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Lewis in the Ring Again?
UK Update by James McDonnell (February 19, 2004)

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Yes, it's true Lewis will definitely be in the ring again soon.

This time around however, he will be in his corner for his man Corrie Sanders big fight with Vitali Klitchsko (the South AFrican is contracted to Lewis' promotional company).

Lewis will be offering him no doubt the same kind of advice he phoned and offered Corrie the night before his shocking win over little (respectively) brother Wladimir.

It will be a strange sight no doubt for Vitali to see his former conqueror, now retired working the corner of the man who worked over his brother to snatch his WBO title. I am sure there will be a distinct pleasure in it for Lewis.

Lewis is also possibly going to be in the corner for Audley Harrison, though this has not been confirmed yet. Lewis has confirmed however that his organisation, Lion Promotions, will be co-promoting the event with Audley's promotional team, A-Force. Lewis could turn out to be a major force in British promotion. Whilst he has a lot to learn about the promotional game compared to older heads, he undoubtedly has the financial clout to become a serious player in the promotional game, now that he doesn't have to focus his energies on the ring.

It's interesting that he seems to almost seamlessly gone from fighting to promoting, no sooner has he announced his retirement, and seems to indicate that Lewis is going to go about his promotional activities with the same will to win as his boxing career.

Corrie and Audley should benefit from having a talisman like Lewis in their corner, though of course the pressure to perform in front of a heavyweight legend could have a potential detrimental effect. Should Corrie win against Vitali, Lewis will also have secured a major coup for his promotional company. His association with Audley is longstanding, as Audley has consulted him for advice on many occasions, and looks up to Lewis as the model of a successful figure in British boxing.

HATTON GETS BRAZIL HARDNUT

It has now been confirmed that Ricky Hatton will be taking on Brazilian hardness Kelson Pinto in his next bout. The bout takes place at Hatton's home fortress the MEN Arena in Manchester on April 3rd.

Most have welcomed Hatton's choice of opponent, as there is no way that Pinto can be identified as a soft target. Whilst Pinto is largely unheard of on British shores, I understand he has already been featured on fight cards on Showtime.

Pinto is young and ambitious, and carries good power. At 6'0 tall, he has a longer reach than Hatton, and from what I have been told he has a boxer-puncher style, liking to throw his power shots from range.

However, Pinto is by far the less experienced of the two, and hasn't really beaten an established fighter. His best win to date is over Emmanuel Augustus, who although a gatekeeper to the top drawer of the division, is hardly a hungry young lion like Hatton. Sporting a 27-22-5 record going into his 2003 contest with Pinto, he was never likely to be a serious threat, though he was as ever durable enough to go the distance.

Another factor in Hatton's favour is that whilst his long arms might be an advantage at range, his lanky frame is surely wide open for Hatton to exploit with his rib-bending combination punching. If and when Hatton gets in range, Pinto will have a lot of ribs to cover up. Hatton will benefit from studying his opponents form, but was very confident during the press conference for the bout.

Whatever the outcome, it seems certain to be a great fight, as both men have good power, and have an attacking style. It's another step along the road for Hatton if he wants to really be regarded as the main man in the division, a prospect that no longer seems as ludicrous to non-English fight fans as it once did.

The bout of course is for the interim WBO light welterweight title, which will surely become the full title soon as Judah is set to move on up to welterweight to challenge the latest 'Spinks Jinx', Cory.

Although a few eyebrows have been raised about Hatton going for the WBO, rather than a more recognised belt, I think people are overly fixated by the belts. The WBO title is in any case a step up from the WBU title Hatton currently holds.

There is the possibility that holding the WBO belt can hinder a fighter's ambitions, but in Hatton's case I think his drawing power is making him a more and more attractive proposition to foreign fighters. It surely will not now be far away before he is facing the likes of Sharmba Mitchell, Arturo Gatti and maybe before he retires Kostya Tszyu.

Mitchell of course disproved my theories in accepting a bout with Eamonn Magee, and is being talked of as being a future Hatton opponent. As he is appearing on the undercard of Hatton's bill (see what I mean about Hatton being a draw?), it looks that this could be a fight which materialises sooner rather than later. This seems especially as Mitchell is the holder of an IBF interim title, which could turn into a full blown title if the ageing Tszyu is unable to recover from his injuries to fulfill his mandatory defense.

