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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lennox Lewis Sure Loves Lennox Lewis

Ron Borges Boston Globe

Lennox Lewis is learning what an old friend of mine believes is one of the facts of life.

“Out of chaos there is profit,” he always says, and that seemed to dawn on Lewis this week as he discussed his position in the multimillion-dollar world of heavyweight boxing a month after the defeat of Mike Tyson and a week after the probable destruction of Riddick Bowe.

With both Tyson and Bowe beaten, in one fashion or another, the division is now ruled by a hero with the faith of a zealot named Evander Holyfield, a villain with a broken compass named Andrew Golota, and the multipass-ported Lewis, who claims citizenship in England, Canada and Jamaica, depending on what’s convenient for him and his business enterprises at the moment.

On Feb. 7, Lewis will try to win back the World Boxing Council heavyweight title he briefly held from a man presently sitting in a drug rehabilitation center, which should improve his chances, although it didn’t help him the last time he fought the Christmas tree-swinging Oliver McCall.

McCall was supposed to be in training in Nashville for the bout, but a week ago he turned into Scrooge on high-speed drugs when he went nuts in a hotel lobby and began jousting anyone who came by with the hotel’s Christmas tree. This was considered bad form and unusual behavior, even for a Don King fighter, and word is he’s back in a rehab center trying to kick a problem that has been plaguing him for years.

McCall is a sad case, but that is not Lewis’ concern. His concern is simpler. What happens Feb. 7? “We hope he shows up,” promoter Dino Duva said last week at a New York press conference that was supposed to introduce the two fighters but, for obvious reasons, McCall was absent.

“I do too!” King bellowed.

Since McCall cold-cocked Lewis in two rounds to win the WBC title from him in a stunning upset two years back not long after he had come out of another rehab, one imagines King does. But no one wants to see him more than Lewis because he understands that to win a portion of the title is to put himself back in the middle of the fight game’s ATM the heavyweight title scene.

“A win makes Lennox Lewis No. 1,” Lewis said with his usual humbleness. “Me and Evander Holyfield. No question Riddick Bowe has been exposed. Mike Tyson has been exposed. When you talk about the heavyweights now, you can basically only talk about Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.”

Lennox Lewis dearly loves to talk about Lennox Lewis but doesn’t love to put Lennox Lewis at risk very often, so this may come as a shock to him, but you probably could get away with talking about Tyson or Golota, who has now twice beaten Bowe and has two disqualification losses to show for it.

What does Lewis hope to get from McCall beyond a few million and the WBC belt? What he hopes to get is some respect, but that will not come with such a belt or such a win. It will no longer even come with stepping in against Bowe, although Bowe is likely to be his next opponent.

No, that will come only by stepping in with Tyson or Holyfield or perhaps Golota, although there are still more questions than answers about Golota and whether he beat Bowe or just an empty shell of Bowe. But let us get back to Lennox Lewis.

“If Oliver McCall believes he can beat Lennox Lewis again, he’s gravely mistaken,” Lewis said. “If I lose there’s no reason for Lennox Lewis to go on.”

That might give a few people in boxing reason to root for McCall. Still, the odds against McCall, both in this fight and in life, are too long to expect a second upset. So if Lewis can avenge his only loss, where does he think it will lead him? And is Lewis even interested in avenging that first loss?

“Lennox Lewis doesn’t dwell in the past, but I believe the first fight was stopped prematurely,” said Lewis. “I went to the WBC Convention and I see the referee sitting with Don King and the whole of his family. I thought there was something wrong there. All I can say is I want to amend the future.”

Excuse me?

“Lennox Lewis is greatly improved mentally and physically and looking forward to showing off his talent. I’ve waited so long for this fight I’ll be happy just to step into the ring. They’ve been running from me for such a long time, keeping me from my glory. Once I win the WBC title, I’ll be saying, ‘Where’s the next one?”’

To say that, of course, Lewis will first have to say where’s Oliver, and at the moment, who knows.

King is not talking and McCall has put down his Christmas tree and disappeared again, and there are those who fear on the night of the fight he will be declared unfit or unavailable and Lewis will have been denied his glory once again.

