Lewis has eye on place in history

Lennox Lewis cannot wait to make his mark on Memphis history at the Pyramid Arena on Saturday night.

The locals are calling it the biggest thing to hit the city since Elvis Presley died.

The cab drivers and pork-rib chefs all say they are happy Mike Tyson is here too. But most of them have put their money on a disqualification and they all want Lewis to win - and he is itching to oblige.

He is enduring restless nights in his rented home in Tunica and it has nothing to do with the stifling 94-degrees heat.

‘‘I go to sleep every night thinking about this fight and then I can’t sleep because I’m so ready to get in there. I’m focused on Tyson. I don’t like this waiting around.’’

Lewis said he had been waking up at 4am and shadow-boxing around his patio. He is so ready that he is playing as many games of chess with his sparring partner Egerton Marcus as he is sparring rounds.

The champion made his first media appearance at his Fitzgerald’s Casino base today. He said more than Mike Tyson, but insisted that the pre-fight talk of the challenger’s handlers yesterday was cheap.

‘‘They have been talking for their own benefit,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘This is something Tyson has done in the past. He said things about Evander Holyfield and what he wanted to do. But did he get in there and do it? No.

‘‘Tyson is the type of man who will insult you straightaway and I am an action man. I just go straight for you, I am not a talker. Tyson is into talking and saying what he is going to do and what he wants to do. I will do my talking in the ring.

Tyson’s co-trainer Stacey McKinlay certainly gave the impression he was trying to convince himself more than anybody else when he met the media after his man’s chaotic semi-appearance.

He blustered about Lewis having beaten nobody, but when reminded about Holyfield insisted he didn’t count because ‘‘he is not a proper heavyweight’’.

The only level of concern that McKinlay raised was over the string of profanities he muttered into his microphone in front of a crowd which include local competition-winning schoolchildren.

McKinlay said it was just as well that the fighters were not meeting face-to-face before Saturday night, because if they did he would ‘‘spit in Lewis’ face’’.

He also did nothing to convince anybody that Tyson was not ready to seek a controversial way out again.

Lewis firmly believes he will be doing boxing a massive favour if he can pull the wheels off the Tyson roadshow for good. He wants to cement his place in history not only as an all-time heavyweight great but as the man who freshened up his sport by getting rid of the biggest bad smell.

‘‘If Mike does come in there and do those kind of things, I am a better man than to do them back.

‘‘It is not the example to lead. I am not thinking about it. I am able to go into the ring without that extra thing to worry about.’’

Tyson has been more prominent this week, to the public at least, and caused a minor riot when he made an unscheduled visit to a hairdressing salon in the suburbs yesterday.

But the Memphians are not fooled that easily. They know all about Tyson’s notorious history in and out of the ring and that is the reason they want Lewis to knock him out.

A man called Red has seen the stars come and go from his downtown restaurant. He used to close early when Elvis wanted to come in to munch through a plate of his famous pork ribs. He doesn’t expect Tyson to visit.

‘‘We don’t serve ears, we only serve ribs,’’ Red said. ‘‘But if Tyson wants to bring some ears in we’ll cook them for him.’’