After the sudden death of fight promoter Ronald Butch Lewis, age 65, in or near his Wilmington, Delaware, estate, reminisces about the colorful handler of Michael Spinks and other fighters are pouring in, among them:
SEE HBO PREFIGHT, POSTFIGHT SPECIALS ON LANDMARK SPINS-TYSON BATTLE
BOB ARUM
(Bob Arum made a young hustler from Philadelphia named Ronald Butch Lewis a vice president at Top Rank, handling such boxers as brothers Leon and Michael Spinks at Top Rank after their gold medal victories in the 1976 Montral Olympic Games.)
“It’s a shocker that Butch just died,” the 79 year old Arum told me by phone Saturday afternoon from his vacation villa in the South of France. “What I remember most about Butch is how irrepressible he was.
“Butch really was quite a character, even by boxing standards. He would never give up on making a deal. We worked together getting the investors who backed the Leon Spinks-Muhammad Ali 1978 rematch in the Superdome in New Orleans.
“We brought in 78,000 fans into the dome, Ali won to become a three time world heavyweight champion and it was just a great night for boxing.
“Butch was this super kind of salesman. We first met up in Manila, 1975, when he was with Joe Frazier’s team in the Phillipines.”
MICHAEL MARLEY
“By now, it’s a tired cliche but Butch worked hard from the streets to the suites. Butch was flexible and versatile in the boxing and music industries. I went to see the James Brown fresh out of jail comeback concert in LA and I remember Butch telling me how everybody, including the legendary singer’s wife, had to call him Mr. Brown at all times. Btw, JB tore it up and even did the Camel Walk at age 65ish, lol.
“Butch could sell surfboards in landlocked Iowa or deep freezers near the North Pole. He bad a gift of gab and a great sense of humor yet he fought for every penny for himself and his fighters.
“Loved by few, hated by many, respected by all. That comes to mind although Butch had sa tendency to even win over his so-called enemies over time. How many guys could be a close pal to Smokin’ Joe Frazier and to archrival Muhammad Ali at the same time?
“I’ll never forget Don King telling me and fellow scribes Dave Raffo, Wally Matthews and a few others one day in New York about “the new science called Butchology, an amazing new science.”
We asked King to delineate this and he said, “That’s when you take the motherbleeper ewho go no belts (Michael Spinks) and make a fight against the guy who got all three belts (Tyson, then not with King but still with Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton) and the guy with no belts is getting $13.5 millions. They’re studying Butchology at Harvard, at MIT. It’s a science.”
That was King’s way of knocking Team Tyson and obliquely praising the younger Lewis.