There is no protection against that, and Duva knows it. The WBC will not declare a King fighter unavailable until the last minute, and if that happens Lewis could end up again fighting for a title in an odd way, same as he did when he first was awarded it a month after he beat Razor Ruddock in what was supposed to be a fight leading up to a title bout.

Lewis’ people understand this and they fear the possible consequences of a delay, yet they know there is little or nothing they can do about it.

“Don King will do anything to sabotage the show,” said Lewis’ manager, Frank Maloney. “He’s a power freak, and he’s not in control of the WBC championship. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so we have to do our best to prepare Lennox for whoever comes out of the corner on Feb. 7.

“Someone will. The WBC needs it. Boxing needs it.”

Lennox Lewis knows who else needs it, too. Lennox Lewis needs it.

Around the ring

Golota did end up with a broken jaw, which was wired shut in Chicago last week and will remain so until a week from Sunday. Originally, doctors in Atlantic City said he had a broken ear drum, not a broken jaw as first feared. A second exam in Chicago confirmed the jaw break. It may have been a Bowe punch on that already broken jaw that spurred the fury that led to Golota’s final three low blows and disqualification Dec . 14… . Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager, apparently is telling some who will listen that Golota was possibly on steroids and he wants to find Golota’s urine sample and have it tested. Whether that’s true or false, Newman should be more concerned with Bowe’s neurological tests. Bowe underwent a battery of such exams last week and supposedly was given a clean bill of health. They told Muhammad Ali the same thing before he fought Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. Instead of searching for Golota’s urine, Newman should search out some old tape of Bowe interviews three or four years ago and compare them to the ones just prior to this fight. Is it the same man talking? I fear not… . Promoter Bob Arum’s recent decision to sign guys like Buster Douglas and Raul Marquez is because of a new fight series he has negotiated with DirecTV. Arum signed a one-year contract with the satellite dish company and it wanted only name fighters, so Arum has been stockpiling them. You can get the fights only if you buy the dish, but it still costs you $14.95 per show. First program is Feb. 12… . Fight fans looking for an early Christmas present should dial up the Classic Sports Network on Christmas Eve. From 4-11 p.m., they will run an Ali retrospective, “The Fights and Times of Muhammad Ali.” It will include many of his fights as well as a documentary on his life… . International Boxing Federation super middleweight and WBC light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. explained the placing of his most recent fight with Mike McCallum in a non-boxing stop like Tampa this way: “I like to bring fights to places where HBO and Lou DiBella don’t go.” To which New York Daily News boxing writer Michael Katz retorted, “Why don’t you try a church?” … On the night Holyfield fought Tyson, the fight’s web site (MTyson.com) had 3.5 million hits. At its peak, the site handled 750,000 hits per hour, which means somebody was interested… . Speaking of Holyfield-Tyson, a late May or early June rematch seems likely with Tyson probably not fighting IBF champion Michael Moorer in March despite having a contract to do so… . David Reid, America’s only boxing gold medalist at the Atlanta Games, underwent surgery to repair his drooping left eyelid last week and is expected to make his pro debut in March. Reid signed a multiyear deal with Mat Tinley’s America Presents promotional company that paid him a $1 million bonus. Tinley says he plans for Reid to fight 12 times over the next two years… . Efforts to match Johnny Tapia and Danny Romero in Albuquerque continue with Tapia already conceding on the weight and the money. All he wants is the fight… . Roberto Duran is in danger of losing his home in Panama because he can’t repay a personal loan against it. Duran fights again on ESPN2 Feb. 16 and in Montreal March 25 in hopes of eventually getting Hector Camacho into a rematch if he beats Sugar Ray Leonard… . The demise of Julio Cesar Chavez continued when he pulled out of his scheduled HBO fight with Lowell’s Mickey Ward in Reno, claiming a bothersome right hand that few believed. It has been widely rumored throughout the boxing world that Chavez’s personal problems have intensified to the point where he has been accused by his ex-wife of threatening to kidnap his sons and got into a brawl with his former brother-in-law over it.