Punch Line: It's a Draw

By STEVE SPRINGER

March 14, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

The heavyweight division still doesn’t have an undisputed heavyweight champion.

But it has one heck of a dispute.

In a decision that pleased no one except maybe Evander Holyfield, Holyfield and Lennox Lewis battled to a draw Saturday night in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd of 21,284, a crowd that indicated by its reaction that it felt Lewis had won the fight.

Judge Eugenia Williams of New Jersey scored it 115-113 for Holyfield. Judge Stanley Christoudoulou of South Africa had it 116-113 for Lewis. Judge Larry O’Connell, who comes from Lewis’ native England, scored it dead even at 115-115.

The Times had it 116-113 for Lewis, giving Lewis seven rounds and Holyfield four with one even.

Roy Jones Jr., the World Boxing Assn. and World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion, serving as a commentator on the TVKO pay-per-view telecast, said he was “ashamed” after hearing the verdict.

And he wasn’t saying that because he thought Holyfield won.

The reaction of the two fighters and their handlers to the decision is a pretty good indication of what they thought.

“I got robbed,” a furious Lewis said. “I controlled the entire fight. I’m so disappointed. I wasn’t going to leave here with just one belt. I felt I won the fight hands down. It was my time to shine and they ripped me off. What happened in there was what you call politics. I am the undisputed champion of the world and the whole world knows that. He should give me those two belts because he knows they are mine. “

Holyfield (36-3-1, 25 knockouts) retains the International Boxing Federation and WBA titles. Lewis (34-1-1, 27 knockouts) still has the WBC belt.

Holyfield, while claiming victory, didn’t say it with much conviction.

“If he wants to get it on again, well get it on again,” Holyfield said. “I thought I won the fight. I was taking my time ,saving my energy and I did the best I could, but I thought I won the fight.”

Holyfield’s trainer, Don Turner, seemed relieved at the announcement of the draw.

“I thought we won the last four rounds to win the fight,” Turner said, “but it was definitely close. But I’m not complaining.”

The next obvious move would be a rematch.

What does Lewis say?

“I say automatic rematch,” Lewis replied, “but I doubt he’ll fight me again.

Lewis’ promoter, Panos Eliades was angry enough Saturday night to say of a rematch, “Absolutely no way.”

That, of course, was Saturday night. Considering the fact that Holyfield got $20 million for Saturday night’s effort and Lewis got $10 million, and figuring that Lewis could ask for equal pay in Holyfield-Lewis II, don’t count out a rematch that fast.

Don King, to the surprise of no one, already was licking his lips at the thought of another meeting between the two, visions of dollar bills floating in his head.

“I absolutely want to do a rematch,” King said, “but I don’t know where. It was one of the greatest promotions I’ve ever done.”

Hardly. Nobody is going to confuse this one with Ali-Frazier I, the fight many were comparing this one to simply because there hasn’t been a heavyweight match like that in this building since that 1971 bout.

And that streak is still intact.

Lewis did what many said he could not do. He showed the character and heart so many felt he lacked, he held the shorter Holyfield at bay, not allowing Holyfield to fight inside where he likes to work. Lewis held Holyfield off with an effective jab, and seemed to do the most damage with his right hand.

It was a strange fight for Holyfield. He entered the ring seemingly intent on making his prediction of a third-round knockout come true.

Holyfield did nothing for the first two rounds, failing to land a meaningful punch. He appeared to concede those rounds to Lewis in order to set himself up for the third round and the knockout he said would show the world whether he spoke “the truth.”

Asked earlier in the week what he would do it he failed to get that knockout as advertised, what he would fall back on for Plan B, Holyfield said, “There is no Plan B.”

In that respect, he was right.

Holyfield launched a furious attack in Round 3, landing two solid right hands and a good left hook.

Lewis, who has faded in the past in the face of a furious attack, passed his moment of truth by getting through the round in good shape.

Holyfield won the third round and the fourth rounds with his aggressiveness, but then he seemed to fade.

On the Times’ scorecard, he also got a draw in the sixth round and made a late charge, winning rounds 10 and 11. Lewis won the rest.

Perhaps it was a loss of adrenaline after his boast of a third-round knockout failed. Perhaps the mind games he was trying to play with Lewis had done in him instead.

Or perhaps it was the fact that Holyfield didn’t seem to take Lewis seriously in the weeks before Saturday night. Eight days before the fight, Holyfield was in Los Angeles on a whirlwind publicity tour while Lewis was hard at work at his training camp in the Pennsylvania mountains.

Holyfield recently was rated as the third-greatest heavyweight behind Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali.

Holyfield thought he should be considered for No. 1.

Not just yet. At this point, he can’t even be rated above Lennox Lewis.

The Scoring

The Judges

LARRY O’CONNELL

Great Britain

115-115

STANLEY

CHRISTOUDOULOU

South Africa

Lewis, 116-113