Famous Boxers Bios
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Claudius Lewis was born on 2 September 1965 in West Ham, London, England. He is an English former boxer; he is 6 ft 5 in or 196cm tall. He represented Canada in the Olympics and is the former undisputed heavyweight champion.
Lewis represented Canada as a super-heavyweight in the Olympic Games 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.
Then he traveled to South Korea for the 1988 Olympics and achieved his goal. In the gold medal match, Lewis defeated future world champion Riddick Bowe by a second-round technical knockout. This decision was also controversial because the referee stopped the fight after two standing eight counts when Bowe showed no signs of being in trouble.
After his win, 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 boxing career was filled with knockouts of journeymen, and he quickly shot up the world rankings. He 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.
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.
Lewis faced WBA and IBF titlist Holyfield in New York City on March 13, 1999 in what was supposed to be a heavyweight unification bout. Although, most observers believed Lewis had won the fight, it 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. 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, in 2001, Lewis was knocked out again, this time by 14-to-1 underdog Hasim Rahman in South Africa. The loss, coupled with Lewis' earlier KO loss to McCall, lead 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.
On June 8, 2002, Lewis defended his title against Tyson, winning on an eighth-round knockout. Then in May of 2003, Lewis sued King for the amount of $385 million dollars, claiming that King used threats to have Tyson pull out of a rematch scheduled with Lewis for a month later.
Lewis' boxing legacy is mixed. Despite having beaten the likes of Holyfield and Tyson, Lewis fought both when they were well past their primes (especially Tyson). He was also highly criticized 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 fighters. Furthermore, as a result Lewis was often labeled as 'boring.'
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