“It’s been a fight the Guyanese people wanted to see for a long time and it was in the making for sometime now and we are happy to give a quality fight,” promoter Odinga Lumumba said in an interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday about the upcoming clash between Raul Frank and Andrew ‘Six-Head’ Lewis.
The five-fight card dubbed ‘The End Game’ is set for October 3 at a venue to be announced later.
Lumumba said that people have been longing for the two fighters to meet, adding that this would be real boxing with the winner going on to face National Middleweight Champion, Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman for his title.
“The fight was made by itself, everyone knows that Frank had wanted to get at ‘Sixhead’ for a long time and so we had it in the making but it’s now materializing. This is real boxing, not a one round or a two round fight, this is real boxing and it’s interesting because both fighters want to make a move up,” Lumumba stated.
Lewis became Guyana’s first world champion in 2001 when he stopped James Page in the seventh round of their 12-round clash to lift the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) Welterweight title.
In that same year Frank fought the late Vernon Forrest for his IBF Welterweight title and though he was unsuccessful, Frank had insisted that he was a better fighter than Lewis because Forrest at the time was probably ‘the best’ fighter in the division.
Lewis’s record stands at 30 fights, 23 wins with 20 coming by way of knockouts, along with three draws and four losses, including three when he tasted the canvas.
Meanwhile Frank has stepped into the ring 38 times and has won 28 of those fights, putting 14 opponents to the ground in the process. He has three draws and also five losses.
He has never won a world title but has claimed some significant titles. In 1997 he gained a split decision victory over Purcell Miller to lift the USBA Welterweight title, and then in 2004 a unanimous decision gave him the nod over Mohammad Said for the IBF Welter and Middleweight Latino titles.
But although Frank has been doing well internationally he is yet to claim a national title; a belt which the fighter said he has always wanted.
Frank and Lewis only stepped into the same ring once but to face different opponents with the two sharing bitter sweet outcomes.
The US-based fighter clinically whipped Winston Pompey on the under card of the Lewis/Eastman National Middleweight title fight.
‘Sixhead’ went down to Eastman via a split decision but the fighter and his fans thought that he had beaten Eastman and cried foul.
Stabroek Sport caught up with Lewis at his gym in Albouystown this week and he said that after his engagement with Eastman, he had taken a more laid back approach to the sport but after the Frank fight came up, it sparked a new life in him.
“Well you done know what kind of a fighter ‘Sixhead’ is and right now ‘Six’ just happy for this fight. Everybody knows that I am one of the best fighters they have here right now and I will prove that. I want Eastman again and Frank – well he is a good fighter but he can’t beat me but he is a good fighter,” said Lewis.
He added: “Well everything coming good. I in my first phase of training and so far I’m feeling great, healthy and just ready to step into the ring. I want to win this fight to show people that ‘Six’ is here to stay and will rise once again to the top.”
