INTERVIEWS > Lennox Lewis

Lennox Lewis was the greatest heavyweight of his generation - and, unlike Mike Tyson, whom he demolished in the ring, he got out with his reputation intact. In New York, he speaks exclusively to Thomas Hauser, America's leading boxing writer, about his toughest fights, the sport's decline, his new family - and his first big movie role.

'People know I was the last true champion'

Very few fighters end their careers at the right time. On a cold wintry day in January 2004, Lennox Lewis was asking himself, 'Is this the right time?'
His rise to prominence had an inspirational tone. Born to a single-parent mother in east London, in 1965, he had endured a difficult childhood that included a five-year separation from his mum, to whom he remains very close, while she built a new life for herself in Canada. Mother and son were reunited in Ontario when Lennox was 12. He went on to win, for Canada, a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and, fighting under a British flag, to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The high point of his career was an eight-round demolition of Mike Tyson on 8 June 2002. But since that fight, Lewis had entered the ring only once, beating Vitali Klitschko on cuts in June 2003. Klitschko had been ahead on points at the time of the stoppage.

Lewis and I sat together on that wintry day in January 2004. 'I want to ask you something,' Lennox said. 'If I retire now without fighting Klitschko again, do you think it will hurt my legacy?'

'No. Your legacy is secure. You beat Klitschko. He didn't get those cuts from the referee. Years from now, when people look at your record, all they'll see next to Vitali's name is "TKO 6". You'll be remembered for ever as the best heavyweight of your time and the man who broke the American stranglehold on the heavyweight division. And if you retire now, you'll be one of three heavyweight champions in history who retired while still champion and stayed retired.'

'Rocky Marciano was one. Who was the other?'

'Gene Tunney.'

'I'd beat Klitschko again if I fought him again,' Lennox said. 'But that's the drug of the sport. There's always someone to fight. It doesn't make sense to establish a legacy and then keep going and going until you fail.'

One month later, on 6 February 2004, Lewis retired from boxing. 'I am announcing the end of an important chapter of my life and the beginning of a new one,' he told a press conference in London. 'During the past 23 years, I have set a number of goals for myself and I'm proud to say that these goals have been achieved. Now I am ready to set new goals and start a new career for myself outside of the ring.'

As the years pass, that Lewis retired at the right time will become an important part of his legacy. Meanwhile, since that day in New York, he has traded the heavyweight championship for the dual role of husband and father.

Lennox's partner in life is Violet Chang, who was born in Jamaica but grew up in New York. 'V' is a college graduate and former beauty-pageant winner. She and Lennox met six years ago when Lewis was on holiday in Jamaica. They were married on 15 July 2005.

'The time was right,' Lennox says of their wedding. 'It was a great feeling. It made my family life complete. It was like, together, we can take on the world.'

The Lewises have homes in England, the US and Jamaica. Lennox guarded his privacy when he was an elite athlete, and that hasn't changed. Neighbours know him as a friendly presence but one who deflects attention from himself. Fatherhood is now the focus of his life.

Landon Lewis was born on 15 June 2004. 'Being a father is a joy every day,' Lennox says of his new status. 'Landon is happy, jovial and very affectionate. He gives hugs and kisses a lot and runs everywhere like there's a turbo in him. But Landon is at an age when he wants what he wants when he wants it, and he's not old enough to respond to logic. That means, every day, there's a new challenge.

'Landon is talking a lot now,' Lewis continues. 'He's saying, "Yo!" all the time, and his mother doesn't like it. She says it comes from me. I tell her it doesn't. I don't go around the house saying, "Yo!" So now we're trying to figure out where it came from. Another problem is that, because of who I am, whenever Landon goes out, people shadow-box with him. So now he's picked it up. He holds his hands up and throws punches and says, "Box! Box!" I've made a point not to do it with him. I want him to excel in a variety of sports when he's older. He can choose which ones, but I'd have mixed feelings about Landon boxing.

