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Holyfield: I speak the truth on third-round KO
"I'm still holding to the truth," he said. "The truth is I'm going to knock him out in the third round."
The 36-year-old IBF-WBA champion, who made the prediction a couple of weeks ago, is the 6-5 favourite to keep his title and add Lewis' WBC championship at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night (Pay-per-view).
"I'm not asking anybody here to believe that," Holyfield said of his boast after training Tuesday at the Church Street Gym near the tip of Manhattan. "I'm not asking anybody to write that, but you can write it now or write it later."
Holyfield said his prediction has nothing to do with Lewis, "except that Lewis is going to be the opponent. Everybody who fights me has courage and heart and skills."
"Preposterous," Lewis said of Holyfield's prediction.
Lewis, a gold medallist for Canada at the 1988 Olympics who now lives in Britain, made a prediction of his own after working out Tuesday afternoon at The Theater in the Garden complex.
"I'm predicting he will not knock me out in the third round."
When someone wondered why Holyfield seemed so supremely confident for such a major match against such a dangerous opponent, he replied: "I'm a born-again Christian and I believe in the word. Each and every time I'm supposed to be better. It would be wrong for me to be bad."
Holyfield worked out in a stark, whitewashed back room at the gym near Wall Street, but none of the champion's fellow multimillionaires were present.
He sparred three rounds with James Gaines, and he concentrated on infighting. In the second round he landed two solid right uppercuts and hard left hook to the body.
In his last fight, Holyfield went the 12-round distance in outpointing Vaughn Bean on Sept. 19.
"(Bean's) goal was just to survive and not win," Holyfield said. "Lennox is coming to win, and because Lennox is coming to win that makes it a great fight ... but a short night."
Lewis said Holyfield looked very ordinary in the Bean fight.
"He should have knocked Vaughn Bean out in the third round and not predict he will knock me out," Lewis said.