Lennox Lewis vs Evander Holyfield

Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield fought to a deeply disputed 12-round draw at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 1999, leaving the heavyweight championship divided when the action had appeared to produce a clear winner. Lewis retained the WBC title, while Holyfield kept the WBA and IBF championships. Judge Stanley Christodoulou scored the contest 116–113 for Lewis, Eugenia Williams returned a card of 115–113 for Holyfield, and Larry O’Connell had it level at 115–115. The decision was met with loud jeers from the sell-out crowd of 21,284. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. had presided over an orderly contest containing no knockdowns and few serious infringements. Lewis weighed 245 pounds against Holyfield’s 215 and used that advantage, together with his greater height and reach, to control most of the fight.

The meeting had been delayed for several years by the changing ownership of the principal heavyweight titles. Holyfield had twice rebuilt his position after defeats, recovering from the loss to Michael Moorer and then defeating Mike Tyson in two contests before regaining the IBF belt from Moorer. Lewis had recovered the vacant WBC title against Oliver McCall and strengthened his claim with victories over Andrew Golota, Shannon Briggs and Željko Mavrovi?. Holyfield, then 36, entered as a slight favourite and received a reported purse of $20 million, twice that of Lewis. He also made the unusual prediction that he would control the first two rounds and knock Lewis out in the third. The promotion, billed as “Undisputed,” produced a gate of approximately $13.5 million and around 1.2 million pay-per-view purchases.

Lewis established the pattern immediately. He stood at long range, moved Holyfield onto the jab and refused to allow the smaller man to begin the close-quarter exchanges in which he was most effective. Holyfield landed anything scarcely during the opening two minutes and spent much of the round attempting to find a path inside Lewis’s extended left hand. He reached the champion late with a left to the cheek, but Lewis had done the more consistent work. The second was still clearer. Lewis increased the jab, followed it with the straight right and repeatedly struck Holyfield before stepping away. The punch statistics credited Lewis with 42 connections from 87 attempts in the round, while Holyfield landed only eight of 24.

Holyfield came out urgently for the third, the round in which he had promised the knockout. He moved his upper body more actively, stepped closer before punching and landed several combinations during the first two minutes. A left hook, a right hand and another left brought his first sustained success, and he later launched a large overhand right which Lewis narrowly avoided. Lewis remained composed, tied Holyfield up when necessary and completed the round without being seriously hurt. Holyfield had won the session on all three official cards, but the predicted conclusion had not occurred.

Lewis resumed control in the fourth by restoring the distance and refusing to exchange unnecessarily. His jab struck Holyfield’s face and chest, interrupting the challenger’s forward movement and keeping him upright for the right hand. The fifth was one of Lewis’s strongest rounds. He caught Holyfield with a right as the smaller man turned away, then drove him towards the ropes and landed several uppercuts. Holyfield remained against the ropes for an extended period, offering little in reply. He may have been attempting to draw Lewis into a reckless attack, but the WBC champion continued punching with care. Lewis landed a high percentage of his blows in the round, while a small cut opened across the bridge of his nose.

Holyfield did better in the sixth after Lewis briefly lowered his hands. A right-left combination reached the target, and two judges awarded Holyfield the round. The lapse was uncharacteristic of Lewis’s otherwise disciplined performance, though it caused no lasting difficulty. At the close of the round, Lewis drove three stiff jabs into Holyfield’s face, restoring the position from which he had controlled the earlier action.

The seventh began untidily when the two men fell to the canvas during a grapple. Once they had regained their feet, Lewis struck Holyfield with a sharp right and continued to work behind the jab. The champion’s left hand had begun to produce swelling around Holyfield’s left eye. Later in the round, Lewis forced him towards the ropes and landed a right uppercut, followed by a left and another right. Holyfield managed only eight recorded connections during the three minutes, against 33 for Lewis. It was another decisive round for the taller man and appeared to place him well ahead at the halfway stage.

