Evening Standard du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 87

EVENING STANDARD Sport Hasim Rahman of America and David Izon (inset) have both been found wanting at the highest level THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 2001 87 iaxrlsi nuiiAcm JEnjgPEBjtd laclx ing teanispirit after being humbl Afrphand Greene defeated the title holders 4: in Reading last night tobook 'thi place jh the last' Murphyiinyolyed ina remarkab 4 kippefJolu pinpointheas(nfb try surprise vi hat'lehJsaythat 5 team spirit was non Isaid Murphy terafctil frbmtheir Stwiatclktlas if thedhfo' fto bebotoeredpifl ppufthat itobmdn't takl an beaten the top seeds and so there's fnd gbon and into the second of tile OompItiHonnsured tthetopi'G Republic oflxmndii likely they will play the cneM0fitodaysGroup BI" betweenThaiiandand 'HThe Republic of Ireland are lik to meet 1999 champions Wales who boastf world! championMark IWilliamskl Dominic main contribution was beating Parrott in a third frame that finished with the 1991 world and UK -f away 67 points The final aggregate of 168 was just nine short of the record for a which involved Cliff Thorburn! and! Dennis ini Parrott was disconsolate after his performance was a touch of the Anne about toe way 'i I played said Parrott who was certainly the weakest lihlcC? MichaelJudge earned the Repute lie of Ireland their semi-final spot by beating Husimu Tuerxen in seventh frame W-hIdhdthwughir spectiveil of 3 theiri result! against Malta today! hut Scotlandmust avoid defeat by Thailand tpi plete thesemi-final line-up THE! 600-milell7th Paris-Dakar rally between Bamako and Bakel in Midi today wais John of securing sixth place from BMW team-mate Jimmy The American closed the gap on Deacon by five minutes on yester- and Bamako but todaybffered toe -Ply! mouthmotorcy cledealerah opportunity to redress the balance'l: ISlYith Lewis suffering from awrist injuryDeaconf could inakef toe! most of the paih being suffbred by4 his! team-nmtefbetore'fthe race reached the 200-mile timed section Deacont hasonly four more tours In which to win astage before the racereaches thecapital of Senegal Lennox would-be opponents BOXING promoters are notorious for putting more spin on a forthcoming fight than anything Shane Warne might manage with a cricket ball Positive hype is the traditional method of selling ringside tickets and pay-per-view television subscriptions The negative aspects of a match are afforded the same treatment as an incoming punch ducked Thus it was refreshing to hear Panos Eliades promoter of Lennox Lewis make such a candid appraisal of the two opponents being lined-up for the world heavyweight next bout on 21 April According to Lewis the next man to be afforded the dubious privilege of sharing a square of canvas with him will be either Nigerian David Izon or Hasim Rahman of the United States could take them on with one hand tied behind his said Eliades of them on the same Those observations elicited a sharp intake of breath from other members of the Lewis camp who will have the task of Howard Eastman has been forced to postpone his defence of the British and Commonwealth middleweight titles at York Hall on Saturday because challenger Delroy Leslie has a knuckle injury writes David Smith Eastman the 30-year-old from Battersea will now seek to extend his unbeaten record of 30 fights against a new Boxing by DAVID SMITH selling Lewis against Izon or Rahman to the public Some fights sell themselves Lewis against Mike Tyson should it ever happen would transcend the status of sporting contest to become a major global event that everyone would want to see But Lewis against Izon? Or Lewis against Rahman? An examination of the records of these two challengers offers a clue as to why the turnstiles be spinning off their mountings According to the latest rankings of the World Boxing Council whose belt is one of two worn by Lewis neither Izon nor Rahman are considered good enough to warrant a place among their top-10 heavyweights Rahman is generously ranked four by the International Boxing Federation whose title will also be defended by Lewis a little over 13 weeks from today Izon again does not make the top 10 Neither He has won 34 professional fights but lost twice against his most testing opposition in November 1999 he was sent tumbling through the ropes in the eighth round against Oleg Maskaev and a year earlier he was stopped in the 10th by David Tua the Samoan who was totally outclassed by Lewis when the Londoner last fought two months ago Rahman looked impressive when stopping Corrie Sanders in seven rounds last summer But against the rave reviews of that performance should be balanced a report by the American publication Fight Game of his clash with Obed Sullivan at the Apollo Theatre in New York Witheringly it was described as than any of the many bad amateur acts that were given the hook at the famous Harlem Izon 32 won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics and now boasts a record of 25 wins and three losses as a professional Like Rahman this former policeman lost to Tua He was also easily beaten by Michael Grant built up in the United States as a cham-pion-in-waiting only to be knocked down in two dramatic rounds by Lewis last April Why are these two in contention? Because apart from Tyson there is no one out there not already beaten by Lewis just one defeat in 40 fights who possesses die necessary experience to mount anything approaching a decent test of the heavyweight champion Along with the honest appraisal of Rahman and Izon by Eliades that a sorry commentary on the state of heavyweight boxing in the year 2001? Lennox Lewis needs a challenge boxer figures in the latest independent top 10 drawn up by respected British trade magazine Boxing Monthly Rahman tagged is a 28-year-old from Baltimore whose face is scarred not by the results of boxing conflict but by some of the 500 stitches inserted in wounds sustained in a car accident against Brazilian George llenrique Arias on Saturday 27 January at the York Hall Bethnall Green Nelson was due to face Denmark's Jesper Kristiansen but the two camps could not reach an agreement over television rights paving the way for the 26-year-old from Sao Paulo to have his first shot at a world title title defence shelved opponent Promoters Panix were today seeking a late substitute The bill also features a fight for the vacant European super-featherweight title between Anatoly Alexandrov of Russia and Bulgaria's Tontcho Tontchev Meanwhile WBO world cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson will make the seventh defence of his title.