Saturday night’s Las Vegas megafight is boxing’s most anticipated showdown for 13 years since two legendary heavyweights finally met in Memphis, Tennessee, after months of ugly feuding.
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That June night in 2002, Lennox Lewis knocked out a faded Mike Tyson inside eight rounds at The Pyramid in a fight which failed to live up to the hype.
It was one of the most talked about fights in the era which brought together two colossal names of the sport against a backdrop of bad blood.
Tyson famously told Lewis he wanted to “eat his children” in a live television interview and then the pair clashed at a press conference months before fight night.
In fact, so controversial was the bout, that Las Vegas refused to license the fight which pushed it south to Memphis.
Now, 13 years on, both men are in Sin City to watch the clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and are both in agreement that the unbeaten American has a great chance to move to 48-0 in the richest fight of all time.
Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight champion, arrived in Vegas on Thursday and immediately caught up with the undefeated WBC and WBA welterweight champion.
He said: “I spoke to Floyd and he said he hates boxing – but don’t take him seriously. I said ‘you can’t hate it that much, you’re making $200 million’.
“But he was philosophical about it, he was talking about life, how boxing has been good to him and how his businesses are profitable.”
And the 6ft 5in Londoner reckons Mayweather will escape from his 48th professional fight with his perfect record in tact.
He said: “I like Floyd in this one because he’s unbeaten right now and he hasn’t lost, he’s the bigger man and he’s hard to figure out.
“I think it’s the perfect match up for him. You’ve got Pacquiao who wants to impose his will on you and you’ve got Floyd who is a counter puncher who doesn’t really like to get hit too much.
“Pacquiao throws a lot of punches so I know the punch count is going to be up in each round.
“But Mayweather’s got a movement that nobody can figure out.
“Part of boxing is float like a butterfly sting like a bee so we’re going to have to see how he does in this fight.”
The champ is here! @MikeTyson pic.twitter.com/AOA5aCyy9h
— Badou Jack (@BadouJack) May 2, 2015
That phrase was famously coined by Muhammad Ali and, as he spoke just outside the entrance to the Grand Garden Arena, Lewis was wearing a sweatshirt which had the legendary former champion’s name emblazoned across the front of it.
Mayweather has courted controversy during the build-up to this fight by declaring that in fact it is he who is the No.1 fighter of all time, not Ali or the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson.
But Lewis said: “Well they came before him so he knows better than to say that. Floyd is now, Muhammad Ali was the beginning, he’s the past, he’s the first.”
Following his defeat to Lewis in Memphis, Tyson had just three more fights before he retired – and he lost two of them.
But he still finished his career with an 80 per cent knockout ratio having established himself as one of the most destructive punchers of his generation.
So he knows a potential knock-out when he sees one, and Tyson reckons Mayweather is the man most likely of stopping this one early.
He said: “At first I said Floyd never knocks anybody out but in this fight it’s possible that it could be Floyd who gets the knock-out.
“People never look at what his strongest assets are as far as his punches. He has a left hook that you can’t see, he doesn’t throw it enough but when he throws it it’s dangerous.
“He dropped Juan Manuel Marquez with it. It comes out of nowhere like a flash of light but he doesn’t use it enough, in this fight he might use it.
“It’s blinding, you don’t see it. And he does a double right hand that no-one does – I’ve never seen that in my life. He has the arsenal.”
