Peter ‘Lightning’ Lewison is in a hurry to become a world champ, which is why he spends more time out of the boxing gym working on his career than in it.
The average boxer concentrates on punch bags, skipping rope, sparring and making weight. That is only a fraction of what Lewison does pretty well, having gone three fights undefeated as a pro. He also promotes all his own shows, finds sponsors, sells tickets and engineers his own publicity. Mr Boxing through and through.
So confident is the 25-year-old from Prospect that his next bout is an extremely tough one for a novice without extensive amateur experience. He has tracked down and coerced Kevin Rooney Jr. to come to the Cayman Islands.
The fight is set for the Lions Centre on 8 December and is made at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds. Rooney, 27, is the son of the celebrated trainer Kevin Rooney who was Mike Tyson’s first pro trainer when the heavyweight slugger was a whirlwind teenager who became the youngest heavyweight champ ever, at 20, in 1986.
Lewison hopes to sell 4,000 tickets, a daunting task but in the first few weeks he has already shifted 600.
Lightning’s Intercontinental NBA belt will be on the line in his first defence against Rooney Jr. Lewison has to have a sell out because a premium had to be paid to get Rooney over. Tickets are sold at Reflections, Jacques Scott and CashWiz on the Waterfront.
The undercard will include three professional bouts and some amateurs and possibly a white collar bout.
World class welter ‘Silky’ Wilky Campfort makes another appearance.
Lewison is excited that Rooney Jr has signed. “Cus D’Amato was Tyson’s mentor but he died in the mid-80s before Tyson was even champion,” said Lewison.
“Rooney’s father is good. He guided Tyson into being the youngest ever heavyweight champion and the first to achieve three major titles, the IBF, WBC and WBA at the same time. The Rooneys are still based in Catskills, New York where D’Amato had his camp and where Tyson honed his skills.
“On his professional debut, Rooney Jr fought on ESPN and is promoted by a major promoter, Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing, where he works as a publicist.
“His record is only 4-2 so he’s not unbeatable. He has the peek-a-boo (gloves held high) style. He tries to throw a combination of power shots. He’s not really a stylish boxer who tries to set up punches, more like a brawler, like Tyson. Same style. From what I see, he is only a four round fighter. After that he gasses and doesn’t have the stamina.
“He has a high rating and following because of his father. I want to fight him because I need the exposure off of him. It’ll be good if I build my record and I have certain people that I’ve knocked out. He has never been knocked out before and being the first to do so is something good to have on my resume.
“Rooney fought in the New York Golden Gloves at the same time as me, only I was a light-heavyweight and he was a middleweight. But I’ve beaten amateurs who have beaten him.
“This will be an excellent opportunity for me, because I have to get opponents who will help me grow and rise to the top of the rankings and also give me the exposure I need. He has a big name. Knocking him out, that will make a name for me.
“Say one day I fight on HBO, they’re going to say that this is the kid that knocked out Kevin Rooney’s son. I’ll settle for a points win, but I want to knock him out. I want to be the only judge of this fight.
“Initially, it was hard to convince him to take this fight. He didn’t want it at first but we had to pay him a little bit more to make it sweeter. He demanded a high price to put me off, but I found it through sponsorship.
“My sponsors include Andreas Ugland, Jacques Scott who promised to do a lot for me, AI Rentals, Massive, Celebrations, The Real Estate Company, Westin Hotel, National Concrete, the Water Authority, Coconut Car Rental and the Contractor Store and hopefully I’ll attract more.
“I’m hoping to put on a white collar bout between lawyers, maybe some of the guys from Maples and Walkers who have some kind of rivalry. It’ll be good if they can have a bout because they always support the boxing.
The other law firms, like Applebys and Ogier always buy tickets too. Those firms are the leaders for supporting boxing.”
Lewison is a muscular six footer and to get down to 160 pounds he needs to shift around 40 pounds.
“I’m trying to do a promotion using the weight loss and try to create a following of how much weight I’m losing on YouTube. I’ll be standing on scales every two weeks to show people how much I’m losing.
“I want to show them that you can lose a lot of weight in a good, healthy way, using boxing training and your body can look great.”
fOR TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATI0N, email peter lewison on [email protected] or phone 325-0092
So confident is the 25-year-old from Prospect that his next fight is an extremely tough one for a three fight novice with no extensive amateur experience.
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