Boxing

Where to next? Heavyweight veterans Holyfield and Lewis face tough questions

By James McDonnell

06.07 - Two old veterans, contemplating their life as a fighter, of what they are inside and out of the ring; one looks to their future in the ring, the other contemplating their legacy in retirement.

Whilst Holyfield (Photo: Tom Casino) is still toiling under the illusion that he can become the unified heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Lewis contemplates what would be a fitting end to his illustrious career, planning what hopefully won't be a dying swan-song.

It seems that there is no end in sight for Evander, while Lennox 3 years his junior has already decided it's time to go, but is choosing the final big fight to provide a fanfare finale for his career.

Holyfield is engaging in a strange fight, which doesn't seem to really get him any closer to a heavyweight title fight. Facing Toney, the most recognisable face in the formerly mediocre cruiserweight division, since conquering Vasili Jirov and taking his long held title.

It's a no-win situation for Holyfield. A win over Toney will prove nothing other than the fact that Toney isn't a true heavyweight, and if he loses there will be even more voices in the chorus telling Evander to quit, not that that matters to Holy. Perhaps he thinks it will broker him more power in negotiations with Roy Jones Jr, to get the fight back on.

For the record, I think the Toney fight is eminently winnable for Holyfield, even at the gnarled age of 40. For the first time since he fought Bobby Czyz, Holyfield will be enjoying the edge in height, weight, reach and experience at the weight.

Stylistically it's a fight which seems to play to Holyfield's strengths. Holyfield is definitely the bigger puncher of the two; he's always been an underrated puncher at heavyweight, as being the first man to drop granite-jawed Riddick Bowe testified.

Toney isn't a mover, and even if he comes in over 200 lbs, which would not be unusual for a fighter with such a history of weight problems, he will be in the ring with a fighter who has grown into the division, and is a natural now at that weight.

Although Evander has slowed significantly since his peak 5 or so years ago, he won't have the deficit in hand speed against Toney, who is a cagey counterpuncher rather than a flashing-fisted speed merchant. Evander at this stage of his career needs a slow moving target like Toney in order to get the timing on his shots, and Holyfield will relish the opportunity to get the time to pull the trigger. Toney is a cagey fighter, but Evander's strength will be enough to winkle him out of his defensive shell.

However, Holyfield has been sliding for a while now and maybe he will slide even further against a younger though probably not much fitter man.

I think Evander will pull out a decision win over Toney, in what could be quite a war of attrition, gradually grinding down a determined Toney, and quite possibly he will stop him in the last third of the fight.

If he loses, then I think it's the end of Holyfield's big-fight credentials, losing to Toney will seal the lid on his pretensions at world title shots, though sadly, this may well not deter him from continuing in the sport. Holyfield is a man so hell-dent on his mission, and the determination and egoism which once served him so well in enabling him to dictate the action in big fights with men such as Bowe and Tyson, is now encouraging him to fight on well past the danger point.

If he wins, then what? More encouragement and ego-food for Evander, who will take only from the victory what he wants to see, rather than the simple fact that he has managed to pull off a win against a naturally smaller and weaker man, who has never at that level at the weight.

The time has come for Evander to put some difficult questions to himself about exactly where he envisages his career going.

Having lost to Byrd and Lewis in his last two championship stabs, where exactly does he have left to go, seeing as a fight with Jones has fallen through? It's hard to envisage a heavyweight titlist he can beat, other than Corrie Sanders perhaps, who may or not be the champion after his next defence. However, is Evander interested in being WBO champion, other than as a bargaining tool to fight either the other major sanctioning bodies belts? That's a long way back for Evander.

Lewis will almost certainly be retired within a year's time, maybe even sooner, and so his belt will be either vacant, or if he loses his final fight, be held most likely by Vitali, or less likely Roy Jones Jr.

Should Vitali win against Lewis, I think we would find ourselves with the unpleasant prospect of seeing Holyfield hammered from pillar to post by the hugely strong Ukrainian, soaking up frightful levels of punishment before being stopped. Without the legs to get out of the way any more, Holyfield
could be on the receiving end of the sort of beating we saw Ray Mercer take from Wladimir.

