The boss of French Connection does things his own way, writes Ruth Nicholas, and the number-crunchers count for nothing

LENNOX LEWIS may have to wait until November for a heavyweight title rematch with Evander Holyfield, according to the British fighter's promoter, Panos Eliades.

HE MIGHT not have thought it when the decision was announced, but Lennox Lewis now believes his controversial draw with Evander Holyfield has given his career a boost.

BOXING NEEDED a nice, clean conclusion from the title fight between Johnny Nelson and Carl Thompson at Derby Storm Arena on Saturday night. An irritating pall persists from New York two weekends earlier and the unpopular draw between heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. The public, they of damaged faith, needed to see a winner win and a loser lose the weekend's World Boxing Organisation cruiserweight title bout. Instead, another fight ended in confusion.

GLENN McCRORY

All the News of the World

Sir: Your main article on Saturday's fight couldn't have been further from the truth. I am an English expatriate living in the US. I paid $50 (pounds 30) to watch the fight live on HBO.

COCA-COLA BEVERAGES, the bottling operation that came to the market last summer, continued its disappointing run yesterday with a 9 per cent fall in operating profits, attributed to problems in the Ukraine and Belarus. These operations fell into losses following the devaluation of the Russian rouble last year.

"MY BOY won the fight - and you know it," railed the mother of Lennox Lewis to his controversially unvanquished opponent Evander Holyfield, following their world heavyweight boxing title bout in New York. And boy, didn't everyone agree with her?

HAD LEWIS been awarded the victory he plainly had earned, he would be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and the title would be in control of his promoters. Instead, King remains somewhat shakily in the driver's seat. He still has two-thirds of the title at his disposal and he still has a somewhat-tarnished Holyfield. He also has a contract that ostensibly gives him the right to promote a rematch. But when he reviews its terms, he may not find the prospect so inviting.

LENNOX LEWIS and Evander Holyfield traded verbal punches on American television yesterday as plans for a re-match got underway.

BOXING

IT WAS, in most eyes, an old-fashioned mugging on Seventh Avenue. After 12 rounds of boxing, Lennox Lewis believed he had Evander Holyfield's titles in his pocket. But then came the judges' verdict, depriving him of the right to call himself the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

THERE WERE calls for Lennox Lewis to be awarded an instant rematch against Evander Holyfield after the fight between the two world heavyweight champions at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night ended in a controversial draw. Lewis, who had waited 10 years for his chance to win the undisputed title, will now have to wait a little longer to rectify what he and his camp see as a serious injustice.