Vitali Klitschko leads on all three cards but a doctor rules his cuts are too severe.
By Times Wires
Published June 22, 2003
LOS ANGELES - Lennox Lewis was exposed as an aging fighter Saturday night by Vitali Klitschko, but retained his WBC heavyweight title after a cut stopped the big and tough challenger after six brawling rounds.
An entertaining fight ended on a sour note when the ring doctor ordered the fight stopped after the sixth round of a fight that Klitschko was winning on all three scorecards.
Klitschko, bleeding badly from a cut over his left eye, jumped off his stool in disbelief, yelling "No, no, no" and going across the ring toward Lewis as if he wanted the fight to continue.
Klitschko hurt Lewis, 37, early and was more than holding his own. All three ringside judges had Klitschko winning 58-56, but ring doctor Paul Wallace looked at the cut and ordered referee Lou Moret to stop the fight.
The crowd at Staples Center booed wildly, and Klitschko held his arms up and pointed to his heart.
"Right now I feel like the people's champion," Klitschko said. "I did not want them to stop the fight. My strategy was to take it into the seventh or eighth round and my strategy was working perfectly."
Klitschko (32-2 with 31 knockouts), a 4-1 underdog, wasn't even supposed to be the best fighter in his family. That honor belonged to brother Wladimir, who worked his corner.
But the 6-foot-7 Klitschko traded punches from the opening bell.
Klitschko landed a big right hand 1:45 into the second round that shook Lewis, whose chin had been questioned after being knocked out by Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman in other title fights.
"He woke me up," said Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs).
One big right hand from Lewis appeared to open a cut in the third round that undid Klitschko.
Laila Ali, Muhammad Ali's daughter, stopped Valerie Mahfood in the sixth round of their super middleweight fight on the undercard to run her record to 15-0.
Tyson arrested after brawl
NEW YORK - Mike Tyson was arrested at a hotel in downtown Brooklyn early Saturday after he had a fistfight with two men and knocked one unconscious, the police said.
A law enforcement official told the New York Times that the fight broke out just after 5:30 a.m. as Tyson and his sister were in the lobby of a Marriott Hotel.
The former heavyweight champ, charged with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, was released without arraignment. He is due in court at an unspecified date, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said.
According to police, Samuel Velez, 31, of Reading, Pa., and Nestor Alvarez, 24, of Philadelphia, were with a woman outside the hotel when the fight began. Police said Alvarez used a metal pole from the lobby against Tyson as Velez made motions to suggest he had a gun. Tyson, who turns 37 Tuesday, then knocked Velez unconscious.
Alvarez and Velez were charged with menacing and disorderly conduct.
