Lennox Lewis

Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003.

He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and the last heavyweight to hold the undisputed championship.

Lewis was born on 2 September 1965 in West Ham, London, to Jamaican parents and according to his mother, he would often fight with other children growing up.

At birth he weighed 4.8 kg (10 lb 10 oz), and was given the name Lennox by the doctor, who said "he looked like a Lennox."

Lewis moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada with his mother in 1977 at the age of 12.

He attended Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute for high school, where he excelled in Canadian football, soccer, and basketball.

He took up boxing circa 1978.

Prior to the event, Lewis was awarded the Ring magazine heavyweight title, which had been discontinued in the late 1980s.

In the 1982–83 school year, he helped the school's AAA basketball team win the Ontario provincial championship.

Lewis eventually decided that his favourite sport was boxing.

He became a dominant amateur boxer and won the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in 1983.

Holding dual British and Canadian citizenship, Lewis represented Canada as an amateur at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics; in the latter, he won a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division.

In his first three years as a professional, Lewis won several regional heavyweight championships, including the European, British, and Commonwealth titles.

At age 18, Lewis represented Canada in the super-heavyweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

By that time he was ranked #6 in the world by the AIBA.

He advanced to the quarter-finals, where he lost by decision to Tyrell Biggs of the US, who went on to win the gold medal.

At the 1986 World Championships, he lost in the preliminary round to Petar Stoimenov of Bulgaria.

Later that year, Lewis won gold at the Commonwealth Games.

He had a close fight against Cuban Jorge Luis González at the 1987 Pan American Games super-heavyweight finals: the American judge scored the bout in favour of Lewis 60–57, while the judges from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Uruguay scored the bout 59–58 for González.

He avenged the loss shortly thereafter, boxing for the North American amateur title eight days later.

Despite being 6'5" tall, and having a very strong punch, his coaches admitted they had to pressure him to convert size and raw talent into aggression. His amateur boxing coaches were Arnie Boehm and Adrian Teodorescu, who guided Lewis to the Olympic title in 1988.

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 in the following years, he travelled to Seoul, South Korea, for the 1988 Summer Olympics and achieved his goal.

In the gold medal final, Lewis defeated Riddick Bowe with a second-round referee stopped contest (RSC).

Lewis became the first super-heavyweight gold medallist to become world heavyweight champion as a professional.

In the Games' closing ceremony, Lewis was Canada's flag bearer.

After winning his first 21 fights, he defeated Donovan Ruddock in 1992 to take over the number one position in the WBC rankings.

He was declared WBC heavyweight champion later that year after Riddick Bowe gave up the title to avoid defending it against Lewis.

He defended the title three times before an upset knockout loss to Oliver McCall in 1994.

Lewis avenged the loss in a 1997 rematch to win back the vacant WBC title.

Two fights against Evander Holyfield in 1999 (the first ending in a controversial draw) saw Lewis become undisputed heavyweight champion by unifying his WBC title with Holyfield's WBA and IBF titles, as well as the vacant IBO title.

In 2000, the WBA stripped Lewis of his title when he chose to face Michael Grant instead of mandatory challenger John Ruiz.

Lewis was knocked out by Hasim Rahman in an upset in 2001, but this defeat was avenged later in the year.

Similarly, the IBF stripped Lewis of their title in 2002 when he chose not to face their mandatory challenger Chris Byrd.

In 2002, Lewis defeated Mike Tyson in one of the most highly anticipated fights in boxing history.

In what would be his final fight, Lewis defeated Vitali Klitschko in a brutal and bloody encounter in 2003.

He vacated his remaining titles and retired from boxing in 2004.

Lewis often refers to himself as "the pugilist specialist".

He is 6 ft tall, with an 84 in reach, and weighed about 245 lb during his boxing prime.

He is regarded by many as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, and one of the greatest British fighters of all time.