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How Lennox Lewis won the ultimate respect—a reflection on the great heavyweight's induction into the Hall of Fame.
by Richard Fletcher
You can't reverse a century of failure overnight. It took Lennox Lewis six days short of 14 years to restore the honor of British heavyweights in America. Now, two decades after launching his professional career at The Royal Albert Hall, a west London venue better known as a stage for performing arts, Lewis has seen his name added to the cast list of boxing's legendary champions.
For the most part, Lewis performed his art better than any heavyweight of his generation. In June, six years after his last fight, he received the ultimate accolade when he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York.
Only a handful of British fighters have made it there and only one, Cornwall-born Bob Fitzsimmons, fought as a heavyweight. Fitzsimmons, who left England for New Zealand as a boy, was elected posthumously in 1990, more than 90 years after he won the world title from James J. Corbett in Carson City, Nevada.
Now Lewis has joined him, ahead of old opponents Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, who will both unquestionably merit consideration when they become eligible.
Lewis won 15 out of 18 world title fights and beat Holyfield in his second attempt to unify the championship in November 1999. He scored nearly all his biggest wins on American soil, finishing with a record of 41-2-1 and 32 KOs.
Frank Maloney, the diminutive London promoter who managed Lewis for 12 years, put the fighter's achievements into context:
"Since the loss of Lennox, the heavyweight division has deteriorated,"he said. "I watched the [Wladimir] Klitschko fight [against Ruslan Chagaev on June 20]. I'm not saying he [Klitschko] is not a good fighter. He's a very good fighter. But he's too robotic and methodical. He doesn't bring any excitement.
"Lennox was also a very good fighter but he had the killer instinct. When he hurt you, he didn't take nine rounds to soften you up. If he saw an opening, he'd let his shots go. That's what made him more exciting than the current crop of heavyweights today.
"The heavyweight division is suffering because it's controlled by 'robots' instead of men who want to fight. Lennox wanted to fight, that was the beauty of working with him. He never ducked anyone."
That included the skeptics who claimed he wasn't really British. Although born in West Ham, east London, Lewis was raised in Ontario from the age of 12 and won an Olympic gold medal for Canada in Seoul in 1988. With his lofty manner and transatlantic accent, Lewis didn't connect with the British public in the way men like Frank Bruno and Henry Cooper had done before him.
It didn't worry Maloney. "They told me 'you've got another horizontal heavyweight'," he recalled. "I just smiled and said 'you know what, this is the guy who will break the mold of British heavyweights. He'll make you all eat your words'—and he did."
The breakthrough came on Halloween night 1992, when Lewis took less than two rounds to demolish dangerman Donovan "Razor" Ruddock in London. It was a cold-eyed execution that turned Lewis into a serious contender. Everyone knew it, including Rid**** Bowe, his old Olympic adversary, who promptly dumped the WBC belt in a London dustbin rather than face his mandatory challenger.
Lewis began to develop what Maloney described as a "unique fan base" in Britain, including the thousands who later followed him to America for his biggest fights.
But Lewis had a couple of wake-up calls along the way. He was knocked out twice, first by Oliver McCall in London and then by Hasim Rahman in Johannesburg. Both were big betting underdogs. After the Rahman setback in April 2001, the Monday morning trail in London's Guardian newspaper read "Lewis flattened by no-hoper."
Lewis, though, went on to avenge both defeats, making him only the third heavyweight champion in history to have beaten every opponent he faced. When he knocked out Rahman in their rematch, Lewis also joined a select band of men who had won the heavyweight title three times.
"He never refused to fight anyone," Maloney said. "The biggest fight out there, Lennox and Rid**** Bowe, never happened—due to Rid**** Bowe, not Lennox Lewis. I don't think you can fault Lennox Lewis. Everyone you put in front of him he boxed. Both his defeats he reversed. They would never have happened normally. It was just circumstances."
Maloney was at the centre of a bitter split with Lewis in 2001 and wasn't involved in the last two fights of his career. But they were arguably the most significant. One clinched Lewis's place in history, the other indirectly helped preserve it.
In June 2002, Lewis faced Tyson in Memphis against a backdrop of ill feeling that had boiled over at a stormy press conference a few months before. The pair were involved in a brawl after Tyson marched on to the stage and deliberately shoved Lewis, who later claimed he had been bitten.
On the night of the bout, the fighters were separated by a diagonal line of security men as they stared across at each other like men possessed. It was Tyson's first title fight for five years. For Lewis, it was his last chance to claim the scalp of a once-dynamic fighter who was threatening to destroy his legacy.
