LENNOX LEWIS spoke of Mike Tyson's destiny when they were together as teens for sparring.
The British heavyweight had won the World Junior Championships and was then informed that his true rival hadn't made it to the rings.
Lewis was invited to meet Tyson, despite his preference to not fly to the Dominican Republic to compete.
Lewis, 56, said that he won the World Junior Championships, Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, and that the American team was saying, "Oh well, you never fought for the best."
"I thought that the Americans sent the most talented team. "Yeah, but one guy. He doesn't like flying and his manager don’t like flying either.
"They said it was Mike Tyson and Cus D'Amato. My trainer and I left Canada, and drove all the way to Catskill, Tyson’s base.
"While we were up, Donovan Razor Ruddock also was up there. They replied, "Razor Ruddock didn’t spar with us." I replied, "OK, I'll spare with you, I'm only here for four days."
Lewis provided a fascinating insight into Tyson's learning process at age 17, when he was just 17.
He said, "The first Tyson I met was a very nice guy. He took me to his bedroom and showed me old films that were old fighters that I had never seen."
"He would tell me all about each fighter. He studied them. This is where he got his style of fighting.
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Both men became heavyweight champions of the world several times, and finally fought in 2002, 20 years ago.
Lewis won the eighth round knockout.
Both youngsters are expected to be great successes. The West Ham-born fighter admitted that he has a future fight in his mind when sparring Tyson.
He stated: "First day at the gym bell went, he came along and tried to kill me.
"I did my Muhammad Ali thing and avoided his power, but the first was very hectic.
"The second day was chaotic but improved as the day went on. Then the final day, I finally got the better of him.
"I remember Cus D'Amato saying, 'Mike! Don't you think you'll meet him one day?
"And that always echoed in my mind, Will we ever fight?'. Cus D'Amato had said that we would fight and it did.
Rumours circulated last year that Tyson and Lewis were in talks to fight in an exhibition bout. Iron Mike will be returning to the ring in 2020 to face Roy Jones Jr.
For now, however, we have only the memory of the 2002 fight, which was fought almost two decades ago.
