Lennox Claudius Lewis (born September 2, 1965 in West Ham, London, England) is a retired professional boxer, who represented Canada in the Olympics and fought under the British flag as a professional. He is a former undisputed heavyweight champion. Along with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, Lewis is one of three boxers in heavyweight history to have won the Heavyweight Championship on three separate occasions. Lewis is 6 ft 5 in or 196 cm tall and sports a phenomenal 84 inch reach, much longer than average for his height. During his boxing prime he weighed 247 lb, which is 112 kg. Lewis often referred to himself as "the pugilist specialist". Contents [hide] 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Professional boxing career 1.3 Years as Undisputed Champion 1.4 Lewis vs. Tyson 1.5 Lewis vs. Klitschko 1.6 Hanging Up the Gloves 2 Amateur Highlights 3 Life outside the ring 4 See also 5 External links [edit] Biography [edit] Early life Lewis was born in West Ham, London in 1965 and moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1977 at the age of 12 and excelled in the sports of football and basketball in high school; he eventually decided that his favorite sport was boxing. Future events proved he was quite skilled as well, as he became a dominant amateur boxer and won the world amateur junior title in 1982. Two years later, Lewis represented Canada as a super-heavyweight in the 1984 Summer Olympics 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. After winning several more amateur titles over those years, he traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the 1988 Summer Olympics and achieved his goal. In the gold medal match, Lewis defeated future world champion Riddick Bowe by a second-round technical knockout. Having achieved one goal, 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 career was filled with knockouts of journeymen, and he quickly shot up the world rankings. [edit] Professional boxing career Lewis 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. On October 31, 1992, Lewis knocked out Canada's Donovan "Razor" Ruddock for the No. 1 contender's position in the WBC world rankings. But ultimately, the victory won Lewis even more than that. After Bowe, who had become world heavyweight champion by upsetting Evander Holyfield, refused to fight Lewis, his WBC title was declared vacant. On January 14, 1993, the WBC declared Lewis its champion. He thus became the first world heavyweight titleholder from Britain in the 20th century. 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. Lennox Lewis 1990On March 28, 1998, Lewis retained the WBC world title when he knocked out Shannon Briggs in five rounds. He had also retained the title this time against former WBO world champion Henry Akinwande, who was disqualified after five rounds for constantly clinching Lewis. He then went up against Andrew Golota, whom he knocked out in the first, and against Željko Mavrović, beaten by a twelve round unanimous decision. [edit] Years as Undisputed Champion On March 13, 1999, Lewis faced WBA and IBF titlist Holyfield in New York City in what was supposed to be a heavyweight unification bout. Although most observers believed Lewis had won the fight, the bout was declared a draw, to much controversy. 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 (Lewis refused to fight the WBA's number 1 challenger, John Ruiz). 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, on April 21, 2001, Lewis was knocked out again, this time by 14-to-1 underdog Hasim Rahman in a bout in South Africa. He would, while promoting the fight with Rahman on ESPN's UPCLOSE, get into a brawl similar to the one that Muhammed Ali got in with Joe Frazier in front of Howard Cosell on Wide World of Sports. The loss, coupled with Lewis' earlier KO loss to McCall, led many ringside observers to question Lewis' chin. Lewis regained the title on November 17 by knocking out Rahman in the fourth round of their rematch. That same year, he had a role in the film Ocean's Eleven in which he boxed against Wladimir Klitschko. [edit] Lewis vs. Tyson The Lewis-Tyson fight was one of the most anticipated heavyweight fights in years.On June 8, 2002, Lewis defended his title against Tyson, winning on an eighth-round knockout. Lewis dominated nearly every round against Tyson before stopping him with a crashing right hand in the eighth round. Tyson was bleeding from cuts over both his eyes and from his nose when Lewis landed a punch that sent him sprawling on his back in Lewis' corner. Tyson tried to stand up at the count of eight, getting to one knee, but he was counted out by referee Eddie Cotton at 2:25 of the round. This fight was the highest-grossing event in pay-per-view history, generating $103 million from 1.8 million buys in the USA. It was a joint distribution by both HBO and Showtime networks. The fight was also the second most-watched PPV event. Only Tyson's 1997 rematch with Evander Holyfield did better with 1.99 million buys. But because that fight cost $49.95 and Lewis-Tyson was priced at $54.95, Lewis-Tyson generated more revenue. Ticket sales were slow because they were priced as high as $2,400, but a crowd of 15,327 turned up to see the biggest sporting event ever in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. Tyson also had to pay Lewis $335,000 out of his purse for biting him at the news conference to announce the fight, which was originally scheduled for April 6 2002 in Las Vegas. Las Vegas, however, rejected the fight and several other states refused Tyson a license before Memphis finally bid $12 million to land it. [edit] Lewis vs. Klitschko In May 2003, Lewis sued King for $385 million, claiming that King used threats to have Tyson pull out of a rematch scheduled with Lewis for a month later. Lewis then scheduled a fight with Kirk Johnson for the championship belt of the less-recognized IBO, but dropped it when Johnson suffered an injury in training. Instead, Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, the WBC's No. 1 contender and former WBO