King’s Court Beckons to Lewis

One picture was worth a thousand rumors.

There was newly crowned heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, in the euphoria after his fourth-round knockout of Hasim Rahman on Saturday night, posed between his promoter, Gary Shaw, and his wannabe promoter, Don King.

Can King steal Lewis away?

Would Lewis agree to turn his back on those who have so successfully guided the career of the three-time heavyweight champion?

Could the contract Lewis has with the Main Events boxing organization--run by Chief Executive Kathy Duva and Shaw--withstand a legal challenge by King?

With Rahman still groggy from the right hand that ended his seven-month reign as World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation heavyweight champ, King, his promoter, already had moved on, fueling the speculation by openly campaigning to be Lewis’ promoter.

On the horizon is potentially the richest fight of Lewis’ 12-year career, an April match against two-time heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

“Like me or not, I am the best,” King said in the media room after Saturday’s fight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. “I can make this happen.”

King has proven his ability to make big fights happen, especially heavyweight fights, over the last three decades. But it would certainly seem, in this case, King would be a roadblock rather than a vehicle for putting together Lewis-Tyson. Tyson split from King several years ago, accused the promoter of stealing money from him, sued King and has vowed never to fight under King’s banner.

Yet despite all that, Lewis, although claiming Tyson is the man he wants next, went out of his way to praise King at the post-fight news conference.

“I would like to thank Don King,” Lewis said. “He is truly a boxer’s promoter, a great promoter with a great vocabulary.”

Winning fighters don’t go out of their way to praise losing promoters.

Unless, perhaps, they have an interest in availing themselves of the services of that promoter.

When Lewis said last week he was considering signing with King, nonbelievers claimed it was a ploy by Lewis, still stung by his controversial draw against Evander Holyfield on a King card, to avoid another bad decision by ingratiating himself to King prior to Saturday’s fight.

But Lewis showed no less enthusiasm for King after he had disposed of Rahman.

So what’s next?

King says he has been asked to meet with Lewis’ “people.”

Exactly who are those people?

King wouldn’t name them.

Shaw, Duva and Main Events attorney Pat English all claimed word of a meeting with King was news to them. All of them said they had no interest in such a meeting, and no interest in dealing with King.

“We really don’t need any help,” Duva said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time and we’re pretty good at it.”

Rahman, promoted by Cedric Kushner for the first Lewis fight, was lured away by King in the middle of the night. Rahman subsequently won in court the right to break his contract with Kushner.

Rahman turned down a long-term television deal that could have been worth as much as $16 million. For Saturday’s fight, he made $10 million after receiving a $5-million signing bonus from King.

“King stole Hasim Rahman from Cedric Kushner,” English said, “and since then, Rahman has suffered financially. Tell me, is that the greatest promoter in the world?

“Lennox is a very sensible guy. He is not a fool. King can’t treat everybody like fools.”

At the start of Saturday’s post-fight news conference, English had taken the microphone and tried to make peace with King.

Instead, King snatched the mike away from English.

“He is a reprehensible cad and an inveterate liar,” King later said. “He sues me a thousand times and now he says he wants to be friends? If he handed me an olive branch, it’s got to be poisoned.”

Said English: “I came with an olive branch in hand because he had had a tough night in losing. But this man can turn a courtesy into...”

Lewis’ fight with Rahman may be over, but the fight to control Lewis’ future has just begun.