Rahman, Lewis in TV brawl

The show was called "Up Close" and for Hasim Rahman and Lennox Lewis, it got all too personal.

So much so, in fact, that the two heavyweight protagonists became embroiled in a wrestling match during filming of a joint television interview.

Rahman and Lewis were supposed to be previewing their rematch in the ring, scheduled for November 17, when Lewis hopes to reclaim the world title he lost to Rahman earlier this year.

But the pair decided to "get it on" almost three months early on the set of "Up Close", a chat show recorded at the ESPNZone in Anaheim, California, on Thursday.

After the undignified brawl, American Rahman was unrepentant.

"This is a taste of what he's going to get (in the rematch)," the WBC and IBF champion said of his British rival. "I'm gonna put him flat on his back."

Lewis, who turns 36 on Sunday, said Rahman had awakened the "lion" within him: "He showed me disrespect," said Lewis.

"I had to let him know I wasn't going to take it."

A spokesperson for Don King, promoter of the genuine rematch in Las Vegas, insisted that the show would go on.

Rahman and Lewis are still scheduled to appear at a news conference in Las Vegas on Friday, and will fly to London on Monday to conduct more promotion for the fight.

"GAY STUFF"

About 16 minutes into the programme, Lewis said Rahman had crossed the line in a previous radio show by using the word "gay" in referring to him.

"Why are you starting with that gay stuff?" Lewis said. "I'm 100 percent a woman's man. If he has worries about that, bring your sister, bring anyone."

Rahman, before standing up, responded: "Do not say nothing about my family."

Lewis, getting up off his own chair to meet Rahman eyeball to eyeball, said: "Be careful what you say to me."

At that point, Lewis gave an initial push, before Rahman weighed in as the two grappled with each other while host Gary Miller looked on.

As people flooded the stage to bring the two apart, Rahman pushed Lewis on to a table, causing it to buckle under the weight of the Lewis.

Rahman was then seen to aim a punch in Lewis's direction, before the pushing, shoving and shouting continued for another two minutes.

Rahman said he had used the word "gay" in reference to Lewis resorting to court action to force the American into granting him a rematch of their fight last April, which Rahman won with a fifth-round knockout.

There were immediate rumours the "impromptu" bout had been staged, to drum up publicity for the sanctioned November rematch.

But the coordinating producer of the show, Charlie Moynihan, was quoted by the ESPN website as saying he did not believe the incident was staged.

"In my estimation, this wasn't fixed," the website quoted Moynihan as saying. "These two have a great disdain and dislike for each other."

But the studio audience chanted "Gary! Gary! Gary!" in an apparent reference to the chants of "Jerry" heard during "The Jerry Springer Show", when fights of debatable authenticity break out.

The British Board of Boxing Control (BBBC) said on Friday that they were "saddened" by the scenes

"It was not what the sport of boxing, or Rahman and Lewis, want to see," Simon Block, general secretary of the BBBC, told Reuters on Friday.

"It has done nothing for Lennox's image, and hopefully it will not happen again."