``There are some very powerful people from South Africa who are trying to get the rematch to be staged here and they want to offer the re-match as a gesture to President Mandela,'' Mandela's press secretary said here Thursday.``While the president is excited about this (re-match), he is however, not involved in the re-match himself,'' he said, commenting on reports emanating from London that President Mandela has offered a new belt to be presented to the winner of the rematch.

Mandela, who was ending a state visit to Sweden, had asked his office to bring an immediate end to reports and rumours linking him to the re-match.

KING DENIES INFLUENCING FIGHT: Boxing promoter Don King has testified he did not influencethe outcome of the Holyfield-Lewis world heavyweight boxing title fight.

King, called before a New York State Senate Committee probing the bout and examining possible changes in the way boxing is run, said he felt unfairly blamed. The judges for the bout at Madison Square Garden were appointed by the sport's three governing bodies the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). The bodies paid the judges a standard fee of $5,150 each but expenses such as hotel bills and meals were paid by King, as is the custom.

Some experts have questioned whether the judging might have been rigged or was simply incompetent. In her testimony on Thursday, Judge Eugenia Williams answered `absolutely not' to a question whether she was influenced. Shown a videotape of the 5th round in which she was the only judge to declare Holyfield the winner, Williams said, ``what I saw on TV is not the same as what I saw that night. I can only go by what I looked at thatnight and I scored that accordingly.''

Williams said her view was obstructed at times by photographers, whom she pushed away or asked to move.

HOLYFIELD APOLOGISES: Evander Holyfield has said he suffered from various ailments before and during his unification draw with Lennox Lewis. The excuses and an apology for his third-round knockout prediction came here as Holyfield said he was anxious for a rematch with Lewis, who most thought won the bout that was ruled a controversial draw by judges.