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The Man, The Dream, The Legend - Lennox Lewis
by Gsus, Moderator @ www.IronLife.com
Lennox Lewis was born and raised in West Ham, East London until the age of 12 when he moved to Canada. Shortly afterwards he took up boxing. He excelled at many sports such as soccer, boxing, basketball and football. After highschool he focused on boxing and won his first gold medal at the World Junior Championships in 1983. Lennox then earned a gold medal for Canada in the 1988 Seoul, Korea Olympics by knocking out future heavyweight Champion Riddick Bowe. In 1989 Lennox turned pro and made his professional debut against Al Malcolm and knocked him out in 2 rounds, in 1990 against Jean Chanet he won the European title, a couple of years later he won the British Commonwealth Heavyweight title by defeating Derek Williams.
A couple of fights later came Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, Lennox dispatched him in 2 rounds, shortly after he was proclaimed the WBC Heavyweight Champion as Riddick Bowe refused to face him. Lennox made 3 successful defenses of his title until he met Oliver McCall at Wembley. Lennox left his hand low in the 2nd round and McCall threw a haymaker connecting flush with Lewis's jaw. The champ went down and was unable to continue, McCall took the belt, Lennox was on a mission to get his title back, he fought 4 times before he faced McCall again winning them all, this time the fight was in Las Vegas. What fans witnessed that night was one of the strangest fights in boxing history, Oliver McCall seemed to be breaking down in the ring, crying and not defending himself, after 5 rounds the referee stopped the fight, Lennox was champ again.
After a win by disqualification against Henry Akinwande, he was to fight Andrew Golota. This fight was meant to be very competitive, Golota had just come off 2 losses by disqualification to Riddick Bowe while clearly winning both fights, Boxing fans expected a tough fight for Lennox. The bell rang and 2 minutes later Andrew Golota was on the deck and Lennox walked out the ring with his belt and one of the most impressive KO's in his career.
Lennox then began his quest to unify the heavyweight titles, that chance came in the name of Evander Holyfield , this fight ended in a draw and the boxing world demanded the rematch, In the rematch 8 months later Lennox Lewis achieved his goal by Unanimous decision being the first person to hold all the titles since Riddick Bowe in 1992.
Lennox made 3 defenses against Michael Grant, Francois Botha and David Tua beating Grant by a spectacular KO, and dispatched Francois Botha in similar fashion 3 months later before he dominated David Tua to a unanimous decision victory. Next was an unknown fighter by the name of Hasim Rahman, This fight was considered to be a relatively simple defense for Lewis, except in the 5th round Rahman threw a wild haymaker which caught Lennox flush on the chin and put the champ down,  Lennox was in no condition to continue and Hasim Rahman became the Heavyweight champion of the world. It was 2001 Upset of the year and Lennox took the loss like a true champion, set his sights on a rematch with Rahman and went to work in the gym.
7 months later the rematch took place in Las Vegas and a fired up Lennox Lewis knocked "The Rock" out with a tremendous right hand after 4 rounds, regaining his mantle as the top man in the heavyweight division. Then came the fight that everyone wanted to see, Mike Tyson. Fresh off his ban for biting part of Evander Holyfields ear off, Mike Tyson had not impressed most boxing fans, the old Tyson was long gone, still he was winning his fights having fought standard opposition leading up to the biggest fight of his and Lennox Lewis's career.
After having a brawl at the press conference the stage was set for the biggest fight in boxing history. The build up to this fight was amazing, everybody was talking about Lennox vs. Tyson and who would win. The dominant performance that Lennox Lewis put in that night was incredible and set his place in history, even though many say Mike Tyson was a shadow of his former self he is always a dangerous fighter and  Lennox handled him perfectly. The fight started off with Tyson coming on strong and winning the opening round, from that point onwards it was the Lennox Lewis show, In the 8th round Lennox landed the big right hand that put Tyson to the floor and a dejected Tyson didn't want to fight anymore, Lennox had beaten his rival clinically.
After solidifying his position as one of the best Heavyweight boxers of all time Lennox decided to fight a young Turk by the name of Vitali Klitschko. When the fight began it was clear that he was in poor condition compared to when he fought Mike Tyson and it showed. Klitschko the big Ukrainian was able to hit Lewis at will. When the fight was stopped after 6 rounds due to very bad cuts around the eyes of Vitali, he was ahead on all 3 scorecards by 2 points. Klitschko immediately asked for the rematch. The boxing world waited and on February 6th 2004 we got the answer. Lennox Lewis had retired from professional boxing with a record of 41-2-1.
* Article by Gsus, Moderator @ www.IronLife.com.
* Back to Issue #7 Frontpage
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