He took it. Lewis measured Tyson with his jab, weakened him with uppercuts, then knocked him out with a big right hand in the eighth round. Afterwards, a beaten-up Tyson showed humility, admitting Lewis had been the better man.
Lewis told the post-fight press conference: "This was my defining fight. People had to see me against Mike Tyson before they believed that I was the best fighter on the planet."
Lewis avenged both of his defeats, making him only the third heavyweight champion in history to have beaten every opponent he faced.
A year later, Lewis was preparing to defend against the Canadian Kirk Johnson when the challenger pulled out injured a week before the fight. In Johnson's place came Vitali Klitschko, an ambitious, big-punching Ukrainian who was even taller than Lewis at 6'7".
It turned out to be one of the most perilous assignments of Lewis's career, and one he only just survived. Klitschko took the fight to Lewis and hurt him badly in the second round but the champion, weighing a career-heaviest 256 pounds, showed pride and heart to blaze back in a bruising battle that swung both ways.
The fight was eventually stopped at the end of the sixth with blood oozing from a deep cut over Klitschko's left eye, inflicted by a Lewis right hand in the third. Klitschko protested, gesturing to the crowd as if he had won the fight. He looked to be on his way—all three judges had him two points up.
Lewis saw it differently, imploring HBO interviewer Larry Merchant: "Look at the state of his face. He's lucky the fight was stopped. He would have got knocked out [in] the next couple of rounds. It was just a matter of time."
In reality, time had caught up with Lewis. On February 5, 2004, he announced his retirement at the age of 38, insisting he had nothing left to prove. Klitschko's subsequent calls for a rematch were ignored.
Asked where Lewis fits into the pantheon of champions, Maloney said: "I rate Lennox among the top five heavyweights. Can you compare Lennox Lewis with Muhammad Ali? I think Lennox would have beaten Ali. Can you compare Lennox with Rocky Marciano? Difficult. Can you compare Lennox with Joe Louis? I think he would have been too big for Joe Louis.
"I actually think Lennox would have been too big for most heavyweights [in history]. The one that would have interested me most would have been Lennox and Larry Holmes. That's a fight I'd have loved to have seen."
How Lennox Lewis won the ultimate respect—a reflection on the great heavyweight's induction into the Hall of Fame.
by Richard Fletcher
You can't reverse a century of failure overnight. It took Lennox Lewis six days short of 14 years to restore the honor of British heavyweights in America. Now, two decades after launching his professional career at The Royal Albert Hall, a west London venue better known as a stage for performing arts, Lewis has seen his name added to the cast list of boxing's legendary champions.
For the most part, Lewis performed his art better than any heavyweight of his generation. In June, six years after his last fight, he received the ultimate accolade when he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York.
Only a handful of British fighters have made it there and only one, Cornwall-born Bob Fitzsimmons, fought as a heavyweight. Fitzsimmons, who left England for New Zealand as a boy, was elected posthumously in 1990, more than 90 years after he won the world title from James J. Corbett in Carson City, Nevada.
Now Lewis has joined him, ahead of old opponents Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, who will both unquestionably merit consideration when they become eligible.
Lewis won 15 out of 18 world title fights and beat Holyfield in his second attempt to unify the championship in November 1999. He scored nearly all his biggest wins on American soil, finishing with a record of 41-2-1 and 32 KOs.
Frank Maloney, the diminutive London promoter who managed Lewis for 12 years, put the fighter's achievements into context:
"Since the loss of Lennox, the heavyweight division has deteriorated,"he said. "I watched the [Wladimir] Klitschko fight [against Ruslan Chagaev on June 20]. I'm not saying he [Klitschko] is not a good fighter. He's a very good fighter. But he's too robotic and methodical. He doesn't bring any excitement.
"Lennox was also a very good fighter but he had the killer instinct. When he hurt you, he didn't take nine rounds to soften you up. If he saw an opening, he'd let his shots go. That's what made him more exciting than the current crop of heavyweights today.
"The heavyweight division is suffering because it's controlled by 'robots' instead of men who want to fight. Lennox wanted to fight, that was the beauty of working with him. He never ducked anyone."
That included the skeptics who claimed he wasn't really British. Although born in West Ham, east London, Lewis was raised in Ontario from the age of 12 and won an Olympic gold medal for Canada in Seoul in 1988. With his lofty manner and transatlantic accent, Lewis didn't connect with the British public in the way men like Frank Bruno and Henry Cooper had done before him.
