Lennox Lewis – By the time I was walking to the ring I was crazy, and you were in trouble!

LENNOX LEWIS waited to prove everyone wrong. He had been knocked out by Hasim Rahman in one of the biggest upsets in history, his world title gone and his reputation in tatters. Plenty picked against him in the rematch. Lewis was finished, they said.

โ€œCan you believe people were predicting that Rahman would win that rematch?โ€ Lewis asks Boxing News. โ€œBut I donโ€™t blame them. They thought the chink in the armour is there forever. You lose one fight and they write you off. People were asking me what I was gonna do now. What am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do now? Iโ€™ll tell you what Iโ€™m gonna do now. Iโ€™m gonna go and get my belts back, thatโ€™s what Iโ€™m gonna to do. But people presumed it was the end for me.โ€

Some presume that the knockdown Tyson Fury suffered in the last round of his December 2018 bout with Deontay Wilder has already triggered the end of Tyson Fury. Effectively knocked out, Fury woke up just in time to finish the fight on his feet. But the clanging punches that put him to sleep could yet haunt him.

lennoxlewis hasimrahman
BOOM: Lewis flattens Rahman in their rematch

Lewis doesnโ€™t agree. He entered his return with Rahman โ€“ a glorious fourth round triumph โ€“ a confident man, spurred on by the desire to right a wrong and Lewis believes that Fury will be galvanised by the experience of not only finding his feet against Wilder, but fighting back.  

โ€œTyson Fury will be feeding off positiveness,โ€ Lewis explained. โ€œHe knows he took that punch, he went down, but he got to his feet and then he went after Deontay. He basically said, โ€˜What, was that it? You knocked me down but Iโ€™m still here, still coming after you. I felt you go weak because I found my strength.โ€™ He attacked Wilder when he got up but maybe he left it too late. He now knows what he can do. He now has a lot of belief in himself and he thinks he can go out there and bully Wilder.โ€

Lewisโ€™ ring walk ahead of flattening Rahman was a sight to behold. There was no fear, no concern whatsoever, about facing a man who had shown he had the power to hurt him.

โ€œThe funny thing, and youโ€™ll see this in my upcoming documentary, is I dance in the changing room before a fight,โ€ Lewis recalls about those moments before his revenge mission. โ€œI dance to reggae music and catch the vibe in there. By the time Iโ€™m walking to the ring, Iโ€™m crazy, and youโ€™re in trouble.

โ€œAfter being knocked out, a lot of people will tell you youโ€™re gun shy. Look at what happened in the first fight, they say, heโ€™s going to be gun shy, heโ€™s going to be scared to exchange. You remember all that.

โ€œThey are saying that about Fury and they said it about me. What they didnโ€™t understand was that I was waiting โ€“ from the moment the first fight was over โ€“ to get back in there and show everyone Iโ€™m not gun shy. I will show everyone that the first fight was false. The guy hit me with a great shot, which my chin happened to be in the way of, but thatโ€™s not going to happen to me again.โ€

Fury must be careful next time. Lewis – who also defeated Oliver McCall and Evander Holyfield in sequels – fears that Fury โ€˜will do something madโ€™ in the early going of Saturday nightโ€™s rematch inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Instead, he implores Fury to stick to what he does best.

โ€œTyson Fury will do something mad and go after Deontay in the first couple of rounds,โ€ the former world heavyweight king predicts. โ€œWhen he doesnโ€™t get no glory with that heโ€™ll resort back to his boxing โ€“ if it ainโ€™t broke, donโ€™t fix it. In the first fight he was leading on points and I believe itโ€™s important for Fury to establish that control early.โ€

Retaining that control โ€“ and concentration โ€“ for the full 12 rounds is key to Fury snatching the WBC heavyweight title from Wilder. But Lewis warned that just because it may appear that the champion is losing rounds, it doesnโ€™t mean he will then lose the fight. Lewis has been impressed with Wilder, even when it appears, to the untrained eye, that things are not going his way.

โ€œFury has to win rounds in a way that Wilder does not,โ€ Lewis says. โ€œWilder will lose rounds. He lost first six rounds in the Luis Ortiz rematch. But what a lot of people didnโ€™t realise is that Wilder was the first in the middle of the ring, waiting for Ortiz, and nobody really mentioned that. He was in excellent shape and look what he was doing to Ortiz. He was making him tired, physically and mentally.โ€

โ€œThere is 12 rounds to this fight. Only when it is over can the winner celebrate.โ€

BT Sport Box Office will show Tyson Furyโ€™s highly anticipated rematch with Deontay Wilder, exclusively live on Saturday 22nd February. Wilder v Fury 2 can be watched on BT TV, the BT Sport Box Office App, Sky, Virgin Media TV and TalkTalk TV or online: ย bt.com/sportboxoffice

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