Boxing: Lewis focused on revenge

The perspex screens which separated Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman at their weigh-in for tomorrow night’s world heavyweight title rematch might have been hype, but the anger between the pair remains real.

Each has trained hard to batter out the respect they feel is slow in coming from the other, and each weighed in lighter than they did in South Africa.

Lewis looked trim at 17stone 8½lbs, almost half a stone lighter this time, and his lightest since his November 1999 rematch with Evander Holyfield.

Rahman, at 16st 12lbs, is two pounds lighter than he was seven months ago, and also his lightest for two years.

This time there can be no excuses as Lewis plans to erase the memory of that shocking fifth round knockout defeat and Rahman strives to prove he is more than just a one-punch wonder.

‘‘I haven’t faced somebody with the type of personality of Rahman and I don’t really like him,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘This time I’m going to be focused 100% on Rahman and the punches that he can throw. He has really motivated me and I’d like to thank him for that.’’

Rahman starts as the underdog in this gambling city but there are enough respected judges around who already subscribe to the theory that the Hasim Rahman story is about more than just one night.

The weight of history is certainly against Lewis of 13 previous immediate world heavyweight title rematches, only three have fallen in favour of the man who lost the first contest.

Lewis added: ‘‘It is not going to be an easy fight but there are some people who think that Rahman is going to come in and knock me over in the first round.

‘‘But anything he brings I’m ready for it. He’s got to remember that I’m bringing something too.’’

Lewis has never been one for shouting the odds, but the verbal assaults from a man he clearly considers to be nothing more than a fortunate stand-in champion have clearly riled him.

Like a peak Mike Tyson, Lewis has become used to winning the mental wars with fighters before they even clamber in the ring.

Oliver McCall, Henry Akinwande, Andrew Golota and Michael Grant are four examples.

Rahman has not yielded an inch during all the pre-fight bombast, and the biggest worry his supporters have is whether the Baltimore man has become a little too confident for his own good.

Rahman said: ‘‘I heard Lennox say that I’m not fit to be his sparring partner.

‘‘That’s absolutely right, because I ain’t nobody’s sparring partner, especially not yours Lennox.

‘‘Lennox is getting back in there with the hardest puncher in the division and I’m going to knock him out again. This is a tune-up fight for Tyson. It’s going to be over soon.’’

Lewis insists that what Rahman says doesn’t interest him. He is just about righting a painful wrong and regaining the title (nominally the WBC, IBF and IBO belts are the ones at stake) tomorrow night.

‘‘He’s never got under my skin. I’m thick-skinned,’’ Lewis shrugged. ‘‘If Rahman wants to believe he’s got under my skin, he needs something to keep him happy.

‘‘There’s certain fights where I’ve got under a boxer’s skin look at Michael Grant, that was really getting under someone’s skin.

‘‘Him (Rahman) getting under my skin, why? Because of some little tussle in a TV room?’’

Two of those charred examples of Lewis’ psychological warfare, McCall and Akinwande, meet in what almost amounts to a freak-fight on the undercard.

McCall, who burst into tears and refused to fight against Lewis in their 1997 rematch, missed the pre-fight press conference on Wednesday because the terms of his parole stipulate he can only spend four days in Las Vegas.

Akinwande bear-hugged Lewis until referee Mills Lane could take no more and disqualified him, but has remarkably not lost again since that fateful night.

Unlike the main event, McCall-Akinwande promises not to be a bout for boxing purists.