Seven-year hitch to bring together Holyfield, Lewis

But the main reason it has become a major happening in this happening-soaked city is that it is a legitimate match up. So legitimate that scalpers are getting $5,000 for ringside seats that sold for $1,500 before the Garden sold out two months ago for the less-than-flush, the fight is $49.95 on pay-per-view cable television.

After all, someone has to pay the $20 million it cost to get Holyfield to risk his WBA and IBF titles and the $10 million Lewis is getting to throw his WBC title into the pot.

Serious arguments can be made for either man to win. One of the main points for Holyfield is that he has climbed so many heavyweight mountains before: “I’m a winner. Winning is what I do.”

When he first moved up to the heavyweight division boxing, experts dismissed him, saying he didn’t punch hard enough, got hit too often and really wasn’t all that fast. On top of that, he liked to slug it out with much bigger men.

He lost two of three fights against the much bigger Bowe. But they were epic battles that established Holyfield as one of the all-time ring warriors.

In 1996, Holyfield was all but officially pronounced done after struggling for five rounds before finally stopping blown up cruiserweight Bobby Czyz.

It was that performance that encouraged Tyson to take on Holyfield. The rest is bizarre boxing history. Holyfield pulled off a huge upset in knocking out Tyson in their first fight and so frustrated him in their second encounter that Tyson bit both of Holyfield’s ears and was disqualified.

Now there is Holyfield, the born-again Christian, who seems to believe he is invincible in the ring. In fact, he has even boldly — some say stupidly — predicted he will knock out the 34-1 Lewis in the third round.

That’s the same 33-year-old Lewis who outweighs Holyfield by 14 kg and has a 20 cm advantage in reach. And it’s the same Holyfield who hasn’t knocked anybody out in the third round since he starched an apathetic buster Douglas in 1990.

Somehow Holyfield (36-3) has to find a way to get inside Lewis’s powerful left jab if, of course, he deigns to bring it to the Garden tomorrow.

His own trainer, Emanuel Steward, who says tomorrow will define Lewis’ entire career, also says, “You never know which Lennox is going to show up.”

But, in the opinion of many, if Holyfield, 36, tries to fulfil his prediction, he will be helping Lewis.

Predicting a third-round knockout “was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen with him in 12 years,” said Lou Duva, who helped train Holyfield earlier in his career.

Duva and others take Holyfield at his word and think he will try for the knockout to join Muhammad Ali as the only three-time heavyweight champion.

If Holyfield presses for an early knockout, he won’t be boxing Lewis as Duva thinks he should, getting angles, flitting in and then out of range. If he doesn’t, Duva says, “It could be a one-punch deal. If he walks in, he’s liable to get hit” with Lewis’ very powerful right hand.

Lewis, of course, is far from a full-time juggernaut in the ring. He has had more than his share of safe fights, and his balance and stamina are suspect. Added to that he often just paws with his jab.

But he has been tutored for the last nine bouts by the highly-regarded Steward, who trained Holyfield before they fell out over money.

Lewis is awesome looking at 1.95 metres and 111.5 kg. At times he has been awesome in the ring. He first raised eyebrows with a 1992 destruction of Razor Ruddock.

Lewis suffered the lone defeat of his career when Oliver McCall — trained by Steward — knocked out the Briton in the second round in 1994.

Lewis’s toughest fight was against Ray Mercer in 1996. He won on a controversial decision and gained respect for slugging it out with the very tough Mercer.

But Lewis has turned in less-than awesome performances recently, and Holyfield, too, was shabby in his last fight in September.

Both men, however, have a history of fighting up to the level of their opponents. If they do that tomorrow. The fight could very well be worth the seven-year wait.