Patman

Anyone catch ESPN's Sportcenter to see the melee at Gary Miller's interview with both Rahman and Lewis for their upcoming heavyweight boxing rematch?

It came down to the 2 guysstarting to talk bad each other's relatives after Lewis took issue with Rahman saying that Lewis was acting "gay" (Rahman was talking about some court action that Lewis initiated), and then they both got up and while no punches were thrown, the entire set for the show was destroyed as people/handlers tried to keep both men away from each other, rather than either one risking an out-of-the-ring injury before the prize fight. This went on for about 5 minutes and you could see cameramen trying to get an up close and personal view of the combatants during their stare-downs while being restrained by their handlers.

RJainMJ

They have the video at ESPN ... http://espn.go.com/boxing/news/2001/0830/1246019.html

Least you know there won't be any handshaking after the fight is over!

Patman

I think it was staged because no punches were thrown.

Soup Nazi

I have to agree with you on that one.

Anything to increase the buy-rate ...

Kumar J

Maybe Vince McMahon made the story line

Patman

So where's Steph McMahon?

das Monkey

It looks really staged at the beginning, but as the altercation progresses, it looks more and more real. Who knows. With Don King, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out those two guys were really genetic clones he made in his lab, and the real fighters are wired up in his basement somewhere.

das

Jeremy517

Theres no way this was staged. I heard the show where it all started. I think this is the only thing in heavyweight boxing that isn't staged

Kumar J

She will come out in the end and give an anouncent at the end of the fight that she divorced HHH and marrying Levis

csteak101

From the clip that I saw...looks pretty staged to me..

Jeremy517

If you want to hear the radio show with the "You're gay" "No you are" "No you are" conversation that led up the brawl, its here.

I believe the segments with Hasim and Lennox starts about 20 minutes into it.

Almost certainly not staged.

tacomantt

Fake as all hell. Experienced viewers can clearly see this.
No real punches thrown. More of a "i'll grab you and you-grab me, but dont punch me in the face" sketch. Come-on.

Jeremy517

If it was faked, they wouldn't have had 3 hours of buildup. They would have had 3 seconds of buildup. They also wouldn't have trashed the Up Close stage. There is no way it was fixed. If you listen to the radio shows that led to the incident, you'll see the same.

I'm one of the first guys who calls out boxing for all the fake crap, but this isn't fake.

Llama

It's possible that it was both fake and not fake. I could easily see boxing promotors telling these two guys to get in each other's faces a little bit. I don't think a single person in either of the boxers' camps is upset that this happened; it raises the profile of their fight quite a bit. I do think it got out of control.

Want insight? Watch Gary Miller. During the whole standing up and finger pointing, he is sitting with a grin on his face. It's only after it started to get out of control that he did anything to stop it.

ESPN's Friday Night Fights went on half an hour early tonight to cover this little fracas. I guarantee their pay-per-view dollars are far higher than projected. Since neither of them got hurt, it just adds to the fun.

Boot

That's my take, too. It seemed that they were staging at first, especially up to the point where Lewis shoves Rahman. He kind of touches him and hesitates before shoving him slightly. It looked as if he were sort of testing the limits, unsure whether to go that far. After that, I think they both got heated and then it was real. If the whole thing were staged, I don't think they would have torn up the set, they would have just acted all huffy in each other's faces and trash talked, then let the crew break them up.

darkside

I was listening to Jim Rome's show when all this started and I was expecting them to go right there. They were after each other even during the commercials. The "gay" issue is what started all of this due to Lewis being so sensitive about it. I guarantee there is real hatred between those two. Whats sad is the real fight probably won't be as good as the one on up close. Lewis is very sensitive about people calling him gay which just makes it look like its true. Nice job Lewis.

Slumbering Fist

Glad someonhe agrees with me...After watching it last night, I go with the fake/staged but got out of hand opinion. At the begining Rahman totally looks like he's pushing it, putting on a show, purposefully following a gameplan, but I think it went over a tad too much for Lewis and it started to get real.