Andrew `Sixhead' Lewis' career as a boxer took a turn for the worse when he was knocked out in the second round by Mexican Antonio Margarito at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas on Saturday. Lewis' attempt at snatching the World Boxing Organisation crown from the head of his opponent ended with 29 seconds left in the second round after referee Joe Cotzee halted the bout with the former WBA champion apparently unable to defend himself.
Hoping to relaunch his career which nose dived when he suffered a fifth round knockout at the hands of Ricardo Mayorga just under a year ago, Lewis was an open target for Margarito from the opening bell. However, an early offence kept the taller Mexican at bay in the first round.
Eight years Lewis' junior, Margarito rocked the defenseless southpaw with a right uppercut that stunned the former champion and drifted him into the ropes. With surgical precision Margarito unleashed several unanswered punches which forced the referee to call a halt to the bout.
"He started fast but I knew I would have gotten him," Margarito said while calling out IBF and WBC champion Ricardo Mayorga who wrested the title from Lewis.
Weighing in at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds on Friday the Guyanese rocketed to 159 pounds by fight night. It was the second defeat for the 32-year- Guyanese in less than a year. Margarito improved to 28-3 with 18 knockouts.
Efforts to get a comment from the Lewis camp yesterday proved futile but Seon Bristol, an adviser to WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne `Big Truck' Braithwaite said that Lewis needs to seriously consider where he goes from here.
"What we saw is that Andrew has learnt nothing from his defeat at the hands of Mayorga. It's either his trainers are not teaching him nothing different or that he is just not learning. The bottom line is that the defeat has done his career much harm."
"He needs to reconsider if he will stay with them," Bristol said. "There is a lot of negativity around him (Lewis) and what happened Saturday night has added more. He needs a lot of correcting and I don't think that his present handlers are capable," Bristol added.
Lewis became the first fighter representing Guyana to win a world title when he knocked out James Page on February 17 2001. Since that spectacular performance `The Albouystown Cyclone' has not lived up to the expectations of many boxing buffs.
In April of the same year Larry Marks all but dropped him early in his first defence in Manhattan. In the second defence Mayorga finished him in round five.