Today's Feature

December 23rd

Part II: Lennox Lewis

Legacy

Lewis was the seventh Olympic gold medallist to become world heavyweight champion after Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leon Spinks, and Michael Spinks. He holds the distinction of being the first professional heavyweight champion to win a gold medal in the super-heavyweight category, which was not created until the 1984 Summer Olympics.

He is also the only boxer to represent Canada at the Summer Olympics and subsequently win a professional world title. Lewis was the first boxer to hold the British heavyweight title and subsequently win a world title. Although three fighters have since repeated this feat (Herbie Hide, Tyson Fury, and Anthony Joshua), only Lewis also won the Lonsdale belt outright.

While struggling to achieve popularity and respect earlier in his professional career, Lewis's standing has increased since his retirement in 2003, and he is now considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Struggling to win the affection of the British public and facing indifference from an American audience, Lewis's body of work eventually established him as the dominant heavyweight of his time. He is the last undisputed heavyweight champion.

Lewis became one of only two boxers in history, and the first since Ken Norton in 1978, to have been awarded the heavyweight championship without actually winning a championship bout when the WBC awarded him their title in 1992.

This was due to Riddick Bowe relinquishing the title after failing to agree to defend the title against Lewis, who had become the mandatory challenger by defeating Donovan Ruddock a few weeks earlier. In 2001, Lewis became the fourth boxer (after Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Michael Moorer) to have held the world heavyweight championship on three occasions.

Lewis defeated 15 boxers for the world heavyweight title, the fifth-most in history. His combined three reigns tally 3,086 days (8 years, 5 months and 13 days), which ranks as the fourth-longest cumulative time spent as world heavyweight champion. His total of fourteen successful defences ranks as the fifth-highest in heavyweight history. At four years, two months and fifteen days, Lewis has the twelfth-longest reign in heavyweight championship history. As of May 2023, BoxRec ranks Lennox as the fifth greatest European fighter of all time.

In 2018, Boxing News ranked Lewis as the third-greatest heavyweight of all time, behind Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. While acknowledging that he could occasionally be vulnerable, the magazine stated that at his best, Lewis was as unbeatable as any heavyweight in history. In 2017, Boxing News also ranked Lewis as the second best British fighter of all time, after Jimmy Wilde.

In the same year, The Ring magazine ranked Lewis as both the greatest heavyweight of the last thirty years and the joint-eleventh greatest heavyweight of all time (alongside Evander Holyfield), describing him as "a giant who fought with finesse" who beat every available contender.

Thomas Hauser stated that the idea of Lewis having no chin was a myth, citing his rising from the powerful punch from Oliver McCall which floored Lewis for the first knockdown of his career, and suggesting that he was perhaps stopped prematurely. He also contended that the knockout punch from Hasim Rahman in their first fight would have knocked out anyone. In 2003, The Ring ranked Lewis 33rd in their list of greatest punchers of all time.

Along with Ingemar Johansson and Rocky Marciano, Lewis is one of three world heavyweight champions to have retired with victories over every opponent he faced as a professional. Unlike Johansson, who lost twice to Floyd Patterson after winning their first bout, Lewis is the only heavyweight to have avenged all his in-ring defeats. He is also, along with Gene Tunney, Marciano and Vitali Klitschko, one of four heavyweight champions to have ended his career as world champion, and with a world title fight victory in his final fight.

In 1999, he was named Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America, as well as BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2008, Lewis was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. In 2009, in his first year of eligibility, Lewis was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

In 2011, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He also has his own charitable foundation called the Lennox Lewis foundation which helps disadvantaged children in Canada, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Personal life

Upon retiring from boxing, Lewis moved to Miami Beach with his wife, Violet Chang, a former Miss Jamaica runner-up. They have three children.

Lewis is an avid amateur chess player, and funded an after-school chess programme for disadvantaged youths, one of whom earned a university chess scholarship at Tennessee Tech