Boxing: Lewis joins the greats with devastating display

Lennox Lewis fashioned a perfect exit from the world of heavyweight boxing when he systematically destroyed the lingering myth of Iron Mike Tyson in a modern pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi. His successful defence of his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation world heavyweight titles was crowned by a ferocious assault on Tyson, which brought victory two minutes and 25 seconds into the eighth round. It was, even his beaten opponent acknowledged, a "masterful performance".

But the champion, who is now being hailed by such formidable predecessors as George Foreman and Joe Frazier as one of the best of all time, may yet decide to extend a career threatened only by the ultimately unbeatable tick of the clock.

Though Lewis, who is just three months away from his 37th birthday, will never have a bigger stage or an opponent of even remotely comparable stature ­ at least in the eyes of the public ­ to the man he so witheringly demolished here in the small hours of yesterday morning, it is far from certain that he will take the chance to walk out of boxing with an unchallenged right to be numbered among the great ones.

Lewis, who in 14 years as a professional had never looked more completely in charge of a fight, said: "I'm going to enjoy this victory for a couple of weeks ­ and then I will give you an answer about my future." Though many of Lewis's other comments carried the ring of a man who knew his most vital life's work was over, and marked by superb accomplishment, the reason for the delay of a retirement announcement was apparent in almost every second of the fight.

The truth was that Lewis, who already shared the distinction of being a three-time world heavyweight champion with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, made the beating of Tyson look so easy he might have been initiating his own "bum of the month" campaign.

He knows that in his boxing dotage he is easily capable of earning at least another $30m (£20m) by mopping up heavyweight opposition which, in the shape of men like the mandated challenger, Chris Byrd, Vladimir Klitschko, Kirk Johnson and the World Boxing Association champion, John Ruiz, can be described as no more than nominal.

Never has a heavyweight exerted such command over the richest division of boxing, and though Lewis can probably never expect a paynight like the one he enjoyed here ­ a basic $17.5m which could with pay-per-view profits swell to as much as $25m ­ a still huge earning potential stretches into the future.

It creates options for Lewis which can only haunt the man who lost the last of his brutal aura under a tide of heavy and accurate punching. Tyson is finished as a fighter capable of striking fear into every corner of boxing, but, though the grim fact is that he will probably have to fight on against second-class opponents in order to clear his debts, he took his punishment here with the dignity of a genuine fighting man.

Tyson said: "Lennox is a gentleman. He was the better man tonight. He is a wonderful fighter. He is too big and strong and I don't think I could ever beat this man the way he fought tonight. He hurt me early and I never got into the fight. He wore me down. I'm just happy he didn't kill me."

Foreman's praise was as dramatic as the final denouement of Tyson, who lay with his right hand covering a bloodied face and a closed right eye, as he was counted out by the referee, Eddie Cotton, who had controversially docked a point from Lewis, after the champion had plainly and cleanly knocked down his opponent in the fourth round, and delivered two equally mysterious warnings for holding. But Lewis had his own arbiters in the left and right hands which put Tyson down twice in the climactic eighth round. Foreman said: "He's the greatest heavyweight of all time. That's all there is to it. He's not second. He's at the top. He's the only man who has been able to reverse his only defeats.The referee was against him but it just didn't matter."

Foreman's assessment of Lewis's status may require reflection, but another resounding endorsement came from Frazier, who, unlike Foreman, is not employed by Lewis's American television company, HBO. Said the man who was involved in three legendary fights with Ali: "Lewis is up there now with Muhammad, George and me."

Such is the status Lewis hammered out for himself as Tyson, nearly a year the champion's junior, finally slipped, painfully and irretrievably, into the mists of boxing history. His reputation as the Baddest Man on the Planet was mummified in the arena known as The Pyramid. His control of his own destiny had been torn away. The biggest question for his conqueror now is whether he will ever again put his own legacy in similar jeopardy.