Soon after Lennox Lewis knocked out Andrew Golota, the vanquished challenger was reported in good condition at a local hospital, having collapsed in his dressing room. Immediately there was talk of the future for these two fighters, as there always is in boxing.
Possible opponents ranged from Evander Holyfield to Michael Moorer to Tim Witherspoon to . . . Zeljko Mavrovic?
Golota, who left the hospital after being held overnight for observation, is “still one of the five or six best heavyweights out there,” promoter Dino Duva insisted Sunday.
Duva prescribed a few months’ rest for the Polish-born Chicagoan, 29, before he begins a comeback against “one of the top 10 heavyweights, a guy like Tim Witherspoon.”
World Boxing Council champion Lewis has now etched a signature fight with devastating right-hand power. His demolition of Golota in the first round should raise his U.S. profile, as well as his adulation level in his native Britain.
Duva suggested a couple of scenarios for Lewis’ next fight. One of them puts him in the ring against Mavrovic.
Lewis could have a quick shot at attaining his professed goal of unifying the heavyweight titles for the first time in five years. To do so, he would have to fight the winner of the Nov. 8 title fight between World Boxing Association champion Evander Holyfield and International Boxing Federation champion Michael Moorer in Las Vegas.
A bout between Lewis and the Holyfield-Moorer winner could happen next spring, Duva said. But the matchup faces obstacles. Among them are the WBA, WBC and IBF ranking different challengers and possibly mandating title fights against those challengers, which led to multiple titleholders.
Conceding the problems, Duva insisted they could be overcome “if the money is right.”
For the Golota fight, Lewis was guaranteed $4 million plus a percentage of pay-per-view TV revenue, while Golota got $1.75 million plus a pay-per-view share. While those figures are in Moorer’s league, Holyfield got $35 million for losing a piece of an ear while winning his freak-show fight with Mike Tyson June 28 in Las Vegas.
If Holyfield beats Moorer and doesn’t perceive Lewis as a big-enough money fight, he might choose to wait for a potentially lucrative third fight against Tyson, whose license revocation will be reviewed next summer.
Moorer has beaten Holyfield before. If he wins the rematch, “Michael Moorer will never fight us,” Lewis’ manager Frank Maloney said last week. But Duva insists the bout could be made.
In any case, Lewis’ next fight might be against Mavrovic, because the little-known Croatian, for unfathomable reasons, is the WBC’s top-ranked challenger.
Mavrovic did not seem to be what Lewis had in mind.
“I want to prove I’m the best heavyweight on the planet,” he said. “I want to consolidate all the belts together . . . and keep them for myself.”
Coming into Saturday’s fight–after unmeasurable performances against Oliver McCall, who quit in tears, and Henry Akinwande, who held until disqualified–Lewis was more like the mystery man of the planet.
Born in England and raised in Canada by his Jamaican mother, Lewis, 32, spends a lot of time in Jamaica while listing lists his official residence as London.
It seems certain that England, which has been chilly to him, will officially adopt him now.
As for Golota, Saturday’s nightmare was born of his dream to become the first native Pole to win a world heavyweight title. That may still motivate him enough to try a comeback.
Four of last year’s U.S. Olympians–welterweight Fernando Vargas, light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver, heavyweight Lawrence Clay-Bey and junior middleweight David Reid–won fights in Atlantic City over the weekend, making the Olympians a collective 91-0 as pros.
Gold medalist Reid, already ranked 14th by the WBC, upped his record to 5-0 with a first-round knockout of former welterweight champion Jorge Vaca.
