Lennox Lewis laughs off how his ‘MUM rejected’ Vitali Klitschko rematch in 2003 with Ukrainian still seething over controversial loss
Former undisputed champion retired before a re-run of their 2003 bloodbath could be agreed and it has always irked the failed challenger
LENNOX LEWIS will set the record straight over his failed rematch with Vitali Klitschko tomorrow – with the Ukrainian great still seething over his loss.
The 52-year-old British hero successfully defended his WBC belt against Klitschko in 2003 after the challenger was pulled out after six rounds of their blood-soaked bout.
Fifty stitches were needed to repair the skin savagely ripped from around the challenger’s eye but the fact he was ahead on all three scorecards has forever pained Klitschko.
Even now, with the rather pressing job of being mayor in the political hotbed of Kiev, he still accuses Lewis of letting his MUM rule out a re-run of their titanic clash.
But Lewis laughed off the idea that he had Mrs Lewis in his corner and told SunSport: “That’s a funny image. I am the heavyweight champion of the world, he comes to meet me to discuss a rematch and my mum says no.
“Maybe he thinks she also told me off for being late for dinner and not tidying my room.
“I don’t know what it is like to be in his shoes. I think about it and I understand his point of view, he wants to be heavyweight champion of the world and he felt he was almost there.
“To me he was never almost there, just because he was winning the fight on points, you cannot saying you were going to win it, it’s a 12-round fight.
“No one ever gave him as much pressure as I gave him in those early rounds, he would have tired.
“If we had gone further, and his eye did not get cut, he would have lost the final rounds anyway.”
Lewis reveals Klitschko was far from hard done by after he paid his way into the Los Angeles bout to challenge the former undisputed king at his lowest ebb.
After crushing Mike Tyson in their long-awaited June 2002 bout, Lewis took 378 days off, out of the ring, and was rusty for the Staples Center battle.
Klitschko had won two fights in 2001 and another brace in 2002 and was coming in to try to catch Lewis cold.
The British boxing icon said: “I am a slow starter and had been off for a year after Tyson.
“He caught me at the best possible time for him, he had been training for me, and I had been resting.
“They paid my original opponent Curt Johnson from Canada to step aside, they were smart getting me at that time.
“But still, at my worst and his best, I beat him.”
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At his O2 Indigo show in London tomorrow night, Lewis will be bombarded with questions on the current state of heavyweight boxing.
Fight fans want to see the first the undisputed king since the West Ham-born star ruled the division but talks between WBA, WBO and IBF title-holder Anthony Joshua and the WBC boss Deontay Wilder have twice broken down.
AJ can sell out 90,000-seater stadiums against unknown opponents while his American rival struggles to fill the 19,000 capacity Barclays Centre in Brooklyn.
But even-handed Lewis insists both men must be paid their dues and AJ will have to swallow some of his pride - and his purse - if he wants to be undoubted ruler of world boxing.
Discussing Wilder’s negotiation point, Lewis said: “He has the most prestigious belt out there – that is my belt and it should be worth a lot of money.
“They should never try to give him a pittance for a shot at that belt.
“I am just saying that they need to be fair. It will be two guys that generate a lot of money, not just one guy, it takes two.
“If you are not being fair then it seems to show that you don’t want the fight.
“It is not brain surgery, everyone knows what the deal is.”
Tickets for on September 6 at the O2 are available