BoxRec

anyone know where i can find this fight online?

<removed download> - Don't want it to be taken down.

not working, youtube should be king for things like this but no mavrovic.

I've never seen this fight and I'm intrigued by it!

Although Lewis won quite widely on points, it wasn't an easy night for him.
Mavrovic was competitive in all the rounds, before the fight most people thought this would be an quick nights work for Lewis. Zeljko Mavrovic proved to have an iron chin that night, he took some big right hands without flinching, but didn't throw enough back himself to win the rounds.
Lewis looked dead tired at the end of 12 rounds, maybe he underestimated Mavrovic before the fight. Lewis has stated that this was one of his toughest defences.

Mavrovic never fought again due to illness, not sure what it was. But he's been successful outside the ring, with TV apperances and commentating.
Also he's a vegetarian, and has his own eco food company.

seems to have done alright for himself, which is good to see

Although Lewis won quite widely on points, it wasn't an easy night for him.
Mavrovic was competitive in all the rounds, before the fight most people thought this would be an quick nights work for Lewis. Zeljko Mavrovic proved to have an iron chin that night, he took some big right hands without flinching, but didn't throw enough back himself to win the rounds.
Lewis looked dead tired at the end of 12 rounds, maybe he underestimated Mavrovic before the fight. Lewis has stated that this was one of his toughest defences.

Mavrovic never fought again due to illness, not sure what it was. But he's been successful outside the ring, with TV apperances and commentating.
Also he's a vegetarian, and has his own eco food company.

seems to have done alright for himself, which is good to see

Yeah, Mavrovic more than held his own, Lewis dropped some bombs on him that night.

Mavrovic got some sort of metabolic disease which means he lost tonnes of weight, the last time I saw a pic of him it was shocking how thin he was, barely recognisable.

Riddick Blowe wrote:not working, youtube should be king for things like this but no mavrovic.

I've never seen this fight and I'm intrigued by it!

You didn't say whether you wanted to stream it or download it. Now it's obvious you want to stream it.

How about this? http://www.livefight.com/forum/index.ph ... _next=prev (Edit: sorry, the video has been removed. :( )

This is by far one of Lewis's most entertaining fights. He lands some blows & combinations on Mavrovic's chin that are absolutely tremendous, but Mavrovic never stops coming forward.

Lennox usually says this was his toughest fight-- and he looked knackered & very relieved to get the decision afterwards.

on that showing how would mavrovic have done against other top heavies?

Riddick Blowe wrote:on that showing how would mavrovic have done against other top heavies?

He would of been in the mix, he could go a bit hot and cold sometimes.
He looked great blowing away Clifton Mitchell, but laboured a bit against Julius Francis in his next fight. For all his toughness i think he lacked a bit of a killers instinct.
But when he was on top of his form he looked good, he was the type of guy who would give anyone a tough match, and if they hadn't trained well Mavrovic would of found them out.

Riddick Blowe wrote:on that showing how would mavrovic have done against other top heavies?

Hes much, much better than soooo many men who can call themselves current/former heavyweight champs. Chin & balls like a frickin rock with good power, fitness and technique.

Of course, none of these guys would ever be champs if they had challenged the #1 like Mavrovic did.

Darkie Smith was Mavrovic's trainer wasn't he?

I spoke to Darkie a while after and he said Mavrovic went to do National Service for a year after and then his heart wasn't really in it after that...

Mavoric was NOT a top HW challenger. He was extremely awkward and a decent counter-puncher but was wide open defensively, not very fast, not very powerful. The fact that Lewis struggled with him speaks more to Lewis's weaknesses then Mavoric's abilities. He was a tough bugger with a very solid pair of whiskers, I'll give you that. He was literally walking right into Lennox's uppercuts all night.

Did anyone think Lewis's fake Jamician accent at the end of the fight was laughable - didn't he say something like 'Respect to my Jamaciaman posse'???

I wasn't a Lewis fan at that point and thought he made himself look an even bigger tosser than normal esp. after labouring to a points victory against a guy with no defence who walked onto his shots all night, Lewis was blowing out of his arse from I think the 5th round, and if Mavoric had 'any' power whatsoever we would have had an upset that night without a doubt in my mind. How good Mavoric was or how shit(on the night)/under prepared Lewis was is the key question. I haven't seen any Mavoric fights before Lewis so don't think I'm best placed to comment but he did show heart, balls and an iron chin and he fought the best champion out there so he'll have my respect. But think Lewis was totally underprepared IMO.