It didn't worry Maloney. "They told me 'you've got another horizontal heavyweight'," he recalled. "I just smiled and said 'you know what, this is the guy who will break the mold of British heavyweights. He'll make you all eat your words'—and he did."
The breakthrough came on Halloween night 1992, when Lewis took less than two rounds to demolish dangerman Donovan "Razor" Ruddock in London. It was a cold-eyed execution that turned Lewis into a serious contender. Everyone knew it, including Rid**** Bowe, his old Olympic adversary, who promptly dumped the WBC belt in a London dustbin rather than face his mandatory challenger.
Lewis began to develop what Maloney described as a "unique fan base" in Britain, including the thousands who later followed him to America for his biggest fights.
But Lewis had a couple of wake-up calls along the way. He was knocked out twice, first by Oliver McCall in London and then by Hasim Rahman in Johannesburg. Both were big betting underdogs. After the Rahman setback in April 2001, the Monday morning trail in London's Guardian newspaper read "Lewis flattened by no-hoper."
Lewis, though, went on to avenge both defeats, making him only the third heavyweight champion in history to have beaten every opponent he faced. When he knocked out Rahman in their rematch, Lewis also joined a select band of men who had won the heavyweight title three times.
"He never refused to fight anyone," Maloney said. "The biggest fight out there, Lennox and Rid**** Bowe, never happened—due to Rid**** Bowe, not Lennox Lewis. I don't think you can fault Lennox Lewis. Everyone you put in front of him he boxed. Both his defeats he reversed. They would never have happened normally. It was just circumstances."
Maloney was at the centre of a bitter split with Lewis in 2001 and wasn't involved in the last two fights of his career. But they were arguably the most significant. One clinched Lewis's place in history, the other indirectly helped preserve it.
In June 2002, Lewis faced Tyson in Memphis against a backdrop of ill feeling that had boiled over at a stormy press conference a few months before. The pair were involved in a brawl after Tyson marched on to the stage and deliberately shoved Lewis, who later claimed he had been bitten.
On the night of the bout, the fighters were separated by a diagonal line of security men as they stared across at each other like men possessed. It was Tyson's first title fight for five years. For Lewis, it was his last chance to claim the scalp of a once-dynamic fighter who was threatening to destroy his legacy.
He took it. Lewis measured Tyson with his jab, weakened him with uppercuts, then knocked him out with a big right hand in the eighth round. Afterwards, a beaten-up Tyson showed humility, admitting Lewis had been the better man.
Lewis told the post-fight press conference: "This was my defining fight. People had to see me against Mike Tyson before they believed that I was the best fighter on the planet."
Lewis avenged both of his defeats, making him only the third heavyweight champion in history to have beaten every opponent he faced.
A year later, Lewis was preparing to defend against the Canadian Kirk Johnson when the challenger pulled out injured a week before the fight. In Johnson's place came Vitali Klitschko, an ambitious, big-punching Ukrainian who was even taller than Lewis at 6'7".
It turned out to be one of the most perilous assignments of Lewis's career, and one he only just survived. Klitschko took the fight to Lewis and hurt him badly in the second round but the champion, weighing a career-heaviest 256 pounds, showed pride and heart to blaze back in a bruising battle that swung both ways.
The fight was eventually stopped at the end of the sixth with blood oozing from a deep cut over Klitschko's left eye, inflicted by a Lewis right hand in the third. Klitschko protested, gesturing to the crowd as if he had won the fight. He looked to be on his way—all three judges had him two points up.
Lewis saw it differently, imploring HBO interviewer Larry Merchant: "Look at the state of his face. He's lucky the fight was stopped. He would have got knocked out [in] the next couple of rounds. It was just a matter of time."
In reality, time had caught up with Lewis. On February 5, 2004, he announced his retirement at the age of 38, insisting he had nothing left to prove. Klitschko's subsequent calls for a rematch were ignored.
Asked where Lewis fits into the pantheon of champions, Maloney said: "I rate Lennox among the top five heavyweights. Can you compare Lennox Lewis with Muhammad Ali? I think Lennox would have beaten Ali. Can you compare Lennox with Rocky Marciano? Difficult. Can you compare Lennox with Joe Louis? I think he would have been too big for Joe Louis.
"I actually think Lennox would have been too big for most heavyweights [in history]. The one that would have interested me most would have been Lennox and Larry Holmes. That's a fight I'd have loved to have seen."
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