Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis

"Undisputed"

Date	March 13, 1999
Location	Madison Square Garden in New York, New York
Title(s) on the line	WBA/WBC/IBF/Lineal Heavyweight Championships
Evander Holyfield vs.  Lennox Lewis
"The Real Deal"		"The Lion"
Tale of the tape
Atlanta, Georgia, US	From	London, England
36–3	Pre-fight record	34–1
WBA/IBF Heavyweight Champion	Recognition	WBC/Lineal Heavyweight Champion

Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis, billed as "Undisputed", was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, IBF and Lineal Heavyweight Championships.

Background

After Riddick Bowe defeated Evander Holyfield to become the Undisputed Heavyweight champion, the WBC ordered Bowe to face its number one contender, the undefeated Lennox Lewis. Bowe, however, refused to meet Lewis' financial demands and subsequently vacated the title rather than face Lewis and in turn, the WBC named Lewis its Heavyweight champion. Holyfield was able to regain the WBA, IBF and Lineal heavyweight titles in a rematch with Bowe, but then lost the titles in his first defense against southpaw Michael Moorer. Shortly after, Lewis would lose his WBC Heavyweight title to Oliver McCall, putting the much anticipated Holyfield–Lewis unification bout on hold for several years. By 1996, the four Heavyweight titles were separated due in part to both the IBF and WBA stripping George Foreman of their Heavyweight titles, though he continued to be recognized as the Lineal Heavyweight champion. Meanwhile, Bruce Seldon defeated Tony Tucker to win the vacant WBA title, while Moorer regained the vacant IBF Heavyweight title he had lost to Foreman by defeating Axel Schulz. Mike Tyson would then defeat Frank Bruno to capture the WBC Heavyweight title only to vacate it in order to challenge and defeat Seldon to win the WBA Heavyweight title, setting the stages for the highly anticipated Tyson–Holyfield match in which Holyfield upset Tyson to win the WBA title. Next up for Holyfield was a victory against Moorer in a rematch would unify the WBA and IBF Heavyweight championships. Lewis, on the other hand, would recapture the vacant WBC title by defeating McCall and then defeat Shannon Briggs for the Lineal Heavyweight championship. After Holyfield and Lewis made their mandatory defenses against Vaughn Bean and Željko Mavrović respectively, the two men would finally meet for the Undisputed Heavyweight championship. Prior to the fight Lewis would hire Holyfield's former trainer Emanuel Steward, meanwhile, the normally mild-mannered Holyfield would uncharacteristically predict that he would dominate the first two rounds before knocking out Lewis in the third^[1]

The fight

Despite Holyfield's brazen claims, it was Lewis who would dominate the early portion of the fight, easily winning the first two rounds on the judges scorecards. In fact through the round 2, Lewis had landed 42 of his 87 punches thrown, while Holyfield only landed 8 of his 24 thrown punches. Despite Lewis' early dominance, an unfazed Holyfield was seen on TV telling his corner that "this is the round he go out", referring to his 3rd round KO prediction. Holyfield came out in round 3 much more aggressive, hitting Lewis with several combinations in the rounds first two minutes. With 1:23 left in the round, Holyfield would go for the knockout by throwing a powerful haymaker that Lewis was barely able to dodge. Though Holyfield was able to win round 3, he ultimately fell short of his knockout prediction. Lewis would bounce back to win round 4, giving him a 3-rounds-to-1 lead. Lewis would further expand his lead after dominating round 5, landing 75% of his 57 thrown punches while limiting Holyfield to just 11 landed punches in the round. Lewis got into a little trouble in round 6, after he arrogantly dropped his hands to his side, allowing Holyfield to connect with a right–left combination. Though Lewis appeared to be in control of the round, two of the judges scored the round in favor of Holyfield. Lewis would win round 7, stunning Holyfield with a left jab in the first minute and again having Holyfield against the ropes. In the second minute of the round, Lewis again stunned Holyfield with right uppercut–left hand–right hand combination. In the end, Holyfield would only land 8 punches to Lewis' 33. Holyfield would bounce back after round 7 though, winning rounds 8 through 11 on 11 of 12 judges scorecards, with judge Larry O'Connell scoring round 10 a draw. Lewis would finish the fight strongly, winning round 12 on all three of the judges scorecards. With the decision now up to the judges, most expected Lewis to become the first Undisputed Heavyweight Champion since 1992 via unanimous decision, however, in one of the most shocking and controversial decisions in boxing history, the fight was called a draw. Judge Stanley Christoudoulou named Lewis the winner by the score of 116–113, however Eugenia Williams scored the fight in favor of Holyfield 115–113 while Larry O'Connell called the fight a draw at 115–115.

Controversy

The decision was met with loud boos from the crowd, while Lewis and his corner were left standing in disbelief. Immediately after the decision was announced, HBO announcers Jim Lampley and George Foreman called the decision "a travesty" and "a shame". Showtime analyst Steve Farhood stated "I've been covering boxing twenty years. I would put this in the top five for the worst decisions I've seen." Even New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani weighed in, also calling the decision "a travesty".

Most of the blame was heaped upon Eugenia Williams, who had declared Evander Holyfield the winner.^[2] Though she initially denied any wrongdoing, after reviewing a replay of the fight, she stated she would have called the fight a draw. British judge Larry O'Connell, who scored the fight a draw, also received a fair amount of criticism. He would admit to making a mistake, stating "I feel sorry for myself. I've taken so much stick. But I feel even more sorry for Lennox"^[3]

Aftermath

Almost immediately after the fight, the sanctioning bodies ordered a rematch.^[4] The rematch would take place eight months later on November 13, 1999 in Las Vegas, this time with the vacant IBO Heavyweight also on the line. The fight again went the full 12 rounds, this time with Lewis being awarded the victory via unanimous decision, becoming the first Undisputed Heavyweight Champion since Riddick Bowe in 1992.

However, Lewis would not be Undisputed Heavyweight champion for long. The WBA ordered Lewis to face their number one contender John Ruiz. Lewis instead wanted to face Michael Grant in his first defense. The WBA agreed to allow Lewis to face Grant if he would fight Ruiz after, to which Lewis agreed. Ruiz's promoter challenged this decision in court where it was found that a clause in the Lewis-Holyfield rematch contract that said the winner of that bout would next face the WBA's number one contender. Because of this, Lewis was stripped of the WBA title. He would, however, successfully defend his remaining titles against Grant, knocking him out in the second round.

Holyfield would then challenge Ruiz for the vacant WBA title. Holyfield would defeat Ruiz by unanimous decision to become the first four-time Heavyweight champion. The two would have a rematch seven months later with Ruiz this time picking up the victory via unanimous decision, becoming the first Hispanic Heavyweight champion. With each man holding a victory over the other, a third fight was held on December 15, 2001. This time Ruiz and Holyfield fought to draw, allowing Ruiz to keep his WBA title.

References