Eliades takes aim at Lewis fall guys
by David Smith
Boxing promoters are notorious for putting more spin on a forthcoming fight than anything Shane Warne might manage with a cricket ball.
Positive hype is the traditional method of selling ringside tickets and pay-per-view television subscriptions. The negative aspects of a match are afforded the same treatment as an incoming punch - they're ducked.
Thus it was refreshing to hear Panos Eliades, promoter of Lennox Lewis, make such a candid appraisal of the two opponents being lined-up for the world heavyweight champion's next bout on 21 April.
According to Lewis, the next man to be afforded the dubious privilege of sharing a square of canvas with him will be either Nigerian David Izon or Hasim Rahman of the United States.
"Lennox could take them on with one hand tied behind his back," said Eliades. "Both of them, on the same night."
Those observations elicited a sharp intake of breath from other members of the Lewis camp who will have the task of selling Lewis against Izon or Rahman to the public.
Some fights sell themselves. Lewis against Mike Tyson, should it ever happen, would transcend the status of sporting contest to become a major global event that everyone would want to see.
But Lewis against Izon? Or Lewis against Rahman? An examination of the records of these two challengers offers a clue as to why the turnstiles won't be spinning off their mountings.
According to the latest rankings of the World Boxing Council, whose belt is one of two worn by Lewis, neither Izon nor Rahman are considered good enough to warrant a place among their top-10 heavyweights.
Rahman is generously ranked four by the International Boxing Federation, whose title will also be defended by Lewis a little over 13 weeks from today. Izon, again, does not make the top 10. Neither boxer figures in the latest independent top 10 drawn up by respected British trade magazine Boxing Monthly.
Rahman, tagged 'The Rock', is a 28-year-old from Baltimore whose face is scarred not by the results of boxing conflict but by some of the 500 stitches inserted in wounds sustained in a car accident.
He has won 34 professional fights but lost twice against his most testing opposition - in November 1999 he was sent tumbling through the ropes in the eighth round against Oleg Maskaev, and a year earlier he was stopped in the 10th by David Tua, the Samoan who was totally outclassed by Lewis when the Londoner last fought two months ago.
Rahman looked impressive when stopping Corrie Sanders in seven rounds last summer.
But against the rave reviews of that performance should be balanced a report by the American publication Fight Game of his clash with Obed Sullivan at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Witheringly, it was described as "worse than any of the many bad amateur acts that were given the hook at the famous Harlem edifice".
Izon, 32, won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics and now boasts a record of 25 wins and three losses as a professional.
Like Rahman, this former policeman lost to Tua. He was also easily beaten by Michael Grant, built up in the United States as a champion-in-waiting only to be knocked down in two dramatic rounds by Lewis last April.
Why are these two in contention? Because, apart from Tyson, there is no one out there not already beaten by Lewis - just one defeat in 40 fights - who possesses the necessary experience to mount anything approaching a decent test of the heavyweight champion.
Along with the honest appraisal of Rahman and Izon by Eliades, isn't that a sorry commentary on the state of heavyweight boxing in the year 2001? |
