I can't be bothered fighting Iron Mike - he'd be too easy

Jeff Powell

Last updated at 00:00 20 November 2001

LENNOX LEWIS is convinced he would blow Mike Tyson away - but he no longer feels he needs to do so to prove himself one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

After Saturday's monumental performance made him world champion for the third time, Britain's sepia Adonis is less disturbed now by the possibility that Tyson may never show up for the richest fight in boxing history.

'Mike would be an easy night for me,' said Lewis 'But he knows it, too. So it is by no means certain he will challenge me, no matter how much money is on the table.' He was speaking after taking devastating revenge on Hasim Rahman for the fluke punch seven months earlier which temporarily separated him from his senses and his titles.

Lewis was sitting in the penthouse of the lush Mandalay Bay resort with his championship belts on his lap, surveying the kingdom he has reclaimed with such overwhelming authority that even his harshest U.S. critics are bending the knee.

Indeed, America is not only giving Lewis his long overdue recognition but is cheekily trying to claim him as one of its own. His trainer Emanuel Steward, ringmaster of the fabled Kronk gymnasium of champions in Detroit, said: 'Lennox is an international figure now. He loves America and spends so much time here that he is more or less American.' Sorry, Manny - hands off.

Thanks for all you are doing, but the man you now bracket with Muhammad Ali is one of ours.

Britain may have been slow to accept the London-born but Canadian-reared son of a Jamaican mother as the successor

successor to Our 'Enery and Big Frank, but we're not daft enough to disown him now that he has joined Ali and Evander Holyfield as the only three-time world heavyweight champions.

The hundreds of fans who flew from Britain made it vociferously clear where their loyalties still lie, despite the disappointment of his shock defeat by Rahman in Johannesburg.

If the fervour of their support here offers any guide to the emotions back home then Britain is very proud of Lewis.

So it should be. It is with the dignity of a stiff upper lip and the courtesy of an English gentleman that Lewis goes into battle.

True, we used to say that he might be a bit more exciting while he's about it. But even Tyson the Terrible may not want to get into the same ring with him. Not just yet. Maybe never.

The negotiations remain ongoing, year after year. The promoters and managers can see the dollar signs writ large in the unsigned contracts, hundreds of millions of them for two huge box-office fights. HBO and Showtime, the rival cable networks whose hostilities stopped this fight happening earlier, are now hustling to get it on together sooner rather than later - like next April - for fear that if they keep squabbling they may lose the jackpot altogether.

But Lewis and his trainer sense the reality. Tyson has a provisional fight date set for

January 19 in New York, perhaps against durable old Ray Mercer.

About which Lewis comments:'Ray has a bit more dog in him than Mike but it's not certain who would win that one.

I can't spend my life waiting around for Tyson. Manny says I could be champion for another 10 years if I wanted to stay in condition. But I'm looking at another three fights over the next year-and-a-half. It would be nice if Tyson were one of them but I'm not holding my breath.

'Anyway, I believe I've done enough to be regarded as up there with the best of the heavyweights.' Steward goes further: 'Mike is afraid to fight Lennox right now. Whatever his business advisers say, he is not mad enough to put himself on offer until he feels he's ready. And on current form he is nowhere near ready for Lennox. He will want at least two major wins before taking that risk.' Despite the millions he has earned and squandered, Tyson is not a slave to money. He once told me: 'I've put plenty away into a trust fund to make sure my kids are OK when they grow up, no matter what happens to me. If I finish up back in the ghetto, it won't worry me. I've always expected that's how it will all end.' Tyson, a devoted boxing historian, is at least as concerned as Lewis about his place in sporting history. I doubt he will agree to letting his credibility be destroyed by Lewis for anyone else's financial convenience. Hence he may elect to take his second warmup fight against his nemesis.

If Evander Holyfield beats John Ruiz in next month's rematch for the WBA belt, Tyson will see his chance to settle their festering score and claim a title of his own.

As a fighter who needs to draw on confidence to be at his most dangerous, that might be enough to stiffen his will to face Lewis later next year.

Not that Britain's finest needs to worry. Certainly not according to his Steward. 'All the doubts have been swept away. Lennox is up there now just under Ali as the greatest of all heavyweights,' he said.

j.powell@dailymail.co.uk