By: Sean Crose
The fight was a wipe out. Mike Tyson, arguably light years away from his glory days, was dismantled and destroyed by reigning heavyweight kingpin Lennox Lewis in brutal, one sided fashion. That was back in 2002, and since that time, people have had things to say about it. Although there’s no doubt the fight was a one sided blowout for Lewis, it’s understandable that the public would bring up the fact that the Tyson who faced Lewis wasn’t the Tyson who stormed through the heavyweight division 10-15 years earlier. Lewis, however, made it clear in a recent interview with Britain Today that he’d have beaten a prime Tyson, as well.
“I’m a five-dimensional fighter and he’s a one-dimensional fighter,” the Sun quotes Lewis as saying. What’s more, Lewis claims the Tyson who he met in the ring was essentially the same Tyson he met when both were coming up through the amateurs. “He was nice,” Lewis is quoted as saying of the younger Tyson, “we looked at lots of old films and he was more into boxing at the time that I was.” Indeed, Lewis claims that he genuinely liked Tyson – at least before Tyson acted dangerously in the leadup to their heavyweight title battle.
“I grew to really like and know him when I was an amateur,” Lewis is quoted as reminiscing, “but then when he went into his pro career I never really knew why he was acting like that.” Still, by the time the two men finally met in a professional fight ring, Lewis wasn’t impressed. “Then we fought,” Lewis is quoted by the Sun as saying, “and he was just the same guy I met when we were 14 or 15.” Sure enough, a battered and bloody Tyson was stopped in brutal fashion in the eighth. It was, for all intents and purposes, the belated end of the Tyson era.
Not that Tyson is a mere memory. As many already know, the fighter known as Iron Mike, who is now in his 50s, is set to face fellow former great Roy Jones in an exhibition bout later this month which will air live on pay per view. The event is getting a lot of press and there’s little doubt Tyson’s been looking good in training. Although he certainly won’t look as he did when he faced Michael Spinks when he fights Jones on the 28th, Tyson will certainly look more ring ready than your average 54 year old.
As for Lewis, the retired all time great hasn’t expressed serious public interest in returning to the ring himself.