If anything, I hope I am wrong, and Evander loses his fight with Toney, perhaps this will save him from the kind of brutal beatings I can envisage for him if he takes on the likes of Wladimir of Vitali Klitchsko, both of whose physical advantages would be too much for the shadow of Holyfield to overcome. I'd rather see Holyfield retire with his money and what is going to be left of his health when he retires.

Lennox Lewis faces an altogether different question, and a more complicated one, it's not a case of should I stay or should I go, (thought that is a pertinent question) but which way shall I go?

Lewis currently has an offer on the table from Roy Jones Jr, who having seen Lewis' fallible showing against Vitali, now seems a possible target for Jones' silky skills. $25M is a not insignificant amount of money, and would be one of Lewis' career highest purses.

At this stage though, Lewis isn't in need of a payday, he's made by his own admission, 'enough for several lifetimes,' he's more interested in returning to the form of his heyday, for one last performance. In addition, many out there feel that Lewis has unfinished business with a certain 6'8" Ukrainian, who gave Lewis the most torrid night of his career thus far.

Though Lewis v Jones Jr is one for the purist, and throws up some interesting questions, it's the fight with Vitali that may generate the biggest sums of money, it will surely be a huge PPV success, and it will be interesting to see how close it comes to his bout with Tyson in terms of revenue generated.

Vitali v Lewis II would be one of the most eagerly anticipated bouts in heavyweight history, a true clash of the titans, and promising to be an even better bout second time around. It's a fight which has as far as I can see divided opinion almost 50-50, with Lewis being the slight favourite overall, but nobody can really be certain who will win this bout.

As for a fight with Jones, I think those that see Jones dancing and beating a tired and slow Lewis for 12 rounds are missing a few important points.

Lewis was undoubtedly not in tip top shape, but then at 38 it's a little unrealistic to expect too much from any athlete. Lewis was certainly in better shape for his fight with Vitali than Kirk Johnson is for most of his fights, but it wasn't Lewis' best shape.

But many people seem to fail to realise that it was the strength of the Ukrainian in the clinches that contributed heavily to the rate at which Lewis tired. For the first time in his entire career, Lewis was at least matched for brute strength, and the grappling and mauling wore him down.

Jones hasn't the size or strength to keep Lewis off in the clinches, and his best shots are unlikely to shake Lewis who took some huge, if poorly delivered shots from Vitali during their contest.

Jones' only chance would be to dart into range, fire off a quick salvo, and dart back out again. This brings him into range of one of Lewis' most underrated weapons, his devastating right uppercut, the shot which threatened to turn the fight with Vitali in his favour, and which took away Mike Tyson's legs last September.

If Lewis gets to work in the clinches against Jones Jr, it's hard to see how Jones can avoid getting hit. Ruiz had some success early in the first round against Jones, but failed to really make the tactics work for him, in part because the referee was prompt in breaking the clinches, but also because Ruiz was too crude to know how to best take advantage of his opportunities.

I find it almost impossible to envisage Lewis not having success on the inside at some point in the fight, and even one of those uppercuts would surely end a fight with Jones. Lewis' jab too is a weapon which would shake Jones to his boots. Lewis' jab when it landed, albeit infrequently, against Vitali's jaw, rocked him backward on his heels across the ring, and that was against s 238lb man.

Jones would prove a much more elusive target than Vitali for sure, but he also doesn't have the reach to avoid closing the gap at some point, and timing that right for 12 rounds could prove difficult against an experienced campaigner like Lewis.

His best chance of course lies in the fact that Lewis' timing looked poor against Vitali, and that maybe like so many fighters of his age, Lewis will be unable to pull the trigger against a smaller, faster, lighter foe. That's Jones only realistic chance in my view to win, and In think Jones knows this too. He's seen a big dent in Lewis' armour, and knows that he will never have a better chance to fight and beat a true elite heavyweight, than right now.

So which way is Lewis going to turn now? He's stated publicly that he would rather fight Vitali, so long as he can be in the ring sometime soon, and has said that his own medical staff will verify whether Vitali really can fight before December. Vitali's people have stated that he has been given the all-clear the plastic surgeon who stitched the eye and that he can begin sparring in 90 days, without significant risk.

