Lennox Lewis vs Frans Botha

Lennox Lewis retained the World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organisation heavyweight championships when he stopped Frans Botha in the second round at the London Arena on July 15, 2000. Lewis weighed 250 pounds and Botha 237 for the scheduled 12-round contest. Referee Larry O’Connell ended the fight after 2 minutes 39 seconds of the second round, by which time the South African challenger had been driven through the ropes and was in no condition to continue. A crowd of approximately 10,000 watched Lewis make his first appearance in a British ring for nearly six years.

Lewis had last boxed in Britain on September 24, 1994, when Oliver McCall stopped him in the second round at Wembley Arena. He had since regained the WBC championship, defeated Evander Holyfield to establish himself as the leading heavyweight and made a rapid first defence of the unified title by knocking out Michael Grant in two rounds at Madison Square Garden. The return to London was therefore presented as a homecoming, although Lewis had conducted the greater part of his championship career in the United States. He entered with 36 victories, 1 defeat, and 1 draw. Botha brought a record of 40 wins, two defeats and one draw, with one no-contest also appearing on his record.

Botha was a considerable outsider, quoted at approximately 15–1, but he was an experienced heavyweight who had already met Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson and Shannon Briggs. He had held the IBF championship briefly after defeating Axel Schulz in 1995, although the result was later changed to a no-contest after Botha failed a drug test. Against Tyson in January 1999, he had boxed effectively for four rounds before being knocked out by a short right hand in the fifth. A majority draw with Briggs and a first-round victory over Steve Pannell followed. He was ranked ninth by the WBC by the time of the Lewis contest, though he had not been highly placed when the match was first arranged.

Lewis assumed control from the opening bell. He stood upright behind the left jab, keeping Botha at a distance from which the challenger could neither reach comfortably nor set himself for a counter. Botha crouched low and moved cautiously to his left, but offered little in the way of attack. He occasionally extended his own jab without conviction and appeared principally concerned with avoiding Lewis’s right hand. The champion did not hurry. He occupied the centre of the ring, stepped forward behind the jab and forced Botha to retreat towards the ropes.

The first round was uneventful until its closing minute. Lewis had been measuring Botha rather than committing himself fully, but an overhand right landed against the challenger’s head and caused his legs to buckle. Botha remained upright and immediately moved away, seeking to clinch whenever Lewis came close. The champion followed and attempted to add another right, but Botha held sufficiently well to reach the bell. All three judges awarded Lewis the round 10–9. Botha had avoided a knockdown, yet he had landed nothing of consequence and had already shown that he could not remain safely at the end of Lewis’s punches.

Botha resumed his defensive movement in the second round. He continued to circle away from the champion’s right hand, but the method gave him no opportunity to score and allowed Lewis to dictate the pace. Lewis jabbed to the head and body, occasionally feinting the right to make Botha raise his gloves. The challenger’s lack of offence permitted Lewis to advance without taking risks. Botha landed only nine of 37 punches during the entire contest, and none was considered a solid blow. Lewis connected with 24 of 47, more than half of those he attempted.

With less than half a minute remaining in the round, Lewis manoeuvred Botha towards a neutral corner and suddenly increased his attack. A stiff left jab straightened the challenger, and Lewis followed with a right hand. A short left uppercut lifted Botha’s head before a final right drove him backwards through the ropes. Botha fell awkwardly onto the ring apron, with the upper part of his body outside the ring and his legs entangled near the lower strands. He crawled back between the ropes and regained his feet, but his movements were unsteady, and he made no protest when O’Connell waved the contest over.

The stoppage was correctly applied. Botha had been cleanly struck by four punches, had fallen partly out of the ring and was plainly hurt when he returned. No useful purpose would have been served by allowing Lewis to continue the attack. The official result was recorded as a technical knockout, although the finishing sequence had left Botha unable to defend himself. He later acknowledged that Lewis had caught him with an excellent blow and described him as a worthy champion. Lewis’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, drew particular attention to the left jab and the manner in which the champion maintained a distance favourable to himself and useless to Botha.

The victory took Lewis’s record to 37 wins, one defeat and one draw, with 29 victories inside the distance. It was his second successive second-round stoppage, following the equally brief defeat of Grant eleven weeks earlier. Botha had offered less resistance than expected, but Lewis had given him little opportunity to do otherwise. He controlled the ring, prevented the challenger from mounting an attack and finished the contest immediately after recognising the opening. The South African had entered hoping to survive the early rounds and draw Lewis into a longer fight. Instead, his caution left the champion free to select the moment of attack.

Afterwards, the discussion turned again to a proposed contest between Lewis and Mike Tyson, who had stopped Lou Savarese in Glasgow the previous month. Lewis answered Tyson’s public remarks by telling him to fight or remain silent. The immediate business of the evening, however, had been completed without difficulty. Lewis had returned to Britain as heavyweight champion and disposed of his challenger in less than six minutes, retaining his titles without suffering a meaningful blow.