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American Morning

Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman Prepare for Rematch

Aired August 29, 2001 - 10:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The promoters have given it a rather ominous name, "Final Judgment." Well, just how final it will be remains to be seen, but it is one of the most exciting rematches the boxing world has seen in years. On November 17th coming up, former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis will get the chance to take back his title from Hasim Rahman.

Both men join us now from New York in our bureau, and we say good morning to both of you. Glad to have you guys in with us this morning. I know that you guys are making the rounds and doing the P.R. thing, so let's start with you, champ, since you are holding the belts right now.

I want to know what you think that a fact that a lot of folks have got Lennox as the favorite in this, and they're saying that you've got to win this fight just to prove that you actually deserve this.

HASIM RAHMAN, HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP: Well, the people who make the odds, the oddsmakers, they had him 20-1 favorite at first, though. I really don't pay attention to that. It just makes me work harder.

HARRIS: Are they wrong? And if they are, why are they?

RAHMAN: Absolutely, they are wrong. South Africa can tell you why they're wrong. I already beat this man. I feel like it's nothing that he can do to change what I have. He can't stop my arsenal, so I'm going to just let it go, and this time it will be a more exciting fight.

HARRIS: OK, and why is that?

RAHMAN: Because I feel like that Lennox, you know, he keeps saying that I hit him with a lucky punch, I hit him with a lucky punch, he beat me every minute of every man. Obviously, this man, he has a memory problem, so I'm just going to refresh his memory.

HARRIS: let's check his memory right now, Lennox. How's the memory this morning?

LENNOX LEWIS, FMR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP: My memory's great. I mean, even after the knockdown, I got up and I had all my faculties. I was talking to the ref, and I was talking to the commentators, so I was fine. HARRIS: Man, I have to ask you, you have seen the tape.

LEWIS: Yes.

HARRIS: You've seen the tape at least.

LEWIS: Right.

HARRIS: You can still say that you think that was a lucky punch?

LEWIS: Absolutely, because when he threw that punch. He just slipped that through, right through here, and it was a great punch. I can't take anything away from that punch. He worked hard to be able to throw that punch with great accuracy, and it came through for him.

HARRIS: All right.

LEWIS: And now he's made it big, and he's only champion for the moment.

HARRIS: You know, a lot of folks said that he made it big that night because you take him as seriously.

LEWIS: I didn't take him as seriously as I would have taken Mike Tyson. You know, basically, we were searching for an opponent, and we realized that Hasim Rahman was there, and so we said, let's give him a fight, give him some food to eat, and you know, he came, he won the fight. Now he's got all ghetto fabulous on me and thinks that he's big time, but I think that he needs to reassert himself, reapprove himself, because I definitely think that lightning cannot strike in the same place twice.

HARRIS: All right, that's your job, champ. You have to make lightning strike this time around. How do you plan on doing that?

LEWIS: Well I'm just going to. For one thing ...

RAHMAN: He is talking to me.

LEWIS: ... I am taking the fight more serious, and I'm going out there, to take him out, to knock him out.

HARRIS: Hasim, what do you make of that? Are you bothered by the people who are saying that the only reason why you won is because he didn't take you seriously.

RAHMAN: Well, they can say what they want. I really don't believe that he did not take me seriously. I don't believe that his better condition will enable him to stand up to what I am throwing. So I am definitely going in there and taking Lennox Lewis out, again, and then he can go on. He has said that he will retire again if he loses, and there will no more Lennox Lewis fight; this is it.

HARRIS: Lennox, I have heard those comments, saying that if you lose this fight, this is it. And trying to figure you are out which one of you guys needs this fight, I am having a hard time. How badly do you need this fight? Will you quit fighting if you lose this fight?

LEWIS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: Even though you know that there is a ton of money for people who want to see you fight Mike Tyson.

LEWIS: That's how confident I feel about this fight. That if I lose, there's no reason to go on. I believe that I will win this fight. I don't believe that Rahman can beat me a second time.

KAGAN: All right. Well, you know, a lot of folks are going to be sitting by and watching, but I want to know about the fact that this had to go to court before this rematch was even set up.

Hasim, any resentment of seeing from being dragged into this through the court system?

RAHMAN: Did the court system drive us to this rematch?

HARRIS: Well, yes, are you resentful of the fact that Lennox took you to court to get this rematch?

RAHMAN: I would take all of those long nights I had to stay in the courtroom, I will take all of that out on him in November. It was never the fact that I wanted to duck Lennox Lewis out. Like I told him, I was trying to give him time to recuperate. He the one that was suffering from that vicious blow in South Africa. I really didn't want to wait. He wanted to fight in August. I thought that was too soon for him.

HARRIS: Lennox, it looks like you have something to say about that?

LEWIS: I would say hogwash. I was ready the next day. You know, we have to bring Hasim Rahman to court to force him to fight me, because he signed two contracts saying that he would fight me on the rematch, and then was trying to get out of it, and then it was a big waste of time, and he's right. He's definitely going to get a payback on November 17th.

HARRIS: Final word, which round?

LEWIS: You know, any round, it doesn't matter to me. My main focus is to go out there and to win. That's what I aim to do.

HARRIS: Champ, you going to call a round?

RAHMAN: Well, I'm just telling you I'm going to call a knockout. Lennox Lewis might get knocked out in the first round. If he says anything else on this press tour to upset me in the least little bit, and then I will go ahead and take him out in the first round.

HARRIS: OK, well, we are glad that you didn't knock out anybody today. Hasim Rahman, thanks for coming in today. We sure appreciate it. Lennox Lewis, thanks a lot to you as well.

And you know we're going to be watching.

LEWIS: Thanks for watching. Thanks for coming in, folks.

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