Do a lot of British not accept Lennox Lewis? Check out this video.

[Fabes88]

Lennox grew in popularity as he got more successful. The British media are terrible in that respect when it comes to athletes with dual nationalities

[PRINCEKOOL]

Nationalism is very primitive at times, I have always liked boxing because? You can support the individual before the country.

The last British fighter I heavily supported was David Haye. Even when Wladimir Kiltschko fought Anthony Joshua, I was kind of wanting Kiltschko to win.

[Jubei]

Now you realize why Lennox is so butthurt and always tries to **** on AJ whenever he can. He is now literally a paid spokesperson of the PBC to **** on AJ.

[Clegg]

At the time it came from the view that he was less British than Bruno and others because of the Olympics. It's hard to think of a comparison because few boxers have lived most of their childhood in one country and then had amateur success after moving to another and then had to publicly declare a different national allegiance upon turning pro.

For some sportsmen there is more opportunity, money in being British than Canadian. Greg Rusedski was a tennis player who switched from Canada to UK a few years after Lennox and that was clearly money motivated so being cynical about that kind of thing is understandable even though I think Lennox was genuine.

Bruno was a more relaxed, chatty guy, smiling and laughing at soft jokes, it made him popular on chat shows etc. Lennox is different, he's standoffish, aloof, comes across as a bit arrogant but just not loud or rude about it. And it's funny to me because that's more of a British way to behave than Canadian or Jamaican but it made him harder for Brits to warm to all the same. Also remember that scene in The Departed where Wallberg is like "you're a double kid ain'tcha" to Leo about spending time in different places and having to act differently in each place? Lennox was probably a bit like that growing up.

Also British boxing in those years had more 'loved Brit vs hated Brit' matchups with fights like Cooper-Bugner and Bruno-Buger and Benn-Eubank and Watson-Eubank. It does seem UK fans are less likely to have a major dislike of one of their own these days compared to the 70s-early 90s.

[HitmanTommy]

Lewis is a british fighter end of, he left the UK at the age of 12 and came back when he was a man. The fact that Bruno was around at the same time as him didn’t help adhere him to the public. He suffered a lot during those days and some never liked him because of his different accent and arrogance.

How did he suffer?

[W1LL]

Canada did a good job of trying to steal a British fighter but it didn't quite work. Canada are great at stealing other countries' fighters like that.

[Ray*]

How did he suffer?

The hate he got during those days were terrible, he didn't know who he was in those days, obviously his team wanted him to lap up the British angle because it makes him more money, but for years he was never accepted over here, and i think that hurt him badly, he goes over and spend a lot of time in Jamaica to get away from it all. He was only accepted when he was robbed against Holyfield, had an homecoming against Botha and that was that.

[HitmanTommy]

The hate he got during those days were terrible, he didn't know who he was in those days, obviously his team wanted him to lap up the British angle because it makes him more money, but for years he was never accepted over here, and i think that hurt him badly, he goes over and spend a lot of time in Jamaica to get away from it all. He was only accepted when he was robbed against Holyfield, had an homecoming against Botha and that was that.

Well you obviously have a better take on it than me since you live in England.


Would you say that he is fully accepted over there now?

[KTFOKING]

Lennox to me is British, but he claims all his roots...As he should. Proud to be of Jamaican descent, proud to be British and Canadian.

[Chrismart]

I've always looked upon him as a British fighter.