The Rise to the Top for Heavyweight Lennox Lewis

Born September 2, 1965 in West Ham, England, Lennox Lewis was destined to be an international mutt. His parents were Jamaican, but he was a British citizen by birth and grew up in a third country, namely Canada. His family moved to Kitchner, Ontario when Lewis was 12, and as a boy he proved a great natural athlete. He learned boxing under Arnie Boehm and racked up a commanding amateur record of 85-9.

A 19 year old Lewis went to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a Super Heavyweight, where he lost a controversial decision to Tyrell Biggs in the quarter-finals. Deciding to not turn pro just yet, Lewis fought on as an amateur for another four years to get a shot at returning to the Olympics. In the meantime, he won the Silver at the 1985 World Boxing Cup, the Gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, the Silver at the 1987 Pan-American Games, and won the 1987 North American Championship. Going back to the Olympics for the Seoul 1988 Games, he won the Gold Medal by knocking out Riddick Bowe in the finals.

Having avenged his 1984 Olympic performance, Lennox Lewis moved back to the United Kingdom and turned pro. The British fight fans rejected him initially, viewing him as essentially being an opportunistic Canadian who moved over to the UK for business reasons. Like so much else in Lennox Lewis's career, acceptance only came years after he proved himself worthy of it.

European Contender

Lewis fought his first pro bout in June 1989 in Kensington, winning by a 2nd Round TKO. He fought his first name opponent a year later in the form of 22-9 Ossie Ocassio, an undersized heavyweight contender from the late 1970s. Although Ocassio was six inches shorter, the two fighters were not far apart in terms of weight (Lewis was very skinny back then), and Ocassio still had enough left in him to survive an 8 Round bout with a fearsome, but inexperienced 11-0 puncher. Lewis won on points.

By October he was matched with 24-10 French journeyman Jean Chanet, the European champion whose only claim to fame was beating fellow journeyman Derek Williams. He then added the Commonwealth title as well. However, these fights were emblematic of the level of opposition that Lewis experienced on his rise to world contention: over in Europe, there just weren't that many quality heavyweights. So, Lewis started mixing up his fight venues.

He had already been crossing the Atlantic to make fights in Canada, and now Lewis started seeking out bouts in the United States. In July 1991 he knocked out a faded "Lost Heavyweight" in Mike Weaver. He came back to the States four months later to demolish his amateur rival Tyrell Biggs. In February 1992, he outpointed journeyman Levi Billups. April saw him back in London to annihilate Janet's old rival Derek Williams.

Halloween 1992

Lennox Lewis's first moment to shine as a professional came on Halloween 1992, when he fought fellow Canadian heavyweight Donovan "Razor" Rudduck. This was part of a pair of major bouts between heavyweight contenders, as a couple of weeks later Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield would meet Riddick Bowe. Of the four contenders, Rudduck was popularly considered the most dangerous because he had given the highly regarded Mike Tyson such a hard time in two bouts prior to Tyson's rape conviction. The experts were proved wrong as Lewis trashed Rudduck, knocking him down once in the 1st and twice in the 2nd en route to a resounding knockout victory.

A couple of weeks later, Riddick Bowe used his superior size to outfight Evander Holyfield and win the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship. Lewis, by beating Rudduck, had become the #1 contender for the WBC piece of that crown. Bowe, rather than defend to the man who whipped him at the Olympics more than 4 years before, theatrically threw the green WBC belt in the trash at a press conference. The WBC declared Lewis their Champion in 1993, following the precedent they established under Ken Norton.

First Reign

Lewis's first defense was against the dangerous and much-underrated Tony Tucker, a 49-1 heavyweight who matched him for size and had previously only been beaten by Mike Tyson. Tucker hit the canvas in the 3rd and 9th as Lewis drilled him with hard rights, and won a lopsided points victory. He then went back to London and met cross-UK rival Frank Bruno, the fan-favorite heavyweight of Britain. In a close fight that was even on two scorecards going into the 7th, Lewis slammed in a hard left hook that drove Bruno back defenseless onto the ropes, leading to a stoppage. Then Lewis met fringe contender Phil Jackson in Atlantic City in May 1994, stopping a man who had previously lost only one fight to Donovan Rudduck in the 8th.

