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

[Motofan]

Man they should embrace Lewis. He is possibly the best head to head heavyweight boxer in history. A prime Lewis has an excellent shot of beating any other heavyweight in the history of the sport. He was good AND had a mean streak in him. Always a big fan.

[Ray*]

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?

Oh yeah he is fully accepted now, I just think back in those days the fact that Frank Bruno was a Brit born and bred didn’t help Lewis’s case, but he has been fully accepted since then, it was tough in the beginning for him.

In the UK they love it when you go through adversity a bit (they don’t like it when you have everything), they want to see you struggle, win without showing any sort of arrogance. And I think they see themselves in Frank Bruno at the time.

[HitmanTommy]

Oh yeah he is fully accepted now, I just think back in those days the fact that Frank Bruno was a Brit born and bred didn’t help Lewis’s case, but he has been fully accepted since then, it was tough in the beginning for him.

In the UK they love it when you go through adversity a bit (they don’t like it when you have everything), they want to see you struggle, win without showing any sort of arrogance. And I think they see themselves in Frank Bruno at the time.

That's good to know. Sounds like he came a long way. Thanks for the history lesson!

[sicko]

It don't matter! One of the Greatest Heavyweights Of All Times with or without the "ACCEPTANCE"

[PRINCEKOOL]

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.

I agree with your post but? I don't really think Lennox Lewis was massively upset by the British public. He always seemed to be able to masterfully separate himself from the public, and never really value what people's opinions where. 'Fighters like Ricky Hatton and in my opinion Tyson Fury, but a lot of investment in what other people think about them' Which probably added to their troubles, I can see that Tyson Fury is high like a Hollywood actor with all his latest validation from the public 'But what fighters need to realize is that you have very few real supporters' It is the same with all athletes in many sports. 'The fighters who I have supported, I have been in their corner until the end' and never deviated.

Lennox Lewis is one of the few fighters who came out of this game almost completely content, because he was always his own man.

[Cobra Curry]

I think the aficionados always appreciated and accepted Lewis. There was always a decent amount of people travelling to his fights stateside but in terms of mainstream popularity, he was never going to unseat Bruno or Tyson, who was wildly popular over here.

It didn't help that while Tyson was promising to eat people's children and pushing the bad mf'er image, Lennox was playing chess and hanging out with his mum. It'd probably play better today but people (men) just weren't ready for that back then.

[redmish]

I never accepted him. If you're British, you represent Gt Britain in the Olympics, not Canada. I know he was born here, but representing another country is unforgivable in my opinion. I watched all his pro fights but I can't say that I supported him in any way. Excellent fighter though.

[HitmanTommy]

I never accepted him. If you're British, you represent Gt Britain in the Olympics, not Canada. I know he was born here, but representing another country is unforgivable in my opinion. I watched all his pro fights but I can't say that I supported him in any way. Excellent fighter though.

Hmm.. That's true. Representing another country is a pretty bad image.

Thanks for your input.

[Eff Pandas]

Lennox was definitely not the most British-y British guy despite having roots there & his accent. Lennox was pretty worldwide with strong links to the UK, Jamaica & Canada. So he was never any one country's guy you could argue.

I also think in recent times he's taken a PR hit with UK boxing fans for some of his critical remarks about the beloved Anthony Joshua which could be making some fans slap back at him in various ways including maybe his roots to the UK. If thats relevant on this particular topic I can't say, but it wouldn't be a far reach to suggest it.

Obviously a UK guy is likely to have a more accurate answer to this doe than I, as a US guy.

[TonyGe]

Lennox spent his formative years in Canada and learned his craft in Canada. He's Canadian.