95 seconds. He needed that long Lennox Lewis, Olympic champion and three-time professional world champion to be knocked out in 1997 Andrzej Gołota in Atlantic City. After many years, the British thought back to this one fighting.
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– Golota had a bad luck, because I couldn’t be in a worse mood than then. For seven weeks I was in a camp in the mountains, and when I was there in Atlantic City, everything was actually against me. I left the locker room angry. I was focused, determined, and furious. I felt like I was on a mission, and apart from all that, I was in great shape. Golota just met me at the wrong time – said Lewis in an interview with Przemysław Osiak, a journalist “Przegląd Sportowy”.
And he added: – When we got between the ropes, it was red on the nose and maybe on the face. I think to myself, “Why is his nose so red?” I didn’t know if he was embarrassed or if he gave himself a few blows to the head before entering the ring. Anyway, it was red and it was looking at me funny. I didn’t understand it, but maybe that was the look he had before the fights.
Two great boxers
Lewis retired after a controversial victory with Vladimir Klichka’s older brother, Vitaly, in June 2003. The fight for the WBC belt was stopped in the sixth round. The Ukrainian had a deep cut above his left eye, he was bleeding. Until then, he was leading on points, but the judges decided that he could not fight further, and the wound was the result of Lewis’s blow, which meant that the British would reach for the belt.
In turn, Gołota never became world champion, but fought four times for the heavyweight belt. He lost to Lewis (via knockout), John Ruiz (controversial verdict on points) and Lamon Brewster (by knockout), and they tied with Chris Byrd. The last duel – demonstration, not scored – in Golota’s career was in October 2014 with Danell Nicholson.
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