Boxing: Let’s hear it for Lennox

By Peter Jessup

Let's hope Lennox Lewis knocks Evander Holyfield's block off in their rematch in Las Vegas tomorrow.

For a start, that's the result most likely to see local boy David Tua get his shot at the world heavyweight title next year.

But more importantly, another farcical draw, a surrender, a dubious points decision or a bout decided after low blows, bites or punches thrown after the bell will consign boxing to the sewer.

What could possibly follow - Hulk Hogan versus Sally the Dump Truck?

For those who grew up with the Ali-Frazier-Foreman contests, heavyweight boxing has become a non-funny joke.

Lewis needs to take the older, smaller Holyfield apart and consign him to history, along with his handler Don King - Congressional inquiry and law changes or no - if things are to change.

If Holyfield wins, King will run rematches, bring on less deserving and less threatening fighters than Tua, and generally muddy the waters for another couple of years.

Should Lewis win, King's influence in the heavyweight world is KO'd and David Tua's mug comes quickly into the frame.

After the last round of heavyweight contests, including the Tyson-Tua card, the South Aucklander has jumped Tyson on the heavyweight contenders list compiled from the three world boxing associations' rankings.

The respected magazine The Ring now has the ladder topped by Lewis with Holyfield second, then Ike Ibeabuchi, Michael Grant, Tua, Tyson, Andrew Golota, Hasim Rahman, Chris Byrd and Kirk Johnson filling out the top 10.

The association rankings go like this: WBA - Henry Akinwande, John Ruiz, Larry Donald; WBC - John Ruiz, David Tua, Michael Grant; IBF - Tua, Ibeabuchi, Ruiz.

No one rates Henry Akinwande, including Lewis. The pair fought in July 1997, the judges disqualifying Akinwande in round five after repeated warnings for holding.

He didn't want to fight then, pulled out of his last big chance against Holyfield in July last year allegedly weakened by a bout of hepatitis, and hasn't been back.

Ibeabuchi, who Tua fought to a standstill in a disputed points decision that went the Nigerian's way in 1997, is unlikely to be in the frame for some time as he tries to fight his way out of sexual assault charges.

He was arrested on July 22 after police officers had to use pepper spray to encourage him out of his casino hotel bathroom to talk to him about an "entertainer's" accusation.

That incident blew off a blanket of secrecy surrounding other Ibeabuchi incidents.

Another "entertainer" asked police to resurrect an investigation into similar goings on; earlier in July it turned out police had been called to remove the fighter from an aircraft at Dallas airport - told the plane was full he walked on anyway and invited airline personnel to remove him, also prompting a pepper spraying, and Phoenix police are investigating a complaint that he assaulted sparring partner Ezra Sellers outside the ring.

All this prompted his long-time trainer Curtis Cokes to comment recently: "After the Tua fight Ike changed completely. Maybe he got hit too much.

"We always knew he had some problems but they were never that serious and always kept quiet."

So on to Puerto Rican John Ruiz, who Tua dumped in 19 seconds in March '96. Lewis has already said he'd bypass both and fight the Auckland-Samoan.

Michael Grant is the only other serious opposition. Contracted by the HBO pay-per-view network and fostered by them through a series of fights against stumblebums, Grant, 21, is nonetheless a boxer of skill and power, and he's bigger than Tua, but then so is everyone in the division.

If Tua doesn't get a shot at tomorrow's winner by mid-2000 he is unlikely to fight Grant since both have too much to lose and too little to gain.

The bout would pay each boxer in the hundreds of thousands of dollars now, but in the millions should either man win the undisputed heavyweight title.

So watch for the rankings manoeuvring to start the second the umpire holds aloft the winner's glove.

The official slogan for this fight is "Search for Truth ... Unfinished Business."

They certainly got that bit right.