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Lewis Speaks Out
LONDON -- Heavyweight Lennox Lewis addressed the media today at a press conference his camp called over outrage at his failure to sign with the Federal Boxing Alliance's big three organizations.
"A fighter of my caliber...someone of my ability to be cast aside like this...it's outrageous, positively outrageous," Lewis said, looking dapper in a heather tan three-piece suit.
Lewis, expected to be a top contender for one of the major Heavyweight titles, could not reach agreeable terms with either the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council or International Boxing Federation. But the massive Brit says he wasn't demanding anything unreasonable.
"I am a world class talent, practicing pugilism with precision, and I wanted to be treated as such. None of these other guys have proven anything either, it's all hearsay until we step in the ring," Lewis ranted. "But look at me...just look at me. I am bigger and stronger than any of them. None of them could stand in there with me...I would dwarf Ali, Frazier or Tyson, and Foreman or Bowe don't have the technical acumen to match with me. Go right down the line, and I am a superior fighter to them all."
Lewis, at 6-foot-5 and roughly 250 pounds of muscle, is an imposing presence, but officials from the organizations said his asking price was too steep.
None wanted to speak on the record, but a WBA source familiar with the negotiations said Lewis held his demands until Muhammad Ali had signed, then asked for marginally less.
"In his eyes, he's every bit the fighter Ali is, but he acknowledges the showman factor that Ali is more of a draw," the source said. "But he didn't understand that these organizations had to fill rosters at each class. The longer talks went, the less money there was to offer. And his price was coming down at a much lower rate than the funds the organizations, including ours, had to spend."
Lewis declined to respond to questions of his specific demands, except one:
"I demand respect," Lewis said at the end of his conference. "And I will obliterate the World Boxing Organization and make the others pay me what I'm worth...and then I'll destroy their champions as well."
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