Back to basics for Lennox

Lewis was not properly prepared to defend his title

BBC Sport Online columnist Jane Couch believes complacency cost Lennox Lewis his world heavyweight titles.

Hasim Rahman didn't win that fight - Lennox Lewis lost it.

When Naseem Hamed lost to Marco Antonio Barrera, at least he lost to the best boxer in his division.

Lennox was knocked out by a boxer half as good as he is.

But Rahman took the opportunity to fight a world champion and made the most of it.

But to think Rahman got knocked out by David Tua, a boxer whom Lennox easily disposed of.

I think Lennox was suffering from over-confidence - I mean holding off training just to go off and play a cameo role for a film?

I find that very unprofessional.

Rahman put plenty of time into his training

His body language was all wrong - his hands were down by his sides at one stage - I've never seen him drop his hands.

And his training camp was just like a theme park - I could go there on holiday and have a great time.

Lennox needs to get some reality back into his training and go back to basics - that's what Rahman did

But how is he going to come back from all this?

Lennox insists he wants a re-match, but I don't think he will get it.

Rahman has a shrewd manager in Stan Hoffman and he is likely to go straight to Mike Tyson - that is where the big money lies.

If Lennox gets lucky and gets the re-match, one thing's for sure, he doesn't want to fight in South Africa again.

Could the defeat be the beginning of the end?

When you fight at altitude, your body doesn't get time to adjust to the sudden change in atmosphere.

Rahman had been in South Africa for over a month and had properly acclimatised to the conditions.

Lewis just shrugged off the questions asked about his training, claiming it would not make one bit of difference.

Before the fight, people were comparing Lewis to the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman as one of boxing true greats.

But after this defeat, I don't think he can be compared to those legends.

This may well be the beginning of the end for Lennox Lewis.