Lewis, Lennox 1965–

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Lennox Lewis 1965–

Boxer

Lennox Lewis, the man who began the year 2000 as boxing’s undisputed heavyweight champion, has always been a contradiction. Boxing is a brutal sport, but the fighter is a soft-spoken and clever man. He is often criticized for being too cautious inside the ring, yet he is fully capable of demolishing an opponent. Lewis, who, as heavyweight champion, is supposed to be the fiercest man on the planet, has been given honorary degrees for his work with children in London.

Lewis was born in London England on the city’s tough East End on September 2, 1965. His Jamaican mother, Violet, moved her son to Canada at the age of nine. Lewis moved to England again for a short time when he was 12, but he soon settled back with his mother in Kitchener, Ontario. His mother explained to Sports Illustrated’s William Nack why she brought the young man back from England: “I brought him back to Canada because I thought someone would abuse or ill-treat him. He was very stubborn and hyperactive.” But Lewis’s older brother Dennis told Nack a different story: “He was a rogue. He’d jump on my (older) friends and have a go. Picked fights a lot as a kid.” When he moved to Canada for the second time, the transition was not as easy. Lewis told Sports Illustrated’s Pat Putnam that the fighting continued. “All the kids made fun of my accent,” Lewis said. “And I punched out the lot. After my third strapping with the belt, my teacher advised I take my aggressions out in sport.”

Found His Calling

And that is exactly what he did. He discovered boxing soon after his return to Canada at the Kitchener Police Headquarters gym. By the age of 15 Lewis weighed 175 pounds and was fighting against 17-and 18-year-olds. In addition to boxing, Lewis played football, basketball, and threw the shot in track at Cameron Heights Collegiate. But the ring had taken hold of the young athlete. He quit all of the other sports to concentrate on boxing. After more than 100 amateur fights, Lewis won the gold medal as a super-heavyweight at the World Junior Championships in 1983.

The following year Lewis represented Canada at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles at the age of 18. He lost in the quarter finals to Tyrell Biggs. He reigned for the next four years as Canada’s top super-heavyweight and then ventured to Seoul, South Korea to take a real shot at amateur boxing’s top prize—an Olympic gold

At a Glance…

Born Lennox Lewis on September 2, 1965 in London, England to Violet Lewis of Jamaica. Education: Cameron Heights Collegiate in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Career: Began boxing at the gym at the Kitchener Police Headquarters as an early adolescent and by the age of 15 was one of the finest amateur boxers in Canada, 1983-88; turned professional and moved to London, 1988; first professional knockout against Razor Ruddock, 1992; won WBC Heavyweight Championship, 1993; lost the WBC title to Oliver McCall, 1993; won back the WBC belt, 1997; defeated Evander Holyfield to win the WBA and IBF Heavyweight titles, 1999.

Awards: Gold medal, World Junior Championships, 1983; gold medal, Olympics, 1988; undisputed Heavyweight Champion (holder of the WBA, IBO, IBF, and WBC titles), 1999.

Addresses: Home —London, England, Canada and Jamaica; Office— The Office of Lennox Lewis, Ground Floor, Shelana House, 31 Eastcastle Street, London, W1N 8NL, United Kingdom.

medal. The older and wiser English/Canadian fighter marched through the preliminary bouts to meet Riddick Bowe of the United States for the gold. Lewis stopped Bowe before the end of the second round after the second standing eight count. With the gold medal in his trophy case Lewis decided to turn professional.

Lewis signed with London-based manager Frank Maloney who brought the new professional along very slowly. Lewis explained the strategy guiding his first two years as a professional to Sports Illustrated’s Nack: “I fought a lot of stiffs, but Mike Tyson fought a lot of stiffs as well. We had a major commodity, and we didn’t want to take any chances with it. We went at a comfortable pace.” Lewis and his team received criticism for his slow development. After two full years as a professional he had fought less than 58 full rounds. His first 13 fights were eight rounds or less. His opponents provided little competition. Despite this lack of opposition, he signed a five-fight deal with HBO and Time Warner to televise his bouts on the cable station and through pay-per-view. He also became the darling of British boxing fans on sheer potential.

Awarded WBC Title

Finally, in early 1993 after Riddick Bowe was stripped of the WBC Heavyweight Championship belt, Lewis got his chance to compete on a legitimate level. He was awarded that title belt and became the first British heavyweight champion since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897. Lewis defended his title against Tony Tucker and won a unanimous decision, but his real quarry was Riddick Bowe—the man who held the other three heavyweight titles. Bowe dodged Lewis preferring to fight inferior boxers rather than risk his titles and easy paychecks at the hands of Lewis. After Tucker, Lewis scored a Technical Knockout (TKO) over fellow Englishman Frank Bruno in seven rounds and another TKO over Phil Jackson in the eighth round.

