Lewis Fires Longtime Manager

He was soft-spoken and philosophical, a chess player and a perfect gentleman.

That was Lennox Lewis, heavyweight champion.

He wrestles with an opponent in a television studio and fires the man who managed him for 12 years.

This is Lennox Lewis, former champion.

Since losing his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council titles to Hasim Rahman last April, Lewis has done away with the niceties, becoming uncharacteristically vocal and confrontational.

On a promotional tour for next week’s rematch at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center, Lewis and Rahman had to be separated during the filming of a television show in Orange County.

And now, only 11 days before the fight, Lewis has fired manager Frank Maloney, calling it a “business decision” triggered by Maloney’s greed.

Maloney disagreed, tossing out the word “slave” to describe the relationship he would have had with Lewis had he stayed.

Maloney told The Sun, a London tabloid, that his deteriorating relationship with Lewis finally ended last Friday when he was offered a new contract by Andrew Ogun, Lewis’ business manager, and Jerome Anderson, an agent now entrenched in Lewis’ camp.

“Anderson asked me to sign a new contract,” Maloney said, “that included a confidentiality clause. This was, in effect, a slave-labor contract.

“I told them both that, obviously, Lennox did not want a boxing manager.”

Lewis told British reporters Maloney had asked for “a ridiculously high amount of money.”

But then, seeming to contradict himself, Lewis said, “I’ve got to the point where I’m self-managed now. At different points in their careers, people have to do things for themselves.”

Lewis also came up with a third reason for the firing, citing the fact Maloney went to work for promoter Frank Warren last year.

Warren defended Maloney.

“I think the real reason he was fired was that it was purely a financial situation,” Warren said. “There are two instances where Lennox might not have won back the world title without Frank. I don’t think Lennox has done right by him. Frank has been treated very badly, very badly.”

Lewis, naturally, thinks differently. And these days, he’s not hesitant to say what he thinks.