Lennox Claudius Lewis was born on September 2, 1965 in London. His parents were from Jamaica, raised by a single mother, since his parents divorced when Lennox was 6 years old. He maintained a very warm relationship with his mother for the rest of his life, it is worth noting that the mother's height was less than 165 centimeters, so it was never possible to think that his son would be so physically gifted.
early years
Already at birth, the future champion weighed almost 5 kilograms. At the age of 12, Lewis and his family moved to Canada, where he began boxing at about the age of 14. The beginning of classes is connected with problems at school, where it was extremely difficult for a tall, thin African American with an unusual accent to find a common language with classmates. True, in the school year, Lennox also paid attention to basketball, volleyball and American football. By the age of 18, Lewis is already a member of the Canadian national boxing team and goes to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but he loses in the second round, although it is worth noting that he lost to the future Olympic champion.
Start of a professional career
Despite a number of proposals for the transition to a professional, including a fee of $ 750,000, Lewis decides to go through another Olympic cycle, and, as it turned out, this was the right decision. By the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, he had finally matured as a large, technical super heavyweight. Lennox wins victory after victory, in the final he copes with the future undisputed champion and becomes the Olympic champion.
After the victory, the boxer decides to return to England, where he is received very coldly, because he had previously won playing for Canada. However, as a professional, where Lewis moved in mid-1989, he was already playing for Britain.
At this time, the world was going crazy with Tyson, who demolished everyone in his path and did it like no other. Tyson, they were about the same age, they were completely different, both externally and in terms of character.
Lewis gradually began to gain experience in professional boxing, having spent 6 fights in half of 1989, 8 fights in 1990 and 4 fights in 1991 since his debut, in all fights he won, all ahead of schedule.
Ups and downs
Lewis made several title defenses and in 1984 fought Oliver McCull, but unexpectedly lost to that. The reason for this was poor preparation and loss of motivation, this was one of his minuses, he did not always manage to psychologically tune in correctly for the fight. After this fight, Lewis drew conclusions, returned motivation, most importantly, Emmanuel Steward, one of the greatest coaches, came to his camp.
He had a couple of fights and went into rematch with McCull in 1997 for the vacant WBC belt, which he lost in the first fight with him. In the battle, McCall introduced himself strangely, there were suspicions that he was intoxicated, because he was known as a drug addict. As a result, Lewis won by TKO in the fifth round.
Career peak
After Lewis regained the title, he made several defenses against serious opponents. He becomes the undisputed champion of the WBC, WBA, IBF versions.
After that, the champion won and dominated the heavyweights, planned a fight with Tyson, but, like in the first fight with McCall, lost motivation and unexpectedly lost to Hasim Rahman, but already in a rematch he regained the titles by knocking out Rahman, by the way, this knockout was the knockout of the year … And the fight with Tyson finally took place, this fight broke all records for the sale of paid broadcasts, in the fight Lewis beat and finished off Tyson in the eighth round.
After that, he went to fight with Vitali Klitschko, the Ukrainian was in the lead on points, but Lennox wins by technical knockout, since Klitschko had a serious cut, after the fight a revenge was discussed.
Personal life
Lewis ends his career after the fight with Klitschko, because that motivation was not there for half of the fight with Tyson, because he achieved everything in the ring. In 2005, he married Violet Chang, after she made the condition either work or family. His wife is Vice Miss Jamaica. Lennox has 4 children, he remained close to the world of boxing, very often he devotes time to his favorite hobby - playing chess.