Marriage and fatherhood have brought renewed responsibility, Lewis notes. 'I grew up independent and doing my own thing,' he says. 'But with a wife and child, I can't do that any more because it's not just me now. I always have to think in terms of "us", not "me". And Landon will have a brother or sister before much longer.'

Lewis spends much of each day tending to domestic chores and caring for Landon. He still plays chess. 'And I play poker,' he volunteers. 'Not for big stakes. I might win or lose a hundred pounds. If I win, great. If I lose, that was the cost of the evening's entertainment.' He also provides commentary on occasion for HBO boxing telecasts in the United States. And, in his words, 'People are always bringing business ventures to me.'

Lewis's current professional passion is acting. During his ring career, he made cameo appearances in television shows including Fantasy Island and In The House. His first role in a major film was a brief scene playing himself in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven. Last year, he took a major step forward when he landed a role in the feature film Johnny Was, which had its UK premiere at the Belfast Film Festival on 31 March. It's the fictional tale of Irishman Johnny Doyle, who decides to leave a life of violence behind and lie low in Brixton. But Doyle is soon enmeshed in events concerning a pirate radio-station owner, a West Indian drug lord and an IRA prison-escapee. Lewis plays Ras, the reggae-loving owner of the pirate radio station. 'I've known a lot of people who were like Ras,' he says, 'so that was a start for me in portraying his character. But I realise now that acting is much more complicated than I thought it was.'

How so?

'I was doing myself an injustice when I started acting because I was acting each part the way Lennox Lewis would, rather than the way the character would. I understand now that, to be a good actor, I have to become somebody else. I fight myself on that all the time. I'm taking acting lessons from several coaches. Whatever I do, I always want to get better.

'Acting is like boxing in that both jobs require training and discipline. And you have to be open to being taught. Acting coaches are like trainers, in that they try to make sure you do things correctly and get as much as possible out of you. There's different kinds of preparation for a fight, depending on who the opponent is, and there's different kinds of preparation for a role, depending on the character you're playing. The difference is, in acting, no one is trying to knock your head off.'

Fighters, of course, try to render each other unconscious. Everything that takes place in a boxing ring proceeds from that premise. Boxing is a Darwinian jungle in which skill counts more than personality and power often outweighs the strongest character. Still, Lewis says without equivocation, 'I enjoyed the time I was a fighter. I'm glad I had that experience. The last few times I was in training camp, I told myself, "I'd better take all this in now because there will only be a few more of these in my life."'

Lewis recalls five fights with particular fondness. The first was against former WBO champion Ray Mercer at Madison Square Garden in 1996. Mercer, an Olympic gold medallist, was a bull of a man with a straight-ahead, no-finesse brawling style. 'Sometimes it's not enough to just box,' Lennox says. 'Sometimes you have to fight.' Lewis-Mercer was one of those times. In the late rounds, Lennox went toe-to-toe in the trenches with Mercer and prevailed on a narrow decision. Then came two fights against Evander Holyfield for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. The first, on 13 March 1999, was declared a draw, to the outrage of the media, most of whom were sure that Lewis had won. Eight months later, Lewis and Holyfield met again; Lewis was awarded a unanimous decision.

'After that, I'd point to my rematch against Hasim Rahman [in 2001],' he offers. 'He won the first time we fought. That I'd lost to him the first time made knocking him out all the sweeter. One thing I learnt in boxing is that defeat, properly handled, makes a person stronger. You can't walk in the rain without getting wet, and you can't be in a boxing ring without getting hit. From the day I started boxing, I knew there could be only one winner for each fight and there was always a chance I could lose. Winning and losing are on the same page in my book, and you have to accept them both. Twice in my career, I slipped [Lewis's other defeat was a 1994 loss to Oliver McCall]. But both times, I came back and beat the man who beat me. I'm proud of that. It was important for me to avenge those losses.'

The final encounter on Lewis's list of his most meaningful fights is his destruction of Mike Tyson. That bout ended with Tyson lying on the canvas, blood streaming from his mouth and nose and from cuts above both eyes. 'I had to fight Tyson,' Lewis says. 'If I hadn't, no matter how much I accomplished, no matter how many other fights I won, there would have always been people who said, "Yes, Lennox was good but he never could have beaten Tyson."'

