Boxing: Lewis fight set for Garden

LENNOX LEWIS' unification match with Evander Holyfield looks set to go ahead at New York's Madison Square Garden on 13 March.

America's "Mecca" of boxing seems to have forged ahead of Las Vegas in the move to feature the world's biggest heavyweight fight between Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion, and Holyfield, the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation title holder.

Frank Maloney, Lewis' manager, said: "There are no major problems with the fight, there are just a couple of legal things to sort out. The television is all agreed." TVKO, the pay-per-view company of Home Box Office, will screen it. "If the fight does take place at Madison Square Garden it will be a great privilege. Most people remember the other great heavyweight fight of modern times there between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971," Maloney said.

"To stage the unification fight in the most famous arena in America would make Lennox and myself proud."

The original dates pencilled in were 27 February or 6 March, but promoter Don King had a deadline of 20 March to fit in with the schedules of HBO.

If New York beats off the rich casinos of Las Vegas to stage the fight, the Madison Square Garden executives will have made an extremely attractive offer to secure the contest.

Lewis has appeared once at Madison Square Garden, when he was given a very tough fight by Ray Mercer, the former WBO champion, in May 1996 while he was between his two reigns as WBC champion.