With his biggest fight less than a week away, WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis sat down with ESPN's Mark Schwarz to discuss a variety of topics. Lewis, who fights WBA and IBF champion Evander Holyfield on March 13, talked about not only the fight but also the public's perception of him and the lack of respect he's attained from boxing world.

Mark Schwarz: First of all, the stuff that you read, the stuff you hear about Lennox Lewis, is it generally positive?

Lennox Lewis: Not generally, you look at a lot of what people say, they're usually being patriotic in one sense and not placing a good opinion in my estimation. I think it could be a lot better. But I guess that's because of the fact that they haven't seen too much of Lennox Lewis, or don't know too much about Lennox Lewis. These are some of the things that they talk about, or read in a magazine, and they believe and they listen to.

Schwarz: Who do you believe gets more respect in the boxing community -- Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield?

	Lennox Lewis says a victory over Evander Holyfield will show his critics he deserves to mentioned among the great heavyweight champions of all time.

Lewis: Well, I'd say Evander Holyfield because of the fact that he's been up against a lot of the people who the critics deem is a better boxer and had the opportunity of seeing him against these boxers.

Schwarz: Like the three fights against (Riddick) Bowe. The two fights against (Mike) Tyson. Two against (Michael) Moorer. One against (George) Foreman and (Larry) Holmes. And you haven't fought any of those people. Does that make you less of a boxer than Holyfield because you haven't been in the ring with all of those guys?

Lewis: To a certain degree, in one sense. In the sense that I haven't been in the ring with those guys and they haven't had the opportunity of seeing me against those same boxers.

Schwarz: Without those big fights, what do you say to your critics who say, "Who has he fought?"

Lewis: I say I fought everybody who's given me the opportunity and stepped in the ring with me. And I've beaten 'em. The guys who haven't stepped in the ring with me are the guys who are ducking me, or there managers or promoters think that wouldn't be a good fight for them. That it's too high of a risk for them to get into (the ring).

Schwarz: Larry Holmes did an interview with us this week, and he said, "You ask Lennox, I swear on my mother and on my kids." He said, "Lennox Lewis told me I can't fight you, you have a good jab. I can't box you." Did you say that to Holmes?

Lewis: I didn't say I couldn't fight him. I said he has a great jab. I don't think there would be any need to fight him. I want boxers in my own era to go up against, and the guys that are up there right now that the public deems as good boxers. Those are who I want to fight right now.

Schwarz: In your opinion, who is the best fighter that you've taken on to this point?

Lewis: You know, Ray Mercer's a great fighter. Razor Ruddock is a great fighter. Even the Croatian is a good amateur fighter, coming from the amateur ranks and undefeated.

Schwarz: Have you fought a great fight yet? A great fighter? Have you had a great matchup? A great opponent?

Lewis: I think everybody that I fight is great in their own sense. They have something unique about them that's great, that I have to overcome. And each one of them has something that I want to expose and defeat.

	“	Mike Tyson has ducked me. Evander Holyfield has ducked me for such a long time. If it wasn't for some more denominations in his bank account, some public pressure, this fight wouldn't have been able to have been put together.  ”
		—  WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis

Schwarz: Sugar Ray Leonard's comment was he fights well enough to win, but not well enough to impress. That you just don't clobber people. You don't have spectacular victories.

Lewis: What can you say to that? You know, that's his opinion. I have no comment when it comes to people's opinion, my main goal is just to go out there and win and make sure that I'm successful in the ring. Whatever they have to say, or the fact if there are comments, they're just comments. I can speak all day about different boxers, what I feel, but it's up to the person how they feel.

Schwarz: Gil Clancy, who I guess you had a little exchange with on TNT not to long ago.

Lewis: Gil Clancy can't say nothing. I don't even want to hear nothing about what he's got to say. He's nothing to me. Anything he says is very biased. Patriotic. If he's going to be an announcer, he should be in one sense. he should analyze in a proper sense, subjective in one. (What) he says I don't even care about

Schwarz: He used a word though that any boxer, any athlete, would react to. In the NBA, which I cover a lot, David Robinson, he's a great player, a Dream Team player, yet his team has never won an NBA championship, or come that close. And the tag that he gets is that he's soft. He doesn't know how to play. He doesn't have killer instinct the way Michael Jordan had. In boxing, Holyfield has that label, that he's a warrior. He grits his teeth, he guts it out through anything. Gil Clancy says by contrast, Lennox Lewis is mentally soft.

Lewis: I've never spoken to Gil Clancy for him to make that comment about me.

Schwarz: So you don't feel that that's fair based on what you've done. Not in a conversation with him, but what you've done in the ring?

Lewis: I feel that Gil Clancy shouldn't be Gil Clancy. He should be Gil "Can't-see."

Schwarz: So you're not impressed with his analysis?

Lewis: No. I mean any analysis he makes is something he probably got from a bathroom wall when he takes a squirt.

Schwarz: You've written him off more than he's written you off. Do you think that there's any reason to look at your career the way that people do, and say he's got great physical gifts. They talk about your height, your jab, your reach. Burt Sugar said you have the best right hand in the heavyweight division in the past 20 years. Now given all that, people probably expect you to be the greatest thing since Muhammad Ali, the greatest heavyweight of all-time. And yet, they've seen in the biggest fights, the championship fights, strange bizarre things have happened where Lennox Lewis hasn't come out looking like a tremendous boxer and so they question you. They question your desire, your tenacity.

