Lewis to challenge for WBC title

Boxing

LENNOX Lewis will be the next challenger for the WBC heavyweight championship, after a New Jersey court ruled that he should face the winner of this morning's Frank Bruno versus Mike Tyson showdown.

Lewis failed in his attempt to have that fight downgraded to a non-title fight, but he gained a big consolation. Put simply, the former WBC champion Lewis will meet the winner by September since the Superior Court Judge Amos Saunders has ordered Tyson and Bruno to refrain from fighting after the clash in Las Vegas. He also blocked the WBC from sanctioning any more heavyweight title fights until Lewis's lawsuit is settled. "I have no doubt the WBC has treated Mr Lewis unfairly," Saunders said. "He was promised this fight and should have had this fight."

Throughout much of the near five-hour hearing, the judge was clearly sympathetic that Lewis had not been able to fight for the title and his ruling was aimed at trying to ensure that he would meet the winner. "There's irreparable harm when a man misses his opportunity for the heavyweight title," said the judge. "The chance to be a champion is worth much more than money."

Lewis said afterwards he believed the judge's action would guarantee him the next title fight "to prove to the world I'm the best heavyweight in the world". He added: "I think the judge is great, quite frankly."

Lewis, who beat Bruno in defending the WBC title in October 1993, lost it to Oliver McCall in September 1994. McCall then lost it to Bruno in September last year.

Lewis had based his legal case on his having beaten Lionel Butler in a WBC-ordered elimination bout in May. But the WBC maintained that Tyson became the top contender after he was released from prison in March 1995 after serving three years for rape.

Lewis's lawyer, Patrick English, argued that his client was the No 1 contender and played a videotape in which the WBC president Jose Sulaiman told reporters after the May fight that Lewis would meet the winner of the Bruno-McCall fight.

"The only reason that he participated in that battle [with Butler] was that he was promised the WBC heavyweight title shot," English said. "[Sulaiman] said very clearly that the next mandatory defence was with Lennox Lewis after Bruno-McCall," the lawyer added. "He spoke very directly to very direct questions: `Lennox Lewis is next'."

The WBC lawyer Robert Shaffer argued that Lewis had not yet asserted his right to the top contender spot. Shaffer said Lewis would have a shot at a title, but could not commit him to the winner of Saturday's fight.

The judge then told him: "Give him a guarantee and you've won the case."