Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis
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| Date | March 13, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Madison Square Garden in New York, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA/WBC/IBF/Lineal Heavyweight Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Boxer |
 Evander Holyfield |
 Lennox Lewis |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | "The Real Deal" | "The Lion" | |
| Hometown | Atlanta, Georgia, US | London, England | |
| Pre-fight record | 36–3 | 34–1 | |
| Recognition |
WBA/IBF Heavyweight Champion |
WBC/Lineal Heavyweight Champion |
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis, billed as "Undisputed", was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, IBF and Lineal Heavyweight Championships.
After Riddick Bowe defeated Evander Holyfield to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, the WBC ordered Bowe to face its top contender, the undefeated Lennox Lewis. Bowe, however, refused to meet Lewis' financial demands and vacated the title. The WBC therefore named Lewis its heavyweight champion. Holyfield regained the WBA, IBF and lineal heavyweight titles in a rematch with Bowe, but then lost the titles in his first defense against southpaw Michael Moorer. Shortly after, Lewis lost his WBC heavyweight title to Oliver McCall, putting a Holyfield–Lewis unification bout on hold for several years. By 1996, the four heavyweight titles were separated, partly due to the IBF and WBA stripping George Foreman of their heavyweight titles, though he continued to be recognized as the lineal heavyweight champion. Meanwhile, Bruce Seldon defeated Tony Tucker to win the vacant WBA title, while Moorer regained the vacant IBF Heavyweight title he had lost to Foreman by defeating Axel Schulz. Mike Tyson then defeated Frank Bruno to capture the WBC heavyweight title. Tyson then challenged and defeated Seldon to win the WBA heavyweight title (the WBC title was not at stake in that fight), setting the stages for a Tyson–Holyfield match in which Holyfield won the WBA title. Next for Holyfield was a victory against Moorer in a rematch unified the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. Tyson chose to vacate the WBC heavyweight title rather than face Lewis, preferring to face Holyfield as it was a more lucrative fight. Lewis recaptured the vacant WBC title by defeating McCall and Shannon Briggs for the lineal heavyweight championship. After Holyfield and Lewis made their mandatory defenses against Vaughn Bean and Željko Mavrović respectively, the two men met for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Prior to the fight Lewis hired Holyfield's former trainer Emanuel Steward. Meanwhile, the normally mild-mannered Holyfield uncharacteristically predicted that he would dominate the first two rounds before knocking out Lewis in the third.
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