On September 24, 1994 Lewis suffered his only loss as a professional to the WBC’s top-ranked contender, Oliver McCall. McCall caught Lewis with a right and knocked him down in the second round. Lewis got up, but the referee gave McCall a second round TKO. In the next two years, Lewis defeated Lionel Butler, Justin Fortune, Tommy Morrison, and Ray Mercer. After the Mercer fight, Lewis’s managers offered Mike Tyson $45 million for a WBC Championship fight. Instead of fighting Lewis, Tyson ducked out of the bout and surrendered this title.

To fill the vacant heavyweight championship Lewis would face the only man to beat him—Oliver McCall. On February 7, 1997 Lewis was part of one of the most bizarre fights in a sport noted for its oddities. During the bout McCall, who was said to be battling drug addiction, sat on his stool weeping openly between rounds. Lewis won his title back. With the WBC belt in his possession, Lewis blew through the competition for two years defeating Henry Akinwande, Andrew Golota, Shannon Briggs, and Zelijko Mavorovic. Finally, in 1999 Lewis would receive a chance to unify the heavyweight championship. After being ditched first by Riddick Bowe and then by Mike Tyson for seven years, Lewis would face the WBA/IBF Champion Evander Holyfield.

Fought Evander Holyfield

On March 13, 1999 WBA and IBF Champion Evander Holyfield stepped into the ring against Lewis, who held the WBC heavyweight title. For the first time since 1992 the title would be united—or so fight fans believed. Lewis used his superior size and reach to keep Holyfield at bay throughout the 12-round fight and solidly out-boxed the aging Holyfield. Lewis connected 348 times while Holyfield scored on 130 punches. Despite the lopsided statistics, one judge scored the fight for Holyfield, one called it a draw, and one scored the fight for Lewis. The fight ended in a draw. Lewis’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, told Richard Hoffer of Sports Illustrated that Lewis worked harder with “his sparring partner. It wasn’t even a close fight.” The decision was derided as another example of the corrupt nature of boxing, and the three sanctioning organizations (the WBA, IBF, & WBC) ordered a rematch within six months.

Six months to the day the two reunited. Holyfield and his management tried to bait their opponent who they felt was sensitive to the charge that he was too timid and slow. But Lewis maintained his game plan throughout the fight refusing to take any unnecessary risks. Though there was no knockout, Lewis was awarded a 12-round decision over Holyfield to become the WBA, IBO, IBF, and WBC heavyweight boxing champion.

Despite his unification of the four heavyweight titles, Lewis still received criticism for not knocking out Holyfield. Lewis was getting the reputation as a talented fighter who lacked the heart to really destroy opponents, as the heavyweight champion should. Even his trainer told Sports Illustrated that Lewis-Holyfield II “was not a super impressive fight.” Lewis was to remedy the situation quickly. First, he destroyed the 6-foot, 7-inch Michael Grant on April 29, 2000. Lewis put Grant to the canvas three times in the first round, finally knocking him out in the second round. Lewis told Jet, “This was an opportunity for me to show my aggressive side. There’s always been a question about my heart. I don’t know where they got that one.” Lewis continued, “I think this proves I’ve got awesome power and I can take you out with one punch.”

Lewis then fought Frans “The White Buffalo” Botha on July 15, 2000, and hit him so hard that Botha was blasted out of the ring. Lewis won his thirteenth straight fight with a TKO in the second round to remain atop the heavyweight division.

It seems ironic that the man who was ducked first by Riddick Bowe and then by Mike Tyson in his heyday now finds himself at the pinnacle of the boxing world able to pick and choose opponents from the sport’s four different sanctioning bodies. Despite Tyson’s bizarre antics, Lewis seems destined to finally fight the former champion for an enormous payday in the $30 million range. Tyson wants the fight also. His desire for a bout with Lewis became evident after making the infamous “cannibal” quote. Immediately following one of his bouts against another lightly regarded opponent, Tyson told the world media that he wanted “to eat Lewis’s children.” Tyson even made an appearance at one of Lewis’s training sessions that he opened to the public before the David Tua fight. After Tyson’s two-round fight with Andrew Golota, Lewis talked to Bill Pennington of The New York Times about the probability of a Lewis-Tyson fight, commenting, “People want this fight because they want me to beat him for the good of the sport.” One thing seems certain—after a parade of charlatans and pretenders at the top of boxing’s glamour division, the heavyweight belt finally belongs to a true champion.