Akinwande Disqualified In Title Fight With Lewis

Another heavyweight title fight. Another disqualification.

This time it wasn’t Mike Tyson biting, it was Henry Akinwande holding. And instead of Evander Holyfield retaining his WBA heavyweight title, it was Lennox Lewis keeping the WBC version of the crown.

For the second time in two weeks, referee Mills Lane called an early end to a heavyweight title fight, disqualifying Akinwande in the fifth round for continually holding onto Lewis in an ugly fight before a disgruntled crowd in the Caesars Tahoe showroom.

Akinwande, who had never lost before, was penalized for holding in the second round but kept hanging onto Lewis every time the champion tried to punch.

Lane stopped the fight in the third, fourth and fifth rounds to lecture Akinwande and tell him to fight. Finally, at 2:34 of the fifth round, he disqualified the No. 1 challenger.

“He obviously didn’t want to fight. All he wanted to do was hold,” Lewis said. “What can you do with a guy who isn’t going to fight.”

It was another strange ending to a heavyweight title fight, and the second time in a row that Lewis won because an opponent simply didn’t fight.

Lewis won the vacant WBC title Feb. 7 when Oliver McCall broke down crying in the ring and stopped defending himself.