His voice becomes wistful. 'When I saw Tyson against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride, I was looking at a fighter who didn't want to fight any more. Mike fought those last two fights because he thought he had to, not because he wanted to. If you feel that way, you shouldn't fight.'

Did Tyson feel the same when he and Lennox met in the ring?

'At the time, I thought Mike wanted to fight me. The whole world wanted that fight, and we'd been building to it for such a long time. But looking back, no, I don't think Mike wanted to be in the ring that night.'

Emanuel Steward, who began working with Lewis after the fighter's loss to Oliver McCall and stayed with him through to the end of his career, agrees with that assessment. 'Mike definitely didn't want to be in the ring with Lennox. And I'll tell you something else: very few fighters in history could have beaten Lennox that night. I make my living by producing winners. That's what I do, so I know what I'm talking about. But the key in boxing isn't the sculptor; it's the marble. And Lennox was a fabulous fighter to work with. All great fighters have bumps in the road, and he had a few himself. But, in the end, he did what he had to do. He was a great fighter.'

When Lewis formally retired as an active fighter, he closed his public announcement with the words, 'Let the new era begin.' So far, however, it hasn't been much of an era.

At present, four men claim pieces of the heavyweight throne. Hasim Rahman succeeded Vitali Klitschko as the World Boxing Council champion, but he didn't win the title in the ring. He was the WBC's 'interim champion' by virtue of a desultory 12-round decision victory over Monte Barrett. The 'interim' was later removed by fiat of the organisation's executive board. Seven-foot, 23-stone Nikolay Valuev of Russia is the World Boxing Association standard-bearer. He won a suspicious majority decision over John Ruiz in Berlin last December to claim that honour. Their match-up was considered such a farce that it wasn't even shown on television in the United States. Chris Byrd, the International Boxing Federation champion, was once a stylish boxer. But Byrd never had power, and now his quickness is gone. Lamon Brewster captured the WBO crown with a freakish stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko and is considered by many to be a caretaker champion.

The situation was best summed up by former heavyweight great Joe Frazier, who said recently: 'I really couldn't tell you who the champ is right now. It puzzles me.'

Lewis says: 'There's a certain satisfaction when I look at the heavyweight division today. It feels good, knowing that people have come to understand that I was the last true heavyweight champion.' But in the next sentence, he adds: 'I feel bad for the sport.' Yet he declines to criticise the limitations of the present champions.

'The era of Lewis, Tyson and Holyfield is over,' Lewis says. 'We know that. But boxing is hard enough without other boxers coming down on you. It always surprises me when boxers speak ill of other boxers. We have reporters coming down on us. We have fans coming down on us. Boxers are a family. We know things about boxing that other people don't. We understand that, even when we win, we lose a little of ourselves every time we get in the ring. We don't need to come down on each other. We should protect each other. So I'll just say that it takes physical gifts, hard work, commitment and luck to get to the top in boxing. Each of the top heavyweights today has been successful in his way. Anyone who gets into a boxing ring deserves credit for his courage.'

Meanwhile, the world has come to understand that Lewis's retirement was for real. 'Boxing is a happy part of my past,' he says. 'But I don't miss it. It's a hard sport. Boxers are trained to exploit their opponents' weaknesses. It's survival of the fittest. We hit you on your wounds. One bad move and the game can be over. I got out at the right time for me.'

And so, at the age of 40, Lewis is on to new challenges. 'You can only do things for so long,' he says. 'Then you get too old or you grow out of them and you move on to another stage in life. Boxing was a big part of my life, but it was never what I defined myself by. I'm the same person now that I was when I was boxing. The only difference is that my goals have changed. Instead of trying to be the best fighter in the world, my goals now are to be the best father I can be, the best husband I can be, and to make a difference in the lives of some of the less fortunate people in the world.'