July 15, 2000: Lewis vanquishes Botha

Botha had a fatal flaw in his game; every time he threw a right hand, he stepped forward with his right foot and totally squared up. This makes you vulnerable to right hand counters as you literally walk right into them, like Botha did in the Tyson fight, repeatedly in the Moorer fight and in the first round of this fight. The end came in this one because he got caught standing still.

I saw Botha train in Big Bear and was surprised the fight lasted as long as it did, stupid fight plan. It was like Abel Sanchez hated Botha and wanted him dead, didn't have the guts to do it himself, and so devised a plan whereby Lennox Lewis would kill Botha for him.

Or maybe Botha sucked and that was the best they could do, given what they had to work with.

 

I think Botha was 'world class' because there were four governing bodies compiling top ten lists.

 

Money and ego. Boxers like to say they are champions so some guy makes a belt then charges sanctioning fees to let you defend it while other guys pay him to rank them.

 

I remember watching this fight and knew Botha had no chance. He looked tiny compared to Lewis.

 

this is one of lewis worst, man. botha was sub-continental level..

one of wlads better wins though, I beleive it was when wlad won his world title, albeit the contrived 90s wbo one.

 

A decent performance from Lewis. It was a big thing in a way because it happened in the UK.Not a great deal of Lewis s fight s did after making the big time. But yep ,Lewis showed how dangerous he could be .

 

When I saw Botha in Big Bear, I was struck by how "not big" he was. When he fought Mike Hunter Botha weighed 190 something.

 

Should have been Sanders vs Lewis, dammit.

 

but only when he koed wlad easy yeh?

before that you thought he was just a nobody.

you need a time machine for that feat.

 

Herol

 

The Lewis people probably figured it was easy money and they were right. Plus it made the crowd happy to see the title getting defended on UK soil. And have there guy get an easy knockout.