Remembering the Dignity and Class Lennox Lewis Brought to Boxing Rings Around The World

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

With the heavyweight scene in the UK currently booming, I thought it might be time to look back at the scene from a while ago and at a time we might have claimed it was in a similar condition.

It brought me to consider a figure who was seen as being slightly controversial in the UK but when you consider his record, that would appear to be rather daft…

When Lennox Lewis, the Canadian super heavyweight champion from the 1986 Olympics, decided that he was going to represent the land of his birth, we all were rather hesitant. He was the first sports star from Canada to decide his future was with the UK, though we were to go through it all again in tennis, when Greg Rusedski made the same decision, though he qualified through his English mother and not by his birth.

It was a time when we had also gone through the controversy that came with the UK giving South African athlete, Zola Budd – remember her? – Mary Decker does – a British passport to allow her to compete in an Olympics so we were a bit sensitive to the idea of sporting tourism.

Lewis was already a champion when he moved into our orbit having got Gold medals at both the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. We had seen him up close as he got his Commonwealth medal at the Games in Edinburgh so we knew all about him.

Lewis’ career as an amateur had been distinguished, partly because, having not won gold at the 1984 Olympics, he stayed amateur and pursued that prize at Seoul in 1988. Defeating Riddick Bowe at any point in your career would be deemed a high point, to do it in an Olympic final? To do it by a second-round stoppage… well…

Out the Olympics, he joined the professional ranks and in 2 years, he was the European heavyweight champion, winning against Frenchman Jean Maurice Chanet. In his very next fight, March 1991, Lewis won the British title against undefeated, world-ranked Gary Mason and then went on in April 1992 to win the Commonwealth belt against Derek Williams.

By 1992 he was number 1 in the WBC rankings, having won 21 of his 21 fights! In December of that year Riddick Bowe gave up the title rather than face Lewis. Lewis was now the very first super heavyweight Olympic Gold medalist to become a heavyweight world champion.

That first reign was relatively short as he was a champion for 2 years before Oliver McCall handed him his first professional loss in 1994. On home soil, this was a massive upset in the sport as he was stopped in just the second round! It was the right decision though Lewis protested it was far too early.

Trying to get back into a championship ring was now filled with the politics of the time as Don King maneuvered Mike Tyson into the WBC rankings to get a shot at newly crowned Brit, Frank Bruno. Lewis continued to box and weave and hope and after beating Justin Fortune, Tommy Morrison and Ray Mercer, Lewis was ready for a shot at “Iron” Mike.

Once again politics came to the fore and having sued to get Mike in a ring with him he watched as he stepped aside to allow Bruce Seldon that honor on the basis he would fight Tyson next for the WBC belt should Tyson retain it. He did. Then Mike Tyson relinquished it so he could face Evander Holyfield for the WBA belt he won in the ring against Holyfield.

In 1997, we were glued to our screens as Lewis won the WBC belt after Oliver McCall broke down on his stool between the 4th and 5th rounds and refused to continue the fight. Bizarre though it was, it meant that Lewis was the WBC champion once again.

If that was bizarre then in a connection with today and old fighters, Lewis became lineal champion by beating the then lineal champion, Shannon Briggs, in 1998, who won that title by controversially beating George Foreman! Talk about connections between the ages!

In 1999 Lewis added the WBA, & IBF titles by beating Evander Holyfield in his second fight with him that year (the first being declared a draw – scoring was a bit off…), and Lewis was now Britain’s first ever undisputed heavyweight champion in over 100 years and the first to unify the titles since 1992.

Now Lewis was imperious and looked all conquering but in 2001 we were all shocked and ended up on the floor next to him as a perfunctory title defense that should NEVER have troubled him saw him prostrate on the floor, knocked out by Hasim Rahman.

Lewis wanted and needed a rematch. He got one in 2002 and avenged his defeat with a 4th round knockout.

What was left for Lewis to do? Well…

Mike Tyson?

On June 8, 2002, he got in the ring with a man he had brawled at a press conference, who had been fined for biting Lewis at that conference and heard him promise to eat his babies. Lewis knocked him out in the 8th round.
Vitali Kiltschko?

On June 21, 2003, Lewis got in the ring with the elder brother and managed a win by TKO as Klitschko’s eye was too damaged. At the time of the stoppage, Klitschko was winning though his face required no fewer than 60 stitches!

If there was to be any doubt over his legacy he retired whilst at the top of his sport – just like Mr Andre Ward this month – and sent out his retirement statement that was filled with dignity and class. He left the sport having avenged every defeat he suffered – a lesson for some of our guys looking to remain undefeated – and ended his career as the champion, having just successfully defended his belt. Though it could be argued he got out when it looked like his power was waning, he left with all of him intact.

His opinions and views carry a lot of weight in the UK and in the boxing scene as he has spoken to Anthony Joshua and of the Mayweather, JR./McGregor fiasco in recent weeks. His words are listened to with respect because he came, he saw and he certainly conquered…

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