UNDISPUTED; LEWIS UNANIMOUS CHOICE; HOLYFIELD BATTLES BUT IN VAIN.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Staff Writer

The judges got it right this time, although Evander Holyfield didn't make it easy for them here on Saturday.

Holyfield was better than he was when he and Lennox Lewis fought to a controversial draw in March, much better. Better against a behemoth like Lewis, who has almost every physical advantage, just wasn't good enough.

Lewis used a stiff left jab, a surprising right uppercut and a lot of resolve to unanimously outpoint one of the sport's most admired figures and win the undisputed heavyweight championship before a crowd of about 18,000 that pulled evenly for the fighters.

Judge Jerry Roth scored it 115-113, Chuck Giampa 116-112 and Bill Graham 117-111. The Daily News had it 116-112 in favor of Lewis.

Punch stats supported the decision: Lewis outlanded Holyfield 195-137 overall, 76-52 in jabs and 119-85 in power punches.

``It was tougher than the first time,'' said Lewis, who had an estimated 6,000 fans from England in Las Vegas to support him. ``He trained for this fight and he used different tactics.

``. . . I just didn't want to let (my fans) down, to let myself down. This was my dream. I didn't want to go home without the belts.

There wasn't much Holyfield could say.

``I can't judge the fight, I can just fight,'' he said.

And fight he did.

Holyfield (36-4-1, with 25 knockouts) will be 37 next week but fought with the vigor of a youngster.

In vintage Holyfield form, he went after Lewis (35-1-1, 27 KOs) from the opening bell and never stopped. He was in shape and remarkably determined to win the undisputed title for a second time at an age when most fighters are left with only memories.

At times, he scored big - in an unforgettable seventh round, for example.

He hurt Lewis with a left hook and then a right and another left a few seconds later. He had his chance to stun the world one more time, but his efforts to knock out the bigger man fell short. He would not get another such opportunity.

Lewis did much of what he did in the first bout. He measured Holyfield with his left jab and followed with more than enough rights to win over the judges.

A powerful right uppercut, which he underused in the first fight, might have been the key this time. Holyfield simply couldn't figure out how to avoid it.

Many experts at ringside were surprised at the decision. Some scored the bout for Holyfield, perhaps because of his aggressiveness and because of periods of passiveness on Lewis' part, passiveness that appeared to suck the spirit out of 6,000 raucous English fans. They went almost silent in the second half of the fight.

However, few will look at this as the March debacle, when Lewis appeared to win easily but received only a draw. And, by all estimations, it was a more entertaining fight. The seventh round alone made it worth the effort.

Clearly, this is what the sport - suffering from a series of setbacks in recent months - needed: a good, relatively clean fight.

``It was a fight,'' one smiling television executive said.

Holyfield won the WBA title when he stunned the boxing world by knocking out Mike Tyson in 11 rounds in November of 1996. He won the IBF belt when the stopped Michael Moorer in eight rounds in November of the following year. He had lost both the WBA and IBF titles when Moorer outpointed him in April of 1994.

Lewis won the WBC title when champion Oliver McCall couldn't continue because of an emotional breakdown, in February of 1997. McCall had taken the belt from Lewis with one punch in the second round in September of 1994.

In preliminary bouts Saturday night, Fabrice Tiozzo of France stopped Ken Murphy of Chicago after seven rounds to keep his WBA cruiserweight championship.

Tiozzo (41-1, 26 KOs) outlanded Murphy (21-2-1, 15 KOs) at least 2-1 and won every round on every card. Murphy went down with seconds left in the seventh as much from an accumulation of punches as a single blow.

Tiozzo, who weighed only 189-1/2 pounds, has said he plans to move up to heavyweight in the near future.

WBA super lightweight champion Sharmba Mitchell (46-2, 29 KOs) retained his title when he easily outpointed Elio Ortiz (17-4, 13 KOs).

Mitchell, from Takoma Park, Md., knocked down his Venezuelan opponent in the opening seconds and hurt him several times but couldn't put him away.

The judges scored it 114-112, 118-108 and 119-109.

And Gilbert Serrano of Venezuela took Italian Stefano Zoff's WBA lightweight title when Zoff (29-7-2, 11 KOs) couldn't continue because of cut over his swollen right eye.

The fight was stopped at 31 seconds of the 10th round. Serrano (18-4-2, 16 KOs) was leading the fight by a wide margin on all cards.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Lennox Lewis of Great Britain, right, scores with a right uppercut in fifth round of his victory over Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas.

(2) Referee Mitch Halpern, right, stops Evander Holyfield from being pushed out of the ring by Lennox Lewis. The fight at the Thomas & Mack Center was a clean one, which the sport of boxing badly needed.

Laura Rauch/Associated Press