EACH may have been from the opposite spectrum of achievement in their chosen sport but Rich Hayes and Lennox Lewis have a significant deal in common.

And it's not just that both opted to bow out of their respective sports this past week - Hayes cutting short his illustrious stint with his home-city rugby league club because of the anguish of injury, Lewis finally hanging up his gloves as wear and tear started to erode his supremacy as the world's premier boxing champion.

What links the duo even more is that they have each bestrode their particular path with an abundance of skill and talent, matched in equal measure by longevity, duty and most impressive of all, dignity.

Not for them the loud-hailer of hype that over-blows so much of modern-day sport. To use examples from their own arenas of expertise whatever happened to, say, Bobby Goulding or Naseem Hamed, both enveloped, ensnared and engulfed by the smoke and mirrors of sporting embellishment and excess.

The careers of Hayes and Lewis - worlds apart in terms of cash reward and status - have parallels in that both are genuine tough guys who have operated in their particular sphere with guts and grace.

Sometimes it isn't what you say about yourself as to what is said about you by others that proves the measure of how good a sportsman you are.

And that too is true of both Hayes and Lennox.

Take Hayes. The 33-year-old's exit from the game he has decorated with fierce determination for close on 15 years was as unexpected as it was dramatic.

Intending to complete one final season with his home-city club Hayes was forced by a worsening shoulder injury to call a halt after York City Knights' Challenge Cup conquest of Villeneuve. His departure was not relayed to his team-mates until shortly before the kick-off, so it was even more fitting that he should bow out on a winning note.

After the news became public Hayes' exit brought forth heartfelt acclaim and tribute. Enthused Knights' coach Richard Agar: "I would say he's pretty irreplaceable. He has been absolutely outstanding. He's the ultimate professional, all the guys look up to him."

The theme was echoed by Knights chairman Roger Dixon who said of the man nicknamed Hoss: "He represents all that is good about the game. He is a man of complete honesty and total integrity on and off the pitch."

Among the tributes paid to Lewis, meanwhile, none were more pertinent and apposite than that delivered by 'The Greatest, Muhammad Ali after Lewis' thorough demolition of heavyweight boxing ogre Mike Tyson last year. Ali, still the world's best boxer and arguably the world's most influential sportsman, fan-fared Lewis as being The Greatest".

Yet while Hayes is rightly feted in and around the city of York, and no doubt amid the wider coliseum of rugby league, there is a reluctance for Lewis, and his exceptional accomplishments as world heavyweight boxing champion, to be lauded overmuch in Britain.

Maybe it's because his early days in the sport were allied to Canada to where he moved when he was a youngster. Maybe it's more because he hasn't screamed and shouted his way to the top as too frequently seems to be the case in modern boxing.

Like his partner in uprightness, Hayes, Lewis has been a model of sporting endeavour and that in the world's toughest, roughest, bust-you-up-most game. He deserves to be stand biceps to biceps among the pantheon of great heavyweights, which number Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali and the young, free from distraction Tyson.

If there were fairness in this world, there would be a sporting Freeman of York award for Hayes.

At least, however, he is a Knight. Though this column is not in favour of archaic honours systems, if justice were to rule then it should be, take a bow now, Sir Lennox Lewis.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, February 10, 2004