Wasn't this the first title fight or HW title fight on an Indian Reservation? I think I remember Jim Watt complaining about the lack of crowd.

I think the Lewis camp used the fight merely as preparation for the Holyfield fight and the aim was to get 12 rounds under Lennox belt. Mavrovics superb chin got Lennox the rounds that he needed before the big fight with Holyfield.

The fight is on LiveFight to download.

Holyufield didn't impress versus Bean the same time either.

Mavrovic looked a lot like Vitaly Klitschko when he retired.

Mavrovic actually had a very serious illness, Vitaly obviously just stopped taking his sanatogen.

I remember that fight well and watched it recently on DVD. Was a test for Lewis that night despite the points decision. Solid fighter was Mavrovic, would have beaten a lot of today's top 20 even though he was limited.

And have you seen his wife? Wowzer....... :P

Lewis did some great boxing. He did get tired. There were problems with preparation with regard to conditioning so that might be why he lacked steam late.

I think Lewis and Holyfield both came up with below par performances because of the prolonged and drawn out negotiations over their fight - classic cases of not being 'up' for a fight but I guess they both showed what good champs they were by being professional and still winning, against Mavrovic and Bean....

Captain Hook wrote:I remember that fight well and watched it recently on DVD. Was a test for Lewis that night despite the points decision. Solid fighter was Mavrovic, would have beaten a lot of today's top 20 even though he was limited.

And have you seen his wife? Wowzer....... :P

Wasn't she like Miss Europe or even Miss Croatia? Certainly a stunner!

Mavrovic would of tired anybody out with his freakish durability & relentless march forward. ANYBODY! Christs sake, exactly how would you keep the guy off you?

Interesting trivia- Mavrovic was the original opponent for Rahman in 99 but pulled out due to illness 9poss earliest sign of his condition?). Oleg Maskaev was brought in, and dumped Rahman.

Dirk Kelly wrote:

Captain Hook wrote:I remember that fight well and watched it recently on DVD. Was a test for Lewis that night despite the points decision. Solid fighter was Mavrovic, would have beaten a lot of today's top 20 even though he was limited.

And have you seen his wife? Wowzer....... :P

Wasn't she like Miss Europe or even Miss Croatia? Certainly a stunner!

this post is meaningless without a pic

how he's doing now..

Zeljko Mavrovic, a former European boxing heavyweight title-holder, is another Croatian who has turned to ecological farming and he is now the country's largest organic producer.

"My story with ecological farming actually starts with sports and my personal development," said Mavrovic, who adopted macrobiotic philosophy at the start of his sport career in the 1990s.

According to macrobiotic teaching, food and its quality affects our health, well-being and happiness.

Mavrovic, 38, launched his business in 2001, after he had retired from the ring.

He has a 350-hectare (867-acre) farm in Slobostina in eastern Croatia planted mostly with cereals which he processes and makes bread from. His company, employing about 100 people, produces 30,000 loaves of "eco-bread" daily.

Mavrovic has also set up an education centre where he helps those who want to follow his path.

"Ecological farming seemed to me as a perfect way to achieve something and to tell people my story, the story about life and its values, how we should look at ourselves and how to understand our benefit in preserving the environment," he said.

Imagine the anticipation had Holyfield & Lewis fought straight after their respective stoppages of Michael Moorer and Andrew Golota.

Instead we had those dreary Bean / Mavrovic fights. Certainly took plenty of the edge off the build up for me. I remember the comment in the telegraph - "these two are just getting older, not better."

Old bones Ian wrote:how he's doing now..

Zeljko Mavrovic, a former European boxing heavyweight title-holder, is another Croatian who has turned to ecological farming and he is now the country's largest organic producer.

"My story with ecological farming actually starts with sports and my personal development," said Mavrovic, who adopted macrobiotic philosophy at the start of his sport career in the 1990s.

According to macrobiotic teaching, food and its quality affects our health, well-being and happiness.

Mavrovic, 38, launched his business in 2001, after he had retired from the ring.

He has a 350-hectare (867-acre) farm in Slobostina in eastern Croatia planted mostly with cereals which he processes and makes bread from. His company, employing about 100 people, produces 30,000 loaves of "eco-bread" daily.

Mavrovic has also set up an education centre where he helps those who want to follow his path.

"Ecological farming seemed to me as a perfect way to achieve something and to tell people my story, the story about life and its values, how we should look at ourselves and how to understand our benefit in preserving the environment," he said.

Nice find Ian. Great story