Columnist Dean Juipe: Lewis both helped and hurt boxing

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

Frustrated by Evander Holyfield's penchant for repeatedly leading with his head, Lennox Lewis had to be contemplating revenge as he caught Holyfield leaning through the ropes in the fifth round of their Saturday fight at the Thomas & Mack Center.

As Lewis burrowed into Holyfield and pushed him dangerously toward what would have been certain injury had they tumbled out on to the desk beneath them, however brief there was a sinking feeling within the building.

Particularly for those with something at stake in boxing, the feeling was "Oh no, here we go again."

The sport couldn't afford another black eye, at least not this year.

But at the last second Lewis applied the brakes. And instead of following through with his momentum and maybe a final shove that would have catapulted Holyfield -- and perhaps Lewis himself -- outside the ring, the crisis passed.

The fighters untangled, regained their footing, and, with a warning from referee Mitch Halpern, continued a fight that would eventually go the full 12 rounds and see Lewis proclaimed the undisputed heavyweight champion.

The Englishman could have added to boxing's ills had he slammed Holyfield through the ropes in the fifth, and to his credit he didn't do it in spite of the temptation.

But beyond that, he didn't do the sport any great favors. His victory -- by 6, 4 and 2 points on the judges' cards -- was not nearly the crisp and electric outcome the sport's fans were counting on and hoping for, nor was it even a great fight.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said for it is that it did not embarrass the game, and after a year like 1999 that's a plus for boxing.

Here's the unique bottom line: The last big fight of the millennium occurred on the heels of so many untoward acts in boxing that, for the most part, people were satisfied to have a consensus outcome and the assurance that neither the federal government nor some police agency will need to investigate.

That Lewis, by virtue of his three championships, is now the focal center of the sport merely reflects its mediocre condition. Technically he's the undisputed champion yet there's considerable dispute whether he truly deserved this victory, and there's little dispute he is hardly among the all-time greats.

Try this theory on for size: Lewis benefitted from a subconscious desire by the judges to rectify the disgraceful scoring of the first Lewis-Holyfield fight in March, the one in New York that ended in a draw and a federal inquiry. Lewis was robbed that night, as all but Holyfield admitted.

So when the rematch resulted in a number of very close rounds, Lewis got the nod more often than not. It's not that he didn't deserve to win, it's just that the fight was so close Holyfield may have gotten the verdict if not for what happened in March.

(Along the same lines, after a series of close wins in Las Vegas the judges didn't do Oscar De La Hoya any favors when he fought Felix Trinidad Sept. 18 at Mandalay Bay, awarding Trinidad a majority decision in a fight that could have gone either way.)

The judges saw to it that justice was meted out. The shame from the fans' perspective is that Lewis needed their help.

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