Five years ago today and fifteen years back from yesterday were significant dates for British boxing, each for completely different reasons.
On March 13th 1999, in a bit to become Britain’s first ever undisputed heavyweight boxing champion, Lennox Lewis put on the line his WBC heavyweight title that he won two years previous against Oliver McCall
From Floyd Patterson in 1960 up to 1999 all of the undisputed heavyweight champions had been American, including such standout names like Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.
Opposing Lewis was defending WBA and IBF titlist Evander Holyfield, who between 1990 and 1992 was himself the world’s undisputed heavyweight champion in holding the WBC, WBA and IBF straps.
The venue for the clash was Madison Square Garden, New York, widely regarded as the Mecca of boxing. For Lewis it was the second time fighting there in his career, the first visit occurring in 1996 when he took a majority decision over Ray Mercer; the engagement with Lewis was Holyfield’s third scheduled meeting in Madison Square Garden, having being far more accustomed to fighting out of Las Vegas throughout his career.
Leading up to the Holyfield fight, Lewis had strung together nine straight wins since his second round knock out defeat at the hands of Oliver McCall in their first fight in 1994; it was the single blemish on Lewis’ record from 35 fights.
The unification scrap was Holyfield’s fortieth professional fight and out of those he had lost only three; two had come at the hands of Riddick Bowe. Holyfield bounced back from the second Bowe defeat and collected five victories; two of those over Mike Tyson, including the infamous ‘ear-bite’ disqualification in the summer of 1997.
Throughout the fight Lewis was calculating and patient, maintaining a long jab which kept Holyfield off balance and landing flush combinations whenever he chose. It was a one-sided affair with the mass taking Lewis for the winner, and this was supported by the statistics that showed Lewis had landed close to treble the amount that his opponent had inflicted onto him; only one of the official judges had seen the fight in Lewis’ favour, with another scoring it a draw and judge Eugenia Williams seeing the fight for Holyfield, claiming that, in her opinion, Lewis had landed the fewer punches. The result of the draw was met with much controversy and the WBC, WBA and IBF had ordered the rematch; eight months later Lewis won a unanimous decision in Las Vegas to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and he was also voted by the public as the 1999 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
On this day five years ago was for Amir Khan an important night to say the least; at that time he was resurrecting his career after the devastating first round knock out he suffered by little-known Breidis Prescott.
Khan was flying in his career until he met the thunderous punching Columbian, who boasted a record of 17 knock outs from nineteen fights, in 2008; after winning a silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and following up with eighteen straight victories from professional bouts, only four of which went to the scorecard(s), he was tipped for stardom.
The Prescott defeat forced a major change in Khan’s training and he went across the Atlantic to begin working under the guidance of Freddy Roach. Khan’s comeback fight came in December 2008 against Oisin Fagan in London, resulting in Fagan’s corner throwing in the towel in the second round. It was not a surprising victory as Khan had done what was expected of him but his second fight working with Roach, which came the following March in Manchester, was against Mexican veteran Marco Antonio Barrera.
Khan won on the scorecards up to the fifth round as the ringside doctor had stopped the fight; Barrera sustained a cut in the first round from a clash of heads and in being blinded by blood could not see the punches that Khan was throwing. Khan now held two titles in the lightweight division, the WBA International lightweight title and the WBO Inter-Continental lightweight strap, and he could now put the Prescott defeat behind him.
The former seven-time and three-weight world champion was by far the most impressive name to have been inducted onto Khan’s record and the Mexican had definitely posed an element of danger; Barrera had been ranked at number 1 by the WBO and the fight had even been discussed as a potential world lightweight final eliminator, but Frank Warren’s and Dom King’s requests to the WBO proved unsuccessful.
Due to the risk that Barrera posed and how the fight ultimately transpired had made the match-making involved as nothing short of genius, one of the many such moves made by the late and great match-maker Dean Powell.
