LEWIS-TYSON POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

Lennox Lewis defeats Mike Tyson in one of the most anticipated heavyweight title fights in decades.

June 10, 2002 - by Bert Sugar

No one gets away from my jab" declared Lennox Lewis at the end of his title bout against Mike Tyson.

And not even the "Baddest Man on the Planet" could escape Lewis' deadly right hand. A crowd of over 15,000 gathered at the Pyramid in Memphis to witness the highly anticipated Lewis-Tyson showdown. As the fight began, the crowd was eerily calm. The fighters were separated in the ring by a battalion of security personnel before the prefight introductions. Many of the customary prefight rituals were ignored: no instructions were given in the center of the ring, nor was there the traditional touching of the gloves.

The first round was Tyson's best; he came forward repeatedly and won the round on aggression. He landed a lunging left to the head, but Lewis later connected with two right uppercuts and a perfect left uppercut. This was only the precursor to the barrage of punctuation marks that were soon to come. By Round 3, it as clear that Lewis was in control. He repeatedly connected with right uppercuts and left jabs. Early in the fight, Tyson was clearly hurt - both eyes were badly swollen and cut.

"Lennox Lewis punished Mike Tyson tonight at The Pyramid, opening cuts over both eyes and bloodying Tyson's nose."
-- Bill Pennington, New York Times

The knockout was inevitable in round 8; after Lewis landed a left uppercut and right to the head, Tyson was given a standing-eight count, but this short rest was far from enough for Tyson. Lewis finished the fight with a jab and a straight right to the head. Tyson was counted out in the eighth round at 2:25.

This was the worst beating Tyson had ever taken; in fact, Lennox Lewis even succeeded in beating the mean out of him. After the fight, Tyson - who bit both of Evander Holyfield's ears in their 1997 title math and who had also bitten Lewis on the left thigh at a January news conference - forgot his vows to "kill" Lewis and was uncharacteristically gracious. Tyson thanked Lewis for giving him a chance, said he loved Lewis and amiably stated, "I am happy for him and I hope he gives me a fight one more time."

After the first round, some had thought that Tyson was staging and upset of Lewis. In the end, however, the highly anticipated fight turned out to be no contest; it was dominated completely by Lewis, ending in an eighth-round knockout of former champion Mike Tyson. Lewis, the 36-year-old Briton, solidified his status as the best heavyweight of the past five years and successfully defended his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles.

Not only did this one-sided fight securely cement Lewis' place at the top heavyweight of his time, it also marks the beginning of the end of Tyson's career as a serious contender on the heavyweight stage. Lewis destroyed the last vestiges of the myth of Tyson, exposing him as nothing more than a shell of his former self.

"I might just fade into oblivion," said Tyson, "I am going to chill with my children and fly my birds."

Lewis, however, will definitely not fade into oblivion.