Retired heavyweight great Lennox Claudius Lewis turns 60 today, September 2; Lennox was born in London on this day in 1965. And everyone who knows anything about the sport of boxing knows how much Lewis achieved in the ring:
Olympic gold. European glory. Commonwealth glory. British glory. And then, quite a few years after turning pro, ALL of the world titles that were up for grabs back then, this being three generally recognised and accepted belts, not the four we have today.
Evaluating an All-Time Great
And Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight king before Oleksandr Usyk came along and scooped up the four major belts a fighter can go for these days, can today boast an almost ludicrously impressive CV when it comes to opponents faced as well as defeated.
Look at this lot: Gary Mason, Mike Weaver, Glen McCrory, Derek Williams, Donovan ‘Razor’ Ruddock, Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Oliver McCall, Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, Shannon Briggs, Andrew Golota, David Tua, Frans Botha, Michael Grant, Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko.
Phew!
And, with the occasional bump along the road (to the tune of two), Lewis defeated every man he ever faced; McCall and Rahman having been stopped (in quite disturbing fashion as far as McCall is concerned) in return meetings. There’s no doubt about it; Lewis ranks as a true heavyweight great. But how great was Lennox, and where does he rank amongst the finest big men ever to have graced the sport?
Lewis vs. the Legends
It’s so fascinating to imagine Lewis matching his wits, his skills, his physical strength, his punching power, with those belonging to the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Jack Johnson, a peak Mike Tyson, George Foreman, and so many others.
As far as more recent heavyweight stars go, the idea of Lennox exchanging brain power as well as punches with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is enough to make a fight fan dig deep. Lewis, like most heavyweight greats you care to mention, had some off nights, and this is when he was beaten by, no disrespect, fighters who had no business beating him. Also, when overweight, which he was guilty of being on occasion, Lewis could struggle with a lesser foe.
But at his best, when in tip-top mental as well as physical shape, Lewis had it all as a fighter: High IQ, speed and power, stamina, an arguably underrated chin (see the bombs he took from Ray Mercer, and from Vitali Klitschko, this when Lennox was at the very end of his career), athleticism, a good inside game, bad intention finishing ability, and a desire to fight the very best time and again.
Add it all up, and one could make the argument that on any given night, when firing on all cylinders, Lewis could have beaten ANY heavyweight in history.
Of course, the special heavyweights could have, on their best night, beaten Lewis. Timing can be key as far as the outcome of a fight is concerned, and it’s impossible to know how Lewis would have done had he had to fight in, say, Jack Dempsey’s time, or Jack Johnson’s, or Joe Louis.’
The sport was different back then, as were training methods. But is Lewis a fighter who would have been able to adapt to the conditions any era presented a boxer with?
Lewis, who, when at his most active at world level, could fight three, even four times a year, no sweat, might well have been able to fight more frequently than he did had this been forced upon him due to his fighting in a different era. And maybe the old-school training methods would have brought out even more in his game, maybe not.
The Peak Performance of Lewis
But again, at his very best, say in his winning performances over David Tua, Hasim Rahman (in the rematch, naturally), Andrew Golota, “Razor” Ruddock, and Frans Botha, Lewis may well have been able to top any heavyweight in history you wish to name. The toughest test for Lewis might – might – have come in a fight with the simply flawless Usyk.
Lennox has even said Usyk is the one man he wishes he could have faced in the ring. Tyson Fury, in my opinion, would have been chopped down in pretty swift order by the peak Lewis, but that’s merely one opinion. The one fight that got away from Lennox, through zero fault of his own, was, of course, one with Riddick Bowe.
Lewis stopped Bowe when the two fought in the 1988 Olympics, and all of boxing wanted to see the two rumble as pros when both men held a version of the world title. A pro fight with Bowe might have been a tough one for Lennox, depending on when the fight happened; Bowe at his best was special, while when overweight (which Bowe was far too often for the good of his career), Bowe was far more beatable.
But Lewis, like all the greats that came before him, and some of those who have followed in his footsteps and those who will follow in his footsteps, made an enormous impact on his chosen sport. And to think, there was a time when he was fighting at a world level when the critics said Lewis was both average and boring!
Indeed, it is true that no fighter should be evaluated, or can be adequately rated, until their career has come to an end. Now, some 22 years after his final fight, so many of us find ourselves appreciating Lennox Lewis far more than we once did.