South African boxing promoter Joe Manyathi tonight said he had received the
go-ahead from world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis to stage a title fight between him and former champion Mike Tyson in Johannesburg on July 21st.
The Johannesburg-based Manyathi said he was commissioned by the Lennox camp in October to stage the clash and was now in negotiations with Tyson's business manager Mark Macpherson.
"We have an agreement with the Lewis management and are in full negotiations with Tyson's representatives," he said.
Manyathi said that Emmanuel Steward, the president of the gym where Lewis trains, had written to him saying: "On behalf of the management of Lennox Lewis's camp, I commission sole rights to you ... to negotiate a World title fight involving the undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in South Africa."
Manyathi claims he also has the support of World Boxing Council president Jose Chagnon Sulaiman who described the bout as a "fantastic fight in such a great country".
Manyathi has been a promoter since the 1960s and started his career organising fights in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.
He told the SAPA news agency: "This is the break every fight promoter dreams of.
"Imagine that nothing as big has happened in sport in Africa since the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974, the last time a world heavyweight title fight was fought for on the African continent."
South African National Boxing Control Commission chief executive Dumile Mateza said South African boxing would reap huge benefits from the bout. "It will give new life to boxing in Africa," he said.
Manyathi is planning to stage the fight in Johannesburg's MTN Sundome, a venue that can accommodate 20,000 people.
AFP