off-balance? Where, too often, is that fighting instinct?
"When I first started with Lennox, he was too tentative, too cautious," Steward said. "You could see the skills, but not always in fights." And then Steward paused: "I don't know which Lennox Lewis will show up on Saturday night."
History favours both men. Only twice in 35 professional fights has Lewis walked into the ring against a fighter who could be considered an equal. Both of those fights ended with stunning quickness.
The first fight was in London, Lewis against his fellow Canadian, Razor Ruddock, at Earls Court Arena. Lewis knocked Ruddock down in the first round with a jarring overhand right. He opened the second round with a punishing left-hook, right-cross combination. Ruddock went down twice more. Lewis shocked himself with his precision that night.
It wasn't for another five years that Lewis would end a fight with such suddenness. That time, his opponent was Andrew Golota, fresh from two defeats by disqualification against Riddick Bowe -- fights Golota had controlled.
The fight against Lewis lasted only one round. It looked like Golota froze. Lewis was overwhelming in victory.
"Those two nights tell me something," said Steward. "They tell me when the lights shine bright and it's time to get down to business, my guy is a big-fight fighter."
But Evander Holyfield is no Razor Ruddock and no Andrew Golota. His whole career has been a big fight. He has lost three times as a professional, never early. Two of the losses were by decision, to Bowe and Michael Moorer. The other was by stoppage, in his third fight with Bowe.
For more than a decade, Holyfield has fought so many equals, so many who were bigger or stronger. There was Dwight Qawi as a cruiserweight in 1987. There was James (Buster) Douglas in 1990. George Foreman in 1991. Larry Holmes and Bowe in 1992. Bowe again the next year and Moorer the year after that. There was the first Mike Tyson fight in 1996, another the following year. And now this.
For Lennox Lewis, tonight is about establishment. One New York writer this week commented that Lewis owned three passports but no credentials. In America, that seems to be the prevailing attitude. A win will give Lewis a convincing platform. A loss, unless it's valiant, will only further confirm what the masses already are saying.
The fight is not so mythical for Evander Holyfield.
Twice, legitimately, he has been a world heavyweight boxing champion. The quality of his career cannot be diminished. A victory over Lewis is like sprinkles on his professional sundae: Not necessary, but sweet.
"I have said it all along, this is my showcase," Lennox Lewis said. "I want to show the world I'm the best fighter on the planet. It's my time. This is my defining moment."