A PART from their differing physical dimensions, Lennox and Evander Holyfield were cut from similar cloth. Both were dour, uncharismatic characters who preferred to do their talking in the ring and while they were occasionally caught up in controversy, neither courted it. Their showdown for all three major world heavyweight titles had been long awaited and now it was finally happening. No one, though, could have forecast what was about to unfold at Madison Square Garden, New York’s so-called mecca of boxing.

In Holyfield, Lewis was meeting a naturally smaller man but one who had already commanded a reputation as one of the most fearsome competitors in the history of the sport. Holyfield also thrived on challenges. After decimating the cruiserweight division in a little over three years, many said he was too small to repeat his success as a heavyweight. They were wrong. Using a scientific training regime Holyfield added size and strength, and in just over two years won the undisputed title by knocking out James ‘Buster’ Douglas. But his defining win came in November 1996, when he upset the heavily favoured Mike Tyson to recapture the WBA title and become a three-time heavyweight champion.

Holyfield had also fought a classic trilogy of fights with Lewis’s arch-rival Riddick Bowe. He won the second bout on points on the infamous night of the Fan Man, who landed in the ring in a motorised parachute in the middle of the seventh round. Holyfield seemed almost unmoved by the bizarre interruption and his reaction that night typified his unflappable nature.

The fight with Lewis was screened live on HBO in America and on Sky Sports in Britain. It was for all the marbles, with Lewis defending his WBC title and Holyfield risking his WBA and IBF championships. As the holder of two titles Holyfield earned $20m – double Lewis’s purse – and started as a slight favourite with the oddsmakers.

Holyfield, at 36 the older man by three years, praised Lewis before the bout, confessing: ‘He’s strong, has a good jab, decent skills, but you can’t tell how good a fighter he really is until he fights someone good and uses everything he knows. He showed some of that against [Ray] Mercer. In that fight, Lennox showed me things I never thought he had.’

Uncharacteristically, Holyfield put pressure on himself by predicting he would knock Lewis out in the third round. Lou Duva, Holyfield’s former trainer, said in a report published in the New York Times: ‘I know Evander. If he gave you a promise, he’s going to try to fulfil it. He’s going to try to knock him out in the third round. That will open him up to Lewis’s right hand.’

Lewis made light of the prediction, scoffing: ‘I can’t understand why he said he’d win in three. He’s never beaten anyone [of note] that quick. This fight will leave my name in stone.’

Lewis outweighed Holyfield by 31 pounds in the battle of champions but the American said his opponent was simply a ‘big target’. Holyfield told the final news conference three days before the fight: ‘When a person is a target is when a person can get hit. What to do? Hit him.’

Holyfield did that but not nearly enough to win the fight, or even come close. After 12 rounds, the bout was declared a draw, which to most was an outrageously inaccurate reflection of what happened in the ring. The result was booed by the crowd of 21,284, the large majority of whom had Lewis dominating the fight. Punch statistics showed Lewis landing nearly three times as many blows – 348 to 130. In six of the 12 rounds, Holyfield was credited with landing fewer than ten punches.

HBO’s Jim Lampley told viewers: ‘That is, ladies and gentlemen, a travesty, an outrage, a highway robbery. Lennox Lewis has just been robbed. He won it and he didn’t get it.’

Lewis, who looked perplexed when the decision was announced, said afterwards: ‘I am the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. What you saw in there was called politics. It was my time to shine and they ripped me off. What do I see now? Automatic rematch next month. I doubt he wants to box me again.’ Lewis’s trainer Emanuel Steward said: ‘It wasn’t even close. This is what is killing boxing.’

While South African judge Stanley Christodoulou had Lewis winning, posting a score of 116-113, the two who didn’t – American Eugenia Williams, who scored 115-113 for Holyfield, and Britain’s Larry O’Connell, who had the fight even at 115-115 – both defended their version of events, claiming they scored the bout as they saw it.

But the decision attracted widespread condemnation. Timothy Smith of the New York Daily News said it was akin to a ‘Brink truck heist’. The legendary Muhammad Ali went even further, describing the result as the ‘biggest fix in fight history’. In a letter to senator John McCain, published in the New York Post, Ali wrote: ‘As the former three-time heavyweight champion of the world, I believe I have the credibility to say Lennox Lewis won this bout without question and should have been named the clear victor. What occurred once the 12-round event concluded will surely go down in the boxing annals as the biggest fix in fight history. The rush of emotions that ran through me the moment the decision was declared ranged from total disbelief to outrage.’

The only possible solution to the controversy was a rematch but it couldn’t happen immediately. The dust had to settle before they could do it again, and next time Lewis had to make sure he left nothing to chance.