Lennox Lewis
From OTMWiki
| Lennox Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Real Name | Lennox Claudius Lewis |
| Nickname | The Lion |
| Height | {{{height}}} |
| Weight | Heavyweight |
| Born | September 2, 1965 |
| Fighting out of | London, England |
| Town of birth | West Ham, London, England, UK |
| Fighting style | Orthodox |
| Boxing Record | |
| Total | 44 |
| Wins | 41 |
| By knockout | 32 |
| Losses | 2 |
| Draws | 1 |
| No contests | 0 |
Lennox Claudius Lewis (born September 2 1965 in West Ham, London, England) is a retired professional boxer, who represented Canada in the Olympics and fought under the British flag as a professional. He is a former undisputed heavyweight champion. Along with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, Lewis is the only boxer in heavyweight history to have won the Heavyweight Championship on three separate occasions, something which these fighters are proud of even though to achieve this they had to lose twice. He is 6 ft 5 in or 196 cm tall and at his boxing prime, weighed 247 lb, which is 112 kg. Lewis often referred to himself as "the pugilist specialist".
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Lewis moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1977 at the age of 12 and excelled in the sports of football and basketball in high school; he eventually decided that his favorite sport was boxing. Future events proved he was quite skilled as well, as he became a dominant amateur boxer and won the world amateur junior title in 1982.
Two years later, Lewis represented Canada as a super-heavyweight in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. He advanced to the quarterfinals, where he lost a controversial decision to American Tyrell Biggs and settled for a fifth-place finish.
Surprisingly, Lewis chose not to turn professional after the Olympics, and instead fought four more years as an amateur, hoping for a second chance to win a gold medal. After winning several more amateur titles over those years, he traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the 1988 Summer Olympics and achieved his goal. In the gold medal match, Lewis defeated future world champion Riddick Bowe by a second-round technical knockout.
Having achieved one goal, Lewis now declared himself a professional boxer and moved back to England, having always considered himself a British national. The early part of his pro career was filled with knockouts of journeymen, and he quickly shot up the world rankings.
Professional boxing career
Lewis captured the European heavyweight title late in 1990, added the British heavyweight title in March 1991 and the Commonwealth title in April 1992. By this time, Lewis was a consensus top-five heavyweight in the world.
On October 31 1992, Lewis knocked out Canada's Donovan "Razor" Ruddock for the No. 1 contender's position in the WBC world rankings. But ultimately, the victory won Lewis even more than that. After Bowe, who had become world heavyweight champion by upsetting Evander Holyfield, refused to fight Lewis, his WBC title was declared vacant. On January 14 1993, the WBC declared Lewis its champion. He thus became the first world heavyweight titleholder from Britain in the 20th century.
Lewis successfully defended the belt three times before he suffered a knockout loss at the hands of Oliver McCall on September 24 1994. He eventually moved back to the No. 1 contender's slot in the WBC rankings, but agreed to give up the spot in exchange for a multi-million dollar payoff by promoter Don King, who wanted his fighter, Mike Tyson to receive a title shot.
Tyson later returned the favor and relinquished the WBC title, leaving it vacant for Lewis and McCall to square off on February 7 1997 in Las Vegas. In one of the most bizarre fights ever seen, McCall refused to fight in the fourth and fifth rounds, beginning to cry and eventually forcing the referee to stop the fight and award Lewis the victory.
On March 28 1998, Lewis retained the WBC world title when he knocked out Shannon Briggs in five rounds. He had also retained the title this time against former WBO world champion Henry Akinwande, who was disqualified after five rounds for constantly clinching Lewis. He then went up against Andrew Golota, whom he knocked out in the first, and against Željko Mavrović, beaten by a twelve round unanimous decision.
On March 13 1999, Lewis faced WBA and IBF titlist Holyfield in New York City in what was supposed to be a heavyweight unification bout. Although most observers believed Lewis had won the fight, the bout was declared a draw. Eight months later in Las Vegas, the two men fought again and Lewis won a close, but unanimous decision.
Lewis later dropped the WBA and IBF titles in disputes (Lewis refused to fight the WBA's number 1 challenger, John Ruiz). He successfully defended his title three times: knocking out Michael Grant in two rounds, knocking out Francois Botha in two, and winning a twelve round decision against David Tua. However, on April 21 2001, Lewis was knocked out again, this time by 14-to-1 underdog Hasim Rahman in a bout in South Africa. The loss, coupled with Lewis' earlier KO loss to McCall, led many ringside observers to question Lewis' ability to take a punch. Lewis regained the title on November 17 by knocking out Rahman in the fourth round of their rematch. That same year, he had a role in the film Ocean's Eleven in which he boxed against Wladimir Klitschko.
On June 8 2002, Lewis defended his title against Tyson, winning on an eighth-round knockout.
In May of 2003, Lewis sued King for $385 million, claiming that King used threats to have Tyson pull out of a rematch scheduled with Lewis for a month later. Lewis then scheduled a fight with Kirk Johnson for the championship belt of the less-recognized IBO, but dropped it when Johnson suffered an injury in training. Instead, Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, the WBC's No. 1 contender and former WBO titlist. Lewis had planned to fight him in December, but since Klitschko had been on the undercard of the Johnson fight anyway, they agreed to square off on June 21. Klitschko was leading on all three scorecards after six rounds, however the ringside doctor stopped the fight before round seven due to a severe cut above Klitschko's left eye and Lewis was awarded the win by TKO. The likely winner of this fight had it continued has been a subject of popular debate since.
Because Klitschko had fought so well against Lewis, boxing fans soon began calling for a rematch. The WBC agreed, and kept the Ukrainian as its No. 1 contender. Lewis was evasive about fighting Klitschko a second time and ultimately decided to pursue other interests, including sports management and music promotion. On February 6, 2004, in a press conference held in London, Lewis became the first reigning lineal heavyweight titlist to relinquish the title since Rocky Marciano in 1956. Lewis said he will not return to the ring. At his retirement, Lewis' record was 41 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, with 32 wins by knockout.
While Lewis boxing holds wins over likes of Holyfield and Tyson (though Tyson was well past his prime), as well as many other good fighters he is often heavily criticised. He was seen during his career for having a 'glass jaw', as evidenced by his shocking knockout losses by single punches to McCall and Rahman, both lightly-regarded, journeymen fighters... although he showed better toughness in his bouts to Briggs, Bruno, Mercer, Tua and Klitschko. Furthermore, Lewis' deliberate style in the ring did not endear him to many in the boxing community, who expected the heavyweight champ to force the action in the ring. As a result, Lewis was often labeled as 'boring.'
Life outside the ring
Outside the boxing ring, on August 29 1992, Lewis participated in WWF SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London, hoisting the Union Jack to lead The British Bulldog to the ring for his Intercontinental Championship fight against his brother-in-law and then-current champ Bret "Hitman" Hart. British Bulldog, a native of Wigan, won the fight and the title in front of his homeland crowd.
In 1999, Lewis became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
In 2001, Lennox was featured in the film Ocean's Eleven, boxing against Wladimir Klitschko.
Lewis married his longtime girlfriend, Violet Chang, in July of 2005. Lewis enjoys chess in his spare time. He purportedly offered to challenge Vitali Klitschko (also a chess player) in a doubleheader chess match followed by a boxing match.
Lewis supports West Ham United F.C.
See also
External links
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