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| Date | 15 July 2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | London Arena,Millwall,London, UK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBC,IBF, andIBO heavyweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lewis' wins via 2nd-roundTKO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lennox Lewis vs. Francois Botha, billed asThe Homecoming, was aheavyweightprofessional boxing match contested betweenWBC,IBF, andIBO championLennox Lewis and the WBC's #9 ranked contenderFrancois Botha. The bout took place on 15 July 2000 at theLondon Arena in England. Lewis defeated Botha via second-roundtechnical knockout to retain his heavyweight titles.[1]
Following an easy victory over the previously undefeatedMichael Grant on 29 April, Lennox Lewis agreed to make his next defense against South African contender Francois Botha. The fight was also announced to take place in Lewis' native London, making it his first championship fight there since being defeated byOliver McCall in 1994.[2] Botha, meanwhile, was coming off an impressive performance againstMike Tyson in which he dominated the former undisputed champion for four rounds before Tyson was able to land a quick right hand in the fifth round to earn aknockout victory. Botha then fought a closemajority draw with fellow heavyweight contenderShannon Briggs and earned an easy first-round knockout victory over journeyman Steve Pannell before landing the championship fight with Lewis. Lewis, however, faced criticism for choosing to face Botha, who was ranked at number nine by the WBC and not ranked at all by the IBF. Though Botha came into the fight as a huge underdog, he remained confident that he could defeat Lewis stating "If I don’t knock him out, it’s going to be a terrible beating."[3]
On the undercard highly regarded contenderWladimir Klitschko (WBC/WBA:3rd IBF:7th) stoppedMonte Barrett (IBF:12th WBC:13th) in the 7th round after knocking him down 5 times.
Like in his previous fight with Grant, Lewis would make short work of Botha. Lewis dominated the duration of the fight, landing 24 of his 47 thrown punches while Botha only managed to land nine punches through the entire fight while opting to take a more defensive approach. With one minute left in the first round, Lewis staggered Botha with a right hook, but Botha managed to stay on his feet and avoid the knockdown. Lewis attempted to capitalize and pursued Botha aggressively in an attempt to gain a knockdown, but Botha was able to weather Lewis' attack by clinching and survived the first round without being knocked down. In the second round, Botha tried to keep his distance from Lewis and offered very little offence in the round. With about 40 seconds left in the round, Lewis was able to land a powerful four punch combination that knocked Botha halfway out of the ring. Botha crawled back in and was able to get back on his feet but was clearly hurt from the exchange, prompting referee Larry O'Connell to stop the fight, handing Lewis his second consecutive second-round knockout victory.[4]
After the bout Lewis responded toMike Tyson's comments after hisvictory overLou Savarese inGlasgow the previous month saying "TellMike Tyson to either put up or shut up. He's been talking about what he can eat," before he held up his right hand and said "I'll show him what he can eat."[5]
Confirmed bouts:[6]
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 Australia | Main Event |
 United Kingdom | Sky Sports |
 United States | HBO |
| Preceded by | Lennox Lewis' bouts 15 July 2000 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by vs. Steve Pannell | Francois Botha's bouts 15 July 2000 | Succeeded by vs. Tony LaRosa |
