Lennox Lewis - Mike Tyson

According to Lennox Lewis , he first met in the ring with Mike Tyson in 1983. At that time, Lewis was preparing for the World Junior Championships , and Tyson was offered to him as a sparring partner. According to Lewis's recollections, he boxed with Mike Tyson in the gym of Casa D'Amato - Tyson's trainer. The Lewis and Tyson sparring went on for four days, and were pretty tough. Tyson sought to knock out Lewis, but he “acted as Mohammed Ali , teaching him several lessons in the movement of the ring.” On the last day of Lews's departure, D'Amato made the assumption that these boxers will someday have a duel between themselves ^[1] .

Tyson made his professional ring debut in March 1985 and by August 1987 became the absolute world heavyweight champion having won the WBA and IBF WBA championship titles . However, in 1990, Tyson lost these titles by losing by knockout to James Douglas . By 1992, Lewis had won the WBC world title. However, in 1994, losing to TKO Oliver McCall lost his title. In 1996, Mike Tyson took over the WBC title. The first defense of the title he had to hold against the mandatory challenger - Lennox Lewis, but Mike chose to fight with the WBA world champion Bruce Seldon . As a result, the WBC stripped Tyson of his championship title and played the title between his former owners - Lennox Lewis and Oliver McCall. Defeating McCall, Lewis became the new WBC world champion, and Tyson defeating Seldon became the WBA champion. In the same 1996, Tyson lost the title to Holyfield. In 1999, there were two fights between WBC champion Lewis and WBA and IBF champion Holyfield. The first match ended in a draw, and in the second match, Lewis won on points. Also in the second match, in addition to the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, the vacant IBO title was at stake. Thus, Lewis became the absolute world champion in heavyweight. However, he was soon stripped of the WBA title for refusing to fight against the mandatory challenger John Ruiz .

January 22, 2002 Press Conference

On January 22, 2002, a press conference was held at the Hudson Theater ( New York ), at which the date of the fight was to be announced. The first to the press conference was Mike Tyson. He immediately looked at the place where Lewis was supposed to be. After Lewis came to the press conference, Tyson went up to him and tried to hit him. One of Lewis's bodyguards tried to restrain Tyson, but he hit him. After that, a scuffle ensued, both boxers began to fight while riding on the floor. Also in the fight involved members of the boxing teams ^[2] .

WBC President Jose Sulaiman claimed that during the brawl, he hit his head on the table and got knocked down. He later sued Lewis and Tyson to compensate him for $ 56 million for injuries sustained during the fight. Suleiman also claimed that Tyson threatened to kill him ^[3] .

After the fight, Tyson went to the edge of the podium and swore obscenely at the journalist Mark Malinovsky, who urged him to put on a straitjacket. After the fight, Tyson went to the edge of the podium, grabbed him by the crotch and started shouting curses at the woman who was in the hall and allegedly was the mother of Lewis ^{[4] [5] [6]} .

Summing up the results of 2002, the authoritative American boxing magazine “The Ring” called the press conference the event of the year ^[7] .

• Nesterenko J. Mike Tyson - Lennox Lewis. Please do not ask for money back // "Ring": magazine. - 2002. - June ( No. 6 ). - S. 38-43 . - ISSN 1810-7338 .
• The real finale of great fantasy // "Ring": magazine. - 2002. - July ( No. 7 ). - S. 4-11 . - ISSN 1810-7338 .