For Lewis when Vitali will be fit to fight is of vital importance. The worst thing that Lennox can do at this stage of his career is to be out of the ring again for approaching a year, if he's going to fight on it needs to be soon, so he can capitalise on what sharpness he will have acquired from his last fight.

In an ideal world, Lewis would have the time to take on Jones Jr, and provided he wins that contest, which I think he would, take on Vitali a couple of months later, with a very scant period spent out of the gym, but this seems unlikely to me.

Lewis re-discovered with a real shock just how hard the fight game is in there with Vitali that night, and it has made him aware of just how fallible he has become. Lewis is only too aware now of how little time he has left at the top, and is trying desperately to choose the manner of his passing into heavyweight history. Two fights back to back at this stage of his career, seems a bridge too far for his ageing body.

A fight with Jones fight while intriguing, not to mention lucrative, is more of a no-win situation for Lewis, it would have been an interesting fight had the whole situation with Jones and the heavyweights occurred two years ago, but right now, does Lewis need the risk of a Jones fight.

If Lewis beats Jones, it seems almost certain it will be a KO, and hey!, what do you expect, Roy was giving away 50 lbs, 6 inches in height and almost a foot in reach, of course he got beat.

If Jones were to win, then he goes on to be regarded as the greatest fighter in history, and Lewis goes out with a flatulent parp, rather than the fanfare he would like.

For this reason, I think that circumstances prevailing, Lewis will choose career defining fight return with the prodigious Ukrainian to cap his career, rather than less meaningful fight, (at least for Lewis), against Jones Jr. The fight offers a far greater opportunity to Jones than it does Lewis.

Whether or not he can win is another matter, thought Lewis at his best has more tools in his armoury and a greater fluidity than Vitali, it's the question of how close to his best he can come in at this point in time.

Lewis looked as sharp as he has ever looked against Tyson, but perhaps that performance flattered to deceive a little. Tyson looked extremely listless and negative in the ring, unlike Vitali, who took some thunderous shots from Lewis, but kept pressing the fight; Tyson went into an apathetic shell, trudging forward like a zombie.

Perhaps it was the pressure of Vitali of that revealed just how far Lewis really had slipped from his peak. Whatever the case, it is now a year and counting since the Tyson fight, and with every passing month the decay in Lewis' physical assets will be exponential.

Lewis has one last chance to cement his legacy, and a win at this stage would say something rather special about Lewis. He will be the only dominant heavyweight champion I can think of, who at the age of 38 will have taken on and beaten a man considered a real threat in the division. Ali, Louis, and Holmes were all on the verge of being beaten or had already lost their last stab at a title. None of these men were as near to their best form as Lewis is, at the age of 38, it's a testament to Lewis conditioning and the lack shots he's taken in his career.

Vitali may well start the fight with much more immediacy this time around, if he watches videos of their first fight, he may well do what he surely laments not doing in the 2nd round, which is following up on his success. Lewis was undoubtedly hurt by the big right he eat in the 2nd, and what would have happened if Vitali followed up immediately? We may well find out.

Lewis for his part, needs to assert his dominance with the jab from the off this time around, just like he did against Rahman in their 2nd fight. When Lewis' jab is working well, he's pretty much unbeatable, or has proven so thus far. His jab is one of the hardest the division has ever seen, and is used as a strategic weapon, to either force the other fighter to lead around it and expose their chin, or thudded out like a caber smashing into his opponent and knocking them back.

If, and it's a big if, Lewis can find the range with the jab in the first 2 rounds, and keep it pumping out, he will stop Vitali inside the 6th again, possibly on a knockout.

If Lewis doesn't or cannot do so, then I can see Vitali throwing himself at Lewis from the opening bell and maybe getting him out of there early, as a slothful Lewis is unable to pull the trigger.

All in all I'm ambivalent about the Lewis' chances, or Vitali's, it's a fight which is up in the air. Only Lewis' rematch record, and the fact that his best is better than Vitali's makes me lean toward a Lewis stoppage victory again.

Whatever happens now, Lewis and Evander are two men right at the end of their respective careers, but only Lewis seems to appreciate this fact, and is taking serious stock of what he has left to give and prove. Holyfield provides at this stage a living lesson of what happens to fighters who stay on too far past their peak, and Lewis at least seems to be able to understand that lesson.

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