NEW YORK Promoters for world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman and the boxer he dethroned, Briton Lennox Lewis, both cast cold water on Friday on reports that a tentative deal had been reached for a rematch.

Don King, promoter for Rahman, said Lion Productions, representing Lewis, had sent a letter purporting to agree to his $12.5 million offer to promote the fight but actually setting out conditions they knew he could not accept, Reuters reported.

"They opted to let me put it on but then they're going to turn around and tell me how to put it on," King told Reuters in a telephone interview. "They can't do that. That's totally unacceptable."

On the other side, when asked about the report of a tentative deal, a spokesman for Lion's U.S. promotion partners, Main Events, told Reuters: "There's no truth to that."

Spokesman Donald Tremblay added: "Lennox's team does not believe King is serious about a $12.5 million offer. So what they did was send him a contract which says basically, 'OK, here's a contract, if you're serious show us you're serious.'"

Rahman scored a stunning upset by knocking out 35-year-old Lewis in the fifth round of their April 22 bout in South Africa to take away the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation heavyweight titles.

With all the court battles and verbal sniping from both sides, could a rematch ever happen? "Yes, it's going to happen," said King.

"It's going to happen when they (Lewis's promoters) come to their senses that they can't just run over and use a judge's decision to manipulate and maneuver the courts to do some strong-arm tactics for their selfish interests."