titlist. Lewis had planned to fight him in December, but since Klitschko had been on the undercard of the Johnson fight anyway, they agreed to square off on June 21. Klitschko was leading on all three scorecards after six rounds, however the ringside doctor stopped the fight before round seven due to a severe cut above Klitschko's left eye and Lewis was awarded the win by TKO. The likely winner of this fight had it continued has been a subject of popular debate since. [edit] Hanging Up the Gloves Because Klitschko had fought so well against Lewis, boxing fans soon began calling for a rematch. The WBC agreed, and kept the Ukrainian as its No. 1 contender. Lewis was evasive about fighting Klitschko a second time and ultimately decided to pursue other interests, including sports management and music promotion. On February 6, 2004, in a press conference held in London, Lewis became the first reigning lineal heavyweight titlist to relinquish the title since Rocky Marciano in 1956. Lewis said he will not return to the ring. At his retirement, Lewis' record was 41 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, with 32 wins by knockout. While Lewis boxing holds wins over likes of Holyfield and Tyson, as well as many other good fighters he is often heavily criticised. He was seen 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, journeymen fighters. Lewis also managed to gain emphatic revenge in each case, after coming into the first fight undermotivated, and underprepared. Lewis showed better toughness in his bouts to Briggs, Bruno, Mercer, Tua and Klitschko (i.e. when he respected the challenge). Furthermore, Lewis' deliberate style in the ring did not endear him to many in the boxing community, who expected the heavyweight champ to force the action in the ring. As a result, Lewis was often labeled as 'boring.' [edit] Amateur Highlights Record: 94-11 1983 Junior World Super Heavyweight Champion Represented Canada as a Super Heavyweight at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Results were: Defeated Mohammad Youssuf (Pakistan) TKO 3 Lost to Tyrell Biggs (United States) points 1985 Silver Medalist at World Cup competition. 1986 Super Heavyweight Gold Medalist at Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland 1987 Super Heavyweight Silver Medalist at Pan-American Games in Indianapolis. Lost to Jorge Luis Gonzalez of Cuba in the final. 1987 Won the North American Super Heavyweight championship competition, defeating Jorge Luis Gonzalez Won the Super Heavyweight Gold medal for Canada at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Results were: Defeated Chrispine Odera (Kenya) TKO 2 Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) TKO 1 Defeated Jasz Zarenkiewicz (Poland) forfeit Defeated Riddick Bowe (United States) TKO 2 [edit] Life outside the ring Outside the boxing ring, on August 29, 1992, Lewis participated in WWF SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London, hoisting the Union Jack to lead the late British Bulldog to the ring for his Intercontinental Championship fight against his brother-in-law and then-current champ Bret "Hitman" Hart. British Bulldog, a native of Wigan, won the fight and the title in front of his homeland crowd. 1995, documentary made about Lewis's life by director Pogus Caesar for Carlton Television. Part of the 'Respect' series focussing on black sports personalities. In 1999, Lewis became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2001, Lennox was featured in the film Ocean's Eleven, boxing against Wladimir Klitschko. Lewis married his longtime girlfriend, Violet Chang, in July of 2005. Lewis enjoys chess in his spare time. He purportedly offered to challenge Vitali Klitschko (also a chess player) in a doubleheader chess match followed by a boxing match. Lennox acted in his first film (he played himself in Ocean's Eleven) in the 2006 Ben Katz Productions [1] release of Johnny Was. He plays a Rastafarian Pirate Radio DJ in Brixton. Lewis is a devoted supporter of West Ham United F.C., though he did once tell Sky Sports television he liked "lots of teams" including fellow London club Crystal Palace. He is also a regular guest commentator on HBO boxing matches. In 2006, Lennox played in the Main Event at the 2006 World Series of Poker but was eliminated on day one. [edit] See also List of heavyweight boxing champions List of male boxers List of WBC world champions Featured Athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory [edit] External links Official Site BBC Sports-Lewis' career in photos Lennox Lewis's Career Record Previous champion Gary Mason British Heavyweight 43rd Champion March 6, 1991 - 1992 Next champion Herbie Hide Previous champion Jean Chanet EBU Heavyweight 63rd Champion October 31, 1990 - 1992 Next champion Henry Akinwande Previous champion Derek Williams Commonwealth Heavyweight 34th Champion April 30, 1992 - 1993 Next champion Henry Akinwande Previous champion Tommy Morrison IBC World Heavyweight Champion October 7, 1995 - unknown Next champion unknown Previous champion Brian Nielsen IBO World Heavyweight 5th Champion November 13, 1998 - April 22, 2001 Next champion Hasim Rahman Previous champion Hasim Rahman IBO World Heavyweight 7th Champion November 17, 2001 -2003 Next champion Wladimir Klitschko Previous champion Evander Holyfield IBF World Heavyweight 14th Champion November 13, 1999 - April 22, 2001 Next champion Hasim Rahman Previous champion Hasim Rahman IBF World Heavyweight 16th Champion November 17, 2001 - September 5, 2002 Next champion Chris Byrd Previous champion Evander Holyfield WBA World Heavyweight Champion November 13, 1999 - April 29, 2000 Next champion Evander Holyfield Previous champion Riddick Bowe WBC World Heavyweight 17th Champion December 14, 1992 - September 24, 1994 Next champion Oliver McCall Previous champion Mike Tyson WBC World Heavyweight 21st Champion April 22, 2001 - November 17, 2001 Next champion Hasim Rahman Previous champion Hasim Rahman WBC World Heavyweight 22nd Champion November 17, 2001 - February 6, 2004 Next champion Vitali Klitschko