TAINTED GLOVE

A blanket of silence engulfs the trees, a thin sheet of ice grips the roads, a few rays of sun illuminate the lonely trails.

It might be only a few hours’ drive from the glare of Manhattan to Scotrun, Pa., nestled in the mountains known as the Poconos, but it might as well be a trip to another planet.

This is Lennox Lewis’ world and has been for the last seven weeks. While Evander Holyfield, his opponent in Saturday’s battle for the undisputed heavyweight championship at Madison Square Garden, was in Los Angeles last week, bouncing from a seat on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” set to Howie Mandel’s show to a courtside seat at a Laker game, Lewis continued to train in solitude in his mountain retreat.

The only visible form of amusement in his spartan apartment in Caesars Brookdale Resort is a chessboard. He is sharpening his mind as well as his body for Holyfield.

Lewis, 33, has waited too long for Saturday night to overlook any possible edge.

“Everybody always has that one fighter they dream of fighting,” said Emanuel Steward, Lewis’ trainer. “Lennox Lewis’ dream has been to fight Evander Holyfield.

“Lennox will have 36 minutes to earn his place in history. This could be the last big heavyweight fight for years. Lennox has got to capitalize. This is it. This is his whole career.”

It has been a largely frustrating career for Lewis, whose biggest fights haven’t been with opponents in the ring, but in struggling to get big-name opponents into the ring.

Suppose you were told there was a heavyweight who had won a gold medal in the Olympics and has lost only once in 35 professional fights. Suppose you were told that heavyweight had knocked out 27 of his opponents, was named the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, retained that title three times before losing it on an upset knockout by Oliver McCall, but subsequently regained the championship and successfully defended it four times.

Suppose you were told this heavyweight has two fewer losses than Holyfield or Mike Tyson.

You would understandably figure this guy would be the biggest thing in boxing. And you would be wrong.

Lewis can boast of all of the above, but all it has gotten him is the runaround from:

* Riddick Bowe, who threw his WBC belt in a trash can rather than face Lewis.

A final-four heavyweight tournament had been set up in 1992. Lewis was to face Razor Ruddock and Bowe was to meet Holyfield, with the winners fighting for the undisputed heavyweight title.

But when Bowe and Lewis were left standing, Bowe refused to fight Lewis. It wasn’t because of the money. Bowe was to get $12 million to Lewis’ $2 million.

Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager, blamed it on the dictatorial ways of the WBC. It couldn’t have been because Lewis, representing Canada, had knocked out Bowe, representing the United States, in the 1988 Olympics, could it?

* Tyson, who also gave up the WBC belt rather than face Lewis.

Lewis’ handlers claimed they had offered Tyson $45 million to face their fighter. Instead, Tyson, eager to fight Bruce Seldon, who then held the World Boxing Assn. heavyweight championship, paid Lewis $4 million to step aside, which means it cost Tyson nearly $50 million to avoid Lewis.

After he destroyed Seldon, Tyson gave up the WBC belt rather than face Lewis. He figured he had an easier opponent lined up--Holyfield.

* Holyfield, who has been negotiating with Lewis for nearly two years.

After he beat Tyson for a second time, Holyfield expressed an interest in unifying the title by fighting Lewis, the WBC champion.

Holyfield didn’t duck Lewis, but he refused to sign a deal until the money was right.

And in the meantime, Lewis waited and waited for recognition he feared might never come.

“It’s always been a struggle,” Lewis said. “I wondered, why am I in this position? Why is this happening to me?”

Even as he continued to beat everyone he faced, Lewis couldn’t beat back the doubters.

For one thing, there was the question mark that always seems to hang over British boxers whenever the subject of heart comes up. Never mind that Lewis, while born in England, has Jamaican parents and spent his teens in Canada.

“I find it amusing in one sense and I find it offensive in another,” Lewis said. “How dare they question my heart. I never showed that I don’t have any heart. You need heart just to step into the ring.”

Then there was the matter of his opposition after Tyson stepped aside.

Lewis avenged his only loss by defeating McCall to regain the WBC title, but that was tainted because McCall suffered a nervous breakdown in the ring.

Lewis beat Henry Akinwande, but that was tainted because Akinwande lost by disqualification after he refused to quit his holding tactics.

Lewis knocked out Andrew Golota, but that was tainted because Golota was suffering from emotional problems.

Lewis was victorious over Shannon Briggs and Zeljko Mavrovic, but those wins were tainted because neither opponent was considered formidable.

No, nothing but a victory over Holyfield or Tyson would do.

“It’s been so long in making this fight,” Lewis said, “that I accepted that it was not going to be made.

“Finally, as the time has drawn near, I began to realize that it was going to happen. It’s like waiting for a fight outside on a cloudy day and you don’t know if it’s going to rain or the sun will come out.”

There were plenty of cloudy days in the Poconos, but it’s expected to be sunny in New York on Saturday, a day Lewis thought would never come.