Going back to London, WBC Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis was set to make his 4th defense against 24-5 Oliver McCall. McCall had previously been beaten by Tony Tucker, Buster Douglas, and Orlin Norris among others, and was really little more than a big, tough journeyman. However, the fight revealed a chink in Lewis's armor that would come back to haunt him: Lewis had a suspect chin, and when he was unfocused and unprepared, that chin could be reached and dented. This is exactly what McCall did, nailing Lewis with a hard right in the 2nd and knocking him down.

What happened next has remained controversial. Lewis was on his feet at the count of 6 and indicated that he wanted to fight, but the referee waved him off and stopped the fight. Many have since considered that stoppage premature, turning a knockdown into a knockout, with Lewis himself summing it up best: "I was clear to fight. I was totally robbed." Furthermore, McCall was a Don King fighter at a time when King controlled no piece of the heavyweight title picture and was desperate to get back into the game, which only fueled speculation that referee Jose Garcia had been tampered with.

Comeback

Lewis began his comeback by hiring the famous trainer of Tommy Hearns, Emmanuel Steward, and he set about revising his approach to boxing. Lewis was blessed with awesome physical gifts: he stood 6'5" with an 84" reach, and for such a big man he had good reflexes, good hand speed, stamina, and even some agility. Usually a giant heavyweight means that the fighter is a big, slow guy who tires easily from hauling around all that vast bulk. This was not Lennox Lewis. In the early days of his career, he was actually rather skinny, weighing in the lower 230s. By 1995 he had grown up into a powerful physique and weighed in the lower 240s. Steward tried to mold this specimen into a heavyweight Tommy Hearns, but he never quiet succeeded.

Where Hearns was a warrior, Lewis was a technician. The by-word of Lewis's style was calm, cool, and collected. Often content to alternate between sticking a stiff jab and merely pawing with his left, Lewis could turn utterly ruthless when he saw an opportunity and step in with the artillery, and Lewis wielded what was inarguably the hardest right cross of his generation of heavyweights.

Lewis began the comeback in Sacramento, CA in May 1995 with a 5th Round knockout of journeyman Lionel Butler. The win made him the #1 contender for the WBC title again, but Don King used his cozy relationship with WBC President Jose Sulaiman to postpone Lewis's title shot and clear the way for the comeback of Mike Tyson.

In October, he was matched with hard punching "Great White Hope" Tommy Morrison. Still considered a dangerous fighter, Morrison was dropped in the 2nd, 5th, and twice in the 6th before thunderous punches from Lewis finally stopped him. The fight was an especially bloody one, and that provoked alarm when Morrison later tested positive for HIV. Much to his relief, Lewis tested negative.

Keeping busy, Lewis took on the fighter that few outside of Evander Holyfield wanted to face: the immovable object, "Merciless" Ray Mercer. A strong man with good skills and a granite chin, Lewis and Mercer had a closely contested slugfest that is still regarded as one of Lewis's most entertaining bouts. In Mercer, Lewis met a man who could eat his hard right hand shots and come back with artillery of his own. At the end of the 10 Round bout, the scorecards read 96-94, 95-96, and 95-95, resulting in a narrow Majority Decision win for Lewis.

In the meantime, King has offered Lewis a "step-aside" payment to temporarily postpone his legal right to challenge for the WBC title and allow Mike Tyson to go after it first. Lewis accepted, anticipating that it would lead to a lucrative fight with Tyson. King and Tyson balked, however, forcing Lewis to sue. Lewis won a settlement out of court, and as Bowe had done before him, Tyson dumped the WBC belt rather than fight Lewis. Denied a shot at Mike Tyson, but with all the roadblocks out of the way, the stage was set for another shot at the world heavyweight title.

Sources: boxrec.com; live fight footage; BBC Sports News; The Ring; HBO.com; ESPN.com