By Mark Vester
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis said he actually considered making a return to the ring on several occasions. Despite denying the constant rumors of returning, he's thought about it often.
“Yes, I did consider making a comeback,” Lewis said. “I thought about it whenever I watched the other heavyweights out there, but I talked myself out of it almost in the same breath. ‘Do I really need to do it? I’ve accomplished all that I need to accomplish, so I don’t need to do this again.’ Some people said I should have fought Klitschko again, but what for? I beat him and there will always be somebody out there, someone else to fight, but I’ve created a legacy, so why put it all at risk? I’m one of only three heavyweights ever to retire on top [Gene Tunney and Rocky Marciano also retired as reigning heavyweight champions] and that’s important to me. That’s history."
The burning desire to return was strong enough that it forced Lewis walk away from training in boxing gyms for a short period of time.
"Every time I trained it seemed like I was training for a fight, so I needed to get that out of my head. I had to realise that I was doing this to stay in shape and not to fight. At one point I stopped training altogether, then I went back to the gym and most of my training was fight training. But I figured soon enough that I didn’t need to train like a boxer any more. I could play tennis and I could learn to play golf and other sports just to stay in shape and this is what I’ve been doing."
Lewis made sure to make smart business moves to avoid the same fate as ex-heavyweight champions like Joe Louis and Mike Tyson, who made a lot of money, but lost it all with bad financial desisions and poor management of their funds.
“You can’t help but sympathise (with Tyson). I mean, when you look at his life you really wouldn’t want your life to be like that, never,” Lewis said. “But a lot of it he’s brought upon himself. People took advantage of him and they may have affected the outcome but there’s a part of you that has to self-teach. Once you know right from wrong you have to build on that and you have to take responsibility. He got seduced in the old-fashioned way when people threw money in his face and told him that he could have it here and now. ‘I can get a car,’ he thought. ‘Hey, yeah, I can get a fleet of cars and girls, too. This is great.’
“He got caught up in that. With me, my attitude was that all of the rewards were still going to be here once I’d accomplished my goals in the boxing ring. I faced the same pressures, the same temptations that Tyson did, but the difference was in my upbringing, the fact that I had a mother in my life and that I was afraid to upset her. I didn’t want to mess up at school, knowing that I would have to go home to face her. I even chose the strap once at school after getting into a fight with another kid, rather than have the principal call home to tell my mother – of course, he told her anyway and she shouted at me a lot."
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