Lewis: Well, you know, that's good because I look back in history and I look at Muhammad Ali when he was coming up and there was a lot of people questioning him. A lot of people putting him down. But I believe that you're as good as your last fight. It only takes that one fight to put you over that pinnacle. And you know, in one sense, I'm searching for that one big fight. I've had big fights in the past, and this particular fight with Evander Holyfield, I feel is going to put me over the pinnacle

Schwarz: When you hear people compare you to Holyfield and they say, "Hey, the thing you can't question about Holyfield is the guts, the warrior." Do people say that about Lennox Lewis. Is there ever the warrior Lennox Lewis?

Lewis: Well, you know, when you define someone as a warrior, that's someone who's gone to war, that's taken a lot of punishment and given a lot of punishment. I don't think Lennox Lewis is the type of boxer to go in there and take a lot of punishment. He's out to give a lot of punishment. Looking at Evander Holyfield's career, he's got true grit, he's got a great big heart and he is a warrior. But the end result isn't going to be in his favor because when he's 50 years and when Lennox Lewis is 50 years old, (I'm) going to be able to get out of bed. When Evander Holyfield is 50 years old, I don't think he'll be able to get out of bed. I don't think he'll be able to talk. That's because he's got that warrior instinct. The fact that he's been in there, in wars, he's been in some bruising battles. But in the end, they're going to pay off in a detriment in his life, in how he's going to come out in later life.

Schwarz: What do you think you haven't done so that people question your heart?

Lewis: What I haven't done? I haven't got in there and taken a lot of punishment like Evander Holyfield. Evander Holyfield, if you look over his past fights, he's taken a lot of punishment. This is why people can really give him that title, or that title that you know. He's got a great big heart.

Schwarz: Now you feel that your heart is as big as Evander Holyfield's. People just don't know that yet?

Lewis: Yeah, I mean, Evander Holyfield, although he's got a big heart, he's a man like me. He bleeds like me, and you know, in situations where you have to tough it out I think the tough get going and you will see Lennox Lewis' heart.

Schwarz: D you feel, that in your opinion, what is the defining moment of your career?

Lewis: There's different defining moments in my career. There's a lot of questions that were always asked specially before I go into fight and the questions are always answered after the fight. So there's going to be questions before the Evander Holyfield fight and those questions are going to be answered after the fight as well.

Schwarz: When people looked at some of your victories. like (Henry) Akinwande, and they say, "You know, Akinwande was holding Lennox Lewis. What could he do?" Eddie Futch says, "Well of course there was something he could do, he could have fought back. He could have asserted himself. He didn't have to go along with the dance that Akinwande put him in." And you were willing to play that game with him because you knew you'd win the fight.

Lewis: Eddie Futch wasn't in the ring with me. He didn't realize how the guy was holding me so tight I couldn't even really push him off of me. The referee had a hard time trying to get us apart, what can you do, you know? These people are speaking about things they think should happen. These are the kind of comments everybody, when they watch a fight on a Saturday night, say should have happened. But they've never been in the ring, never experienced it. So, you know, what can you say to that?

Schwarz: Someone pointed out in the (Shannon) Briggs fight, which you won impressively, that early in the fight you got hit hard, took a shot in the first round and not only did you not fire back but you turned your back on shannon briggs. Do you remember that?

Lewis: (Laughs) No, you know, it's amazing when I hear all these different comments. But what can you do? I just take it in stride, my main thing is just going out and doing it. They can say what they want about me, but I'm still winning. You know, a lot of people make different comments about me but I'm making millions and still winning.

Schwarz: So this doesn't bother you? The fact that some of these guys like Eddie Futch, who's a Hall of Fame-type trainer. Clancy, who's had a lot of success. And Tommy Brooks, who said you have no intestinal fortitude. This doesn't trouble you at all, that these people said that?

Lewis: No, the fact still remains I'm still winning. I'm still knocking people out. There are boxers out there who still don't want to step into the ring with me. So what do you say to that? Ask them.

Schwarz: So basically you feel like you've been able to fight every time that you've been called upon. You haven't ducked anybody? You think people have ducked you? Who do you feel has ducked you?

Lewis: Mike Tyson has ducked me. Evander Holyfield has ducked me for such a long time. If it wasn't for some more denominations in his bank account, some public pressure, this fight wouldn't have been able to have been put together.

Schwarz: So, you're not troubled by any of the perceptions of Lennox Lewis. You just laugh at it. You kind of smile at it. You're kind of waiting for your glorious moment?

Lewis: Well, you could say that. My main thing is just going out there and winning and whatever the perception is of Lennox Lewis before the fight, it always changes after the fight.

Schwarz: Do you think that people don't realize, Emmanuel said that you're a street fighter, that you had a street-fighting background. People look at you and don't see that. Maybe you have never spoke about it publicly. Is that a part of you that is there for you, as much the street fighter that everyone knows is in Holyfield and in Tyson, because of where they grew up?

Lewis: Well, to a lot of people out there, Lennox Lewis is an enigma and they don't know too much about Lennox Lewis. So what do they do? They make up things and jump to a lot of conclusions. If the fight was in the street, you would see that Lennox Lewis is a street fighter and will do anything within the rules to win.

Schwarz: Do you have the same love for boxing that some of the other guys that I mentioned have? That Holyfield, Tyson, Ali, who just live and die and breathe the sport. Are you that way about boxing?

Lewis: Yeah, I'm that way about boxing. I must be the only athlete out there who looks at it as a sport now, most of them guys that you speak of, they look at it like a business. I've just realized that this is more of a business than a sport, especially in the professional aspect.