Lewis beaten to punch lines

The hype battle is over and Hasim Rahman has won it by a street. Whether it is of the remotest relevance to tonight's world heavyweight title fight remains to be seen but Lennox Lewis knows his performance in the ring will need to be more purposeful than his verbal exchanges, or his time among the world's elite will come to a painful end.

A sustained campaign of history reinvention, orchestrated principally by his trainer Emanuel Steward, has left Lewis in a state of denial regarding his crushing fifth-round defeat in South Africa in April. Steward's theories - a lucky punch, a fast count, Lewis was in control of the fight until he lost, Rahman had been on the point of quitting - have been accepted and regurgitated by his fighter but to some observers they amount to arrant nonsense.

What is clear is that Lewis has whipped his ageing limbs into shape. Half a stone lighter than when he lost seven months ago, he at least looks the part and the word from his ever-increasing entourage is that he has appeared sharp.

Both men have worked on new moves; Rahman on a right uppercut-left hook combination to the body designed to force Lewis to drop his guard, creating the opening for the right hand to the head which parted Lewis from his senses before. Lewis has been practising turning his shoulder to slip and block the Rahman right-hand power punch before countering with his own right uppercut.

However, weeks of meticulous and repetitive honing of moves may count for precious little when the first bell rings. Then, the question is principally whether Lewis has the confidence and fire within his sometimes fragile psyche to dictate the tactics.

"Lennox's jab is the key, absolutely," says Steward. "If he throws that with purpose he can discourage Rahman, break him up and end it in six or seven rounds." And if not? "Well, you never know which Lennox Lewis is going to come out of the dressing-room," Steward adds.

This, remember, is the same Steward who told the court, when Lewis's lawyers were forcing Rahman to accept an immediate rematch, that Lewis's skills were eroding rapidly because of his age.

Of course, Lewis has been in this position before. After losing in similar circumstances of overconfidence to Oliver McCall, he had to rebuild. "I have learned from that experience; now I know what is required," he says, although the abiding memory of Lewis' immediate comeback fight after that McCall defeat seven years ago hardly inspires confidence in his chances tonight.

Lewis was rehabilitated with a fight against Lionel Butler. The abiding memory of the contest, as Butler stumbled around the ring throwing wild swings, is of a patently gun-shy Lewis leaning back as he tried to evade the blows behind a half-hearted jab. If Butler had not been so knackered after a couple of rounds, the story could have ended there and then.

The fact that Lewis has been a superior boxer to Rahman is beyond dispute. At his best, which may be several years ago, he would have been favoured to win. Now opinion is divided.

Henry Akinwande, who fights McCall on tonight's undercard, says: "Lewis will not make the same mistake twice. He looks good and will be sharper and I think he can win."

But Sky TV's respected commentator Glenn McCrory, who like Akinwande has lost to Lewis in the ring, disagrees.

"Lewis must throw a good, straight jab and not let his left hand drop. He must make a fast start, but can he sustain it at 36? Rahman keeps bowling forward, he's unorthodox and Lennox's style is made for him. I think he'll get knocked out again."

If Lewis wins, to become champion for a third time, he will deserve even more respect than before. He may regard a long fight, adopting safety-first mode, as his most likely route to success. But the memory of him crashing to the canvas behind that Rahman right is too fresh to prevent a gut feeling that we have essentially already seen the fight, and that the likeable man from Baltimore could be heading for a similar knockout victory.

Meanwhile, British middleweight champion Howard Eastman is a narrow favourite to win the vacant WBA world title as he takes on the fading American ex-champion William Joppy.

TV: Sky Box Office, 10pm-6am