Updated: Thu, Aug 30 8:10 PM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - World heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman and former title holder Lennox Lewis were involved in a pushing match during the filming of a joint television interview, ESPN's Web site reported on Thursday.
The Briton gave an initial push, the report said, "and after people flooded the stage to try to break it up, Rahman had maneuvered Lewis to the interview desk, which succumbed from the weight of Lewis's body.
"Pushing, shoving and shouting continued for at least two minutes," the ESPN report said.
The pair are due to fight in the ring on November 17 and the program was scheduled to be shown next week. But ESPN broadcast it on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the sports cable television network said.
About 16 minutes into the filming of "Up Close" with interviewer Gary Miller in Anaheim, California, 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, according to the ESPN Web site. "I'm 100 percent a woman's man. If he has worries about that, bring your sister, bring anyone."
Rahman responded: "Do not say nothing about my family."
Lewis said: "Be careful what you say to me."
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.
The coordinating producer of the show, Charlie Moynihan, was quoted by the ESPN Web site as saying he did not believe the incident was staged.
"In my estimation, this wasn't fixed," the Web site 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.
Rahman knocked out Lewis in the fifth round last April.