Mike Tyson Lennox Lewis fight part 1
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00:00♪♪
00:10The following is a special presentation of HBO Sports.
00:14The Network of Champions.
00:19For the anti-hero Mike Tyson, it began as a love story.
00:22The romantic portrayal of how the elderly, eccentric trainer
00:25liberated the boy from a reform school
00:27to educate him in the secrets of combat art
00:29won fans by the millions.
00:31And the boy paid it all off
00:33with a dressed-down warrior persona
00:35and a string of sensational knockouts.
00:37True to the old man's prophecy,
00:39he became the youngest-ever heavyweight champion
00:41and embarked on a path toward immortality.
00:44Down, down, down!
00:47He's down again and in serious trouble.
00:50A path marked by glamour, gargantuan consumption,
00:53and excess.
00:55A path made darker and more complicated
00:57with each shedding of the superstar's skin.
00:59A path that ended abruptly in Tokyo
01:02with the once-invincible destroyer
01:04forlornly searching for his lost mouthguard.
01:07He would never again be the same,
01:09but his public was still blinded by romance.
01:12For a long time, Lennox Lewis beat everyone
01:15but couldn't satisfy anyone.
01:17Despite many dominating performances,
01:20Americans considered him too cautious,
01:22especially for a big man
01:24and well too British,
01:26the un-Tyson.
01:28Self-inflicted wounds
01:30when he arrogantly let his guard down
01:32years apart to two Buster Douglas-class opponents,
01:35Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman,
01:38weren't fully healed by emphatic revenges.
01:41The judges who gave him a draw
01:43when he clearly beat Evander Holyfield
01:45seemed to be reviewing him, not the fight.
01:48Through it all, Lewis kept getting up
01:50and getting better,
01:52determined to be recognized as the best of his time.
01:56What could only happen if he fought Mike Tyson?
01:58And nothing, nothing would stand in the way of that quest.
02:02So last Saturday night,
02:04the faded shell of the former comet
02:06met the less spectacular solid citizen
02:08for the heavyweight championship
02:10and for ultimate superiority
02:12in the three-man round robin
02:14they have shared with Evander Holyfield.
02:16When Mike Tyson confirmed his instability
02:18at a bizarre press conference,
02:20major boxing states denied him a license.
02:23So a heavyweight championship fight
02:25became an outlaw event
02:27that wound up in the home of the blues,
02:29Memphis, Tennessee,
02:31which wanted an economic jolt and a party.
02:34In the end, conventional wisdom
02:36dictated the conclusion of the saga.
02:38Lennox Lewis's victory
02:40was more than just the final coronation
02:42of the best heavyweight of his era.
02:44It was the emphatic triumph
02:46of excellence over exhibitionism,
02:48of competitiveness over carnal pleasure,
02:50of substance over style.
02:52It was the definitive destruction
02:55of the myth of Mike Tyson
02:57and a statement on Lewis's now lofty place
02:59in the history of heavyweight boxing.
03:25Hello again, everyone.
03:27I'm Jim Lampley,
03:29along with HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant.
03:31We talked for years about the possibility.
03:33So clearly did many of you.
03:35And last Saturday night,
03:37it finally took place,
03:39Mike Tyson's long-awaited opportunity
03:41to move back to the top
03:43of the heavyweight division
03:45where he could face
03:47the world's greatest heavyweight champion,
03:49Larry Merchant.
03:51I'm Jim Lampley.
03:53Mike Tyson was able to move to the top
03:55of the heavyweight division
03:57where his many fans thought he belonged.
03:59Lennox Lewis's chance to prove
04:01once and for all
04:03that Tyson was nothing more
04:05than a carefully preserved and marketed myth.
04:07Larry, in an overall sense,
04:09what took place in Memphis?
04:11Lennox Lewis gambled his reputation
04:13on one defining fight.
04:15And in winning that huge bet,
04:17he exposed an illusion,
04:19the Tyson of the 90s.
04:21But it was his signature in the 80s
04:23that he was able to sustain that image
04:25by raging through minor opposition
04:27for a decade.
04:29All the while,
04:31descending from the fictional story
04:33of a redeemed bad boy
04:35to a proudly unredeemable,
04:37troubled felon.
04:39In Memphis, Lewis made Tyson
04:41the minor opposition.
04:43And he established himself
04:45as one of the great heavyweights.
04:47As you're about to see,
04:49we'll have a conversation
04:51about the fight with Lewis himself
04:53and his increasingly legendary trainer,
04:55Emmanuel Stewart.
04:57Well, even in the final days
04:59as the boxing world gathered
05:01in an environment so big-fight exotic,
05:03it may as well have been
05:05this generation's Kinshasa Zaire.
05:07Skeptics speculated on what untoward event
05:09might knock the bout out again.
05:11But at 10.15 Central Time last Saturday,
05:13the two fighters finally exited
05:15their respective dressing rooms.
05:17To hear how Fran Charles called the fight
05:19in company with Larry
05:21and George Foreman.
05:23Let's take a look at the tail of the tape
05:25for this World Championship heavyweight bout
05:27between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.
05:29Lewis is 10 months older than Tyson.
05:31Tyson will turn 36 at the end of the month.
05:33And it's Lennox Lewis enjoying
05:35a 6-inch height advantage
05:37and a 13-inch reach advantage.
05:39When both fighters stepped on the scales,
05:41Lewis weighed nearly 15 more pounds
05:43than Tyson.
05:46Apparently, both camps expected their fighters
05:48to come in at about 5 to 6 pounds lighter.
05:50Apparently, there was a problem
05:52with the scale.
05:54Five of the last seven Mike Tyson fights
05:56have ended in controversy.
05:58Rules of the bout now with unofficial ringside
06:00scorer Harold Letterman.
06:02And now Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson
06:04will fight for 12 rounds using the rules
06:06of the Association of Boxing Commissions.
06:08There is no standing-eight count,
06:10no three-knockdown rule.
06:12Only the referee can stop the fight.
06:14You go to the scorecards if the four rounds
06:16have been completed, and you cannot be saved
06:18by the bell in any round, including the 12th
06:20and final round.
06:22This is the moment
06:24the crowd here
06:26at the Memphis Theory Arena
06:28has been waiting for.
06:30Here comes Iron Mike Tyson.
06:32Born and raised
06:34in the Brownsville section
06:36of Brooklyn, New York.
06:38For the first time in Tyson's
06:4055-bout career,
06:42he will enter the ring
06:44as an underdog.
06:46Lewis is an 8-to-5 favorite.
06:48But when he enters the ring,
06:50Fran, he'll find out
06:52that he is surely
06:54the favorite
06:56in this ring.