Kohl and Lion Promotions ready to stage Klitschko-Lewis fight next year
29.11 - Hamburg - Dr. Vitali Klitschko will definitely challenge WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis next year. This is what Lewis’ manager Adrian Ogun confirmed today on a press conference in Hamburg where he met Universum promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl.
“We already completed a deal in September for a fight between Lewis and Vitali Klitschko”, Ogun said. “We still have to discuss date and site. But we wanted to wait for the result of the Donald fight. Mr. Kohl and me agree that one should never look past the next fight. Now we want to reach a speedy conclusion.”
Next week Ogun will meet and talk to Lennox Lewis in New York. He will stay in contact with Kohl over the phone. Until mid December the two promoters and the broadcasting channel HBO want to decide when and where the fight will take place.
“We already signed a contract with Lion Promotions quite a while ago”, Kohl said. “But we didn’t want to announce that before the Donald fight. If Vitali wouldn’t have won there would be no Lewis fight of course. We already wanted to fight him at the beginning of December but Lewis asked for a postponement to next year.”
A fight with Mike Tyson can’t get in between Lewis’ mandatory defense against Klitschko either. According to Ogun this is prohibited by his contract with Universum. Whether Lewis will give Tyson a rematch at all depends on “Iron Mike’s” success in his comeback against Clifford Etienne on February 22.
The date of the world championship between Vitali Klitschko and Lennox Lewis may either be the last week of February or the first week of March. The fact that for the same period there is also talk about a title fight between Roy Jones Jr. and John Ruiz doesn’t worry Kohl: “According to my information there is still no contract signed for a fight between Ruiz and Jones. I don’t consider a fight which is not signed.”
For Lewis’ mandatory defense against Klitschko Adrian Ogun and his Lion Promotions will be the promoter. Universum will be the co-promoter.
“I’m very happy that world class heavyweight boxing is now focusing on Europe”, Ogun said. “The US is no longer the stronghold of heavyweight boxing. The best heavyweights in the world are Europeans and this is also the future of the division.”
The two promoters will discuss possible sites in the US and in Europe. However, they have to consider the broadcasting time of Pay-TV channel HBO.
“Basically we came to an agreement with HBO. Only some minor details are left to discuss”, Kohl said. “I expect the fight to take place in Las Vegas.”
“Lennox Lewis thinks very highly of both Klitschkos”, manager Ogun said. “He knows them personally since he and Wladimir stared in the movie Oceans Eleven. He respects them personally and professionally. Lewis knows that they are the biggest challenges for him. He won’t underestimate them. Lewis learned from the mistakes he made in the first Rahman fight.”
Lewis won’t be able to be ringside for Wladimir Klitschko’s WBO title defense on December 7 in Las Vegas, though. At the same time he must attend a legal case in New York.
“The judge certainly won’t excuse him because he wants to watch a boxing fight”, Ogun said smiling.
Both managers emphasized that beside a Klitschko-Lewis fight they also came close on other subjects. They want to cooperate frequently in the future to promote big fights of worldwide interest. Among those possible future fights will be a clash between British heavyweight Danny Williams, who is managed by Ogun, and European champion Sinan Samil Sam of the Universum stable.
More news on www.boxing.de