Holyfield increased his effort from the eighth onward. He applied more pressure, threw in short bursts and attempted to work on the body before Lewis could retreat. His persistence earned him the eighth, ninth and tenth rounds on two of the official cards, although Lewis continued landing the cleaner individual punches. Holyfield’s rallies were brief rather than sustained. He often had difficulty passing the jab and, once inside, found Lewis strong enough to smother his work. The contrast between the men remained plain: Holyfield pursued and occasionally produced a quick combination, while Lewis dictated the distance and landed with greater frequency and weight.

The eleventh was closer. Christodoulou scored it even, while the other two officials gave it to Holyfield. The WBA and IBF champion continued pressing and found some success when Lewis became less active, but there was no suggestion that he had erased the lead established during the first seven rounds. Lewis entered the twelfth needing only to maintain his discipline. He did more than that, taking the round on all three cards. He jabbed, moved and answered Holyfield’s advances with straight punches. A chant of “Lewis, Lewis” spread around the Garden during the final minutes. As the bell approached, Lewis raised his right hand while still locked in a clinch, plainly believing the championship had been unified in his favour.

The statistics supported that belief. Lewis was credited with landing 348 of 613 punches, including 187 jabs and 161 power punches. Holyfield landed 130 of 385, consisting of 52 jabs and 78 power punches. Lewis therefore landed more than twice as many total blows and connected at a considerably higher rate. The Associated Press and HBO’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman both had Lewis winning 117–111. Although Holyfield had taken several rounds through aggression and short rallies, there was no reasonable basis for awarding him enough of the contest to win outright.

The announcement of Williams’s 115–113 card for Holyfield was met with surprise, followed by louder disapproval when O’Connell’s draw produced a split verdict. Williams had given Holyfield the fifth round, despite Lewis’s sustained attack and overwhelming statistical superiority during those three minutes. O’Connell later acknowledged that he felt sorry for Lewis after reviewing the criticism directed at his card. The verdict caused immediate calls for an investigation and a rematch. It also overshadowed both men's performances. Holyfield had shown resilience, recovered from a poor start and remained competitive to the end, but he had been unable to solve Lewis’s reach or match his output.

Lewis had produced a disciplined and largely commanding display. He controlled Holyfield with the jab, landed the heavier right hands and prevented one of the era’s most accomplished inside fighters from establishing prolonged close-range work. His only failing was that he did not force a knockdown or stoppage, leaving the outcome in the hands of three officials. The official draw preserved the separate championships, but it did not reflect the contest most saw at ringside. Eight months later, the two men met again in Las Vegas, where Lewis received a unanimous decision and became the recognised undisputed heavyweight champion. The first fight remained the more controversial of their meetings, not because the action was difficult to interpret, but because the verdict was.

I have never bought the idea that Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield fought an even contest at Madison Square Garden. Holyfield was still a great fighter, having rebuilt himself by beating Mike Tyson twice and regaining the IBF title from Michael Moorer. But against Lewis, he could not get past the jab often enough to make his inside work count.

Lewis controlled the range from the opening bell. He was taller, 30 pounds heavier and disciplined enough not to get dragged into Holyfield’s sort of fight. Holyfield had promised a third-round knockout and produced his best early effort there, but once that passed, Lewis went straight back to business. The fifth and seventh rounds were particularly one-sided, with Lewis landing uppercuts and right hands while Holyfield spent too long trapped at the end of the champion’s reach.

The statistics told the truth: Lewis landed 348 punches to Holyfield’s 130. Yet Eugenia Williams somehow scored it 115–113 for Holyfield, Larry O’Connell had it 115–115, and only Stanley Christodoulou returned the sensible card, 116–113 for Lewis.

I had Lewis winning clearly. Holyfield showed courage and nicked several later rounds, but aggression without enough clean punching does not win a fight. The draw was a disgraceful verdict which denied Lewis the undisputed heavyweight championship he had earned in the ring.