Botha could cause havoc

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 29, 2000 | 9:34 a.m.

If the heavyweight division seems unsettled right now, think of the potential repercussions in the event Frans Botha upsets WBC and IBF champion Lennox Lewis when they meet July 15 in London.

A Botha victory would free Lewis from his obligation to fight the IBF's mandatory challenger, David Tua, by November, which is something Lewis said this week he may not do. It would also allow a contender such as Mike Tyson to begin angling for a title fight without having to go through Lewis.

While he admittedly has a prejudiced viewpoint in that he's Botha's manager, Sterling McPherson believes his man has what it takes to send the dominos in motion. He's predicting Botha will surprise the reigning champion and regain the heavyweight championship he briefly held after a late 1995 victory over Axel Schulz.

"I'm serious," McPherson said. "Lewis and his people think they're getting some fat, roly-poly guy and that they're going to have a walk in the park. But this is Botha we're talking about and I think he has a very solid chance of pulling this off.

"You have to have the mental capacity to handle fights of this magnitude and Botha has proven he can do it. He's no Johnny-come-lately."

Botha, 31, a native of South Africa who is now a U.S. citizen, has been training in Big Bear, Calif., for the past nine weeks and will leave for England on Monday. He's 40-2-1 with 25 knockouts, losing only to Tyson and Michael Moorer.

Lewis, 34, is 36-1-1 with 28 KOs and is coming off a second-round knockout over Michael Grant April 29 in New York City.

"If Lewis is depending on his conditioning from the Grant fight and hasn't been working hard -- which I heard he wasn't -- then he's in for a rude awakening," McPherson said. "And another thing, he may have had his career highlight against Grant and you almost never see a fighter have back-to-back career highlights.

"It's tough to repeat a performance like that."

McPherson, of Las Vegas, has a feel for Lewis' conditioning and state of mind in part because of his trip to Great Britain last week for Tyson's fight with Lou Savarese.

"Everyone over there is talking about Lewis doing this and Lewis doing that," McPherson said. "But I think they're forgetting he's got a fight in front of him with a man who knows that this could be his last championship fight.

"I think Lewis and his people have made a mistake. I don't think they're ready for what Botha brings to the table."

McPherson says Botha "is in a great frame of mind" and that his experience will prevent him from walking into a haymaker as Grant did at Madison Square Garden.

"Grant was scared to death and that fearfulness cost him the fight," he said. "But Botha's not afraid of anyone and he's not going to run out there like Grant did and get himself knocked out.

"He's also going to press Lewis and extend the fight, and Lewis might not be ready for that. Even against Grant, he was blowing like a bagpipe for a minute there in the second round."

HBO will televise the fight and a companion heavyweight bout between Monte Barrett and Wladimir Klitschko.