Of course, Mitchell has to get past Magee first, which although he will be the favourite to do, is no racing certainty.

Whilst Magee is no longer considered world class by most, and was talking about campaigning at welterweight in any case, I think Mitchell is taking a risk in taking on Magee, who is notoriously tough. Mitchell will need his boxing brain in gear and cannot afford to get drawn into the trenches as he was at times against Lovemore N'dou.

Lest we forget, Magee remains the only man to drop Ricky Hatton in his career, when he caught him in the 1st round of their bout in 2001 and put him down heavily. As Hatton has absorbed shots from the likes of Phillips and Tackie, it's a testament to his punching power.

Magee of course would love another crack at Hatton, as he felt he was close to winning the fight, and a win over Mitchell would catapult him into the top echelons of sanctioning body rankings.

Magee took Hatton's body shots without flinching during their fight, and ran him close enough for some people to think he deserved a rematch.

On the Sports Network website Frank Warren explained why the two men (Mitchell and Hatton) were appearing on the same bill, but not facing one another at this stage.

"Mitchell fought Lovemore N'dou and won a very close decision," he said. "It's too soon (for him to fight Hatton). The British public in general don't know who he is. My job is to let them have a look at him and then we'll build for a fight.

"Each fight this year (for Ricky) will be stepped up and they will be tough fights, but he has to take each one at a time."

It would seem then that any fight between Hatton and Mitchell would most likely be staged in the UK, where Hatton's popularity and high ratings on Sky promise a good payday for travelling fighters.

CRAZY WORLD OF PROMOTION

Speaking of Junior Witter, a funny thing happened on the way to the purse bids.

Witter is scheduled to face off against Salvatore Battaglia, for a shot at the European crown, for which Witter is the #1 contender for the title vacated by long time European light welterweight champion Otkay Urkal.

Witter should have faced Kelson Pinto on the undercard, but pulled out with an injury, although there were insinuations from Hatton that is wasn't the hand injury mentioned by the Witter camp.

"Junior Witter was scheduled to fight him on the undercard of my fight with Tackie but he pulled out with an injury. I'm not sure what Witter injured but after I watched Pinto's knockout compilation on tape I've got a good idea of what he ruptured!"

Witter however must look elsewhere for world recognition, and his European title challenge is a sure fire way to get himself in the rankings of the major sanctioning bodies. Witter's career has been stagnating of late, he was the mandatory #1 contender to Zab Judah's WBO crown for a full year, and yet Judah was allowed to fight overmatched Jaime Rangel, whilst Witter was ordered to fight for an interim title against Pinto.

In a strange turn of events though, Witter, who up until recently has been promoted by Frank Warren, will in fact be fighting on a show staged by rival promoter Mick Hennessey, as it is Hennessey who has secured the purse bid.

Witter's promoter Warren initially put forward a proposed purse bid, but did not follow it up with plans of when to stage the event in the allotted time, and so a second round of bids was order, which Frank Warren was excluded from for failing to mount a serious effort at staging the promotion first time around.

This led people to insinuate that Warren has lost patience with Witter, and that the lack of interest in actually staging the event was a symptom of his displeasure with his fighter.

There are many rumours floating around that Witter and Warren are to soon part and this turn of events has only fuelled them. Certainly, a war of words has been going on between Witter and his camp and Warren, over the much talked about Hatton v Witter fight not materialising. As things stand Witter is very much out in the cold, and may have to seek fresh ground in order to advance his career.

ITALIAN JOB FOR EASTMAN

At the same time as Hennesey has secured the Witter purse bid, he failed to win the purse bid for Howard Eastman's European title defense against Christian Sanavia. The bid was instead won by Italian promoters OPI 2000, meaning that Howard will have to travel outside of his comfort zone to defend his title, perhaps no bad thing.

It is hard to see Howard really struggling against Sanavia. Although Howard didn't look his best against Sergey Tatevosyan, Sanavia was knocked out by light hitting and mediocre middleweight Morade Hakkar in 2002, and struggled to beat Mike Algoet last time out in a fairly dismal 8 rounder.

Following this defense of his European title, he is also scheduled to defend his British title next against domestic middleweight

Eastman is keeping a busy schedule, and is to be commended for not sitting on his laurels waiting for his shot at Hopkins. A wise move I think, seeing as you are likely to get a numb ass with the length of time you might wait for that opportunity.

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