Current Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Lennox Lewis started his career in 1989 and by 1992 fought
Razor Ruddock for the WBC Heavyweight Title Eliminator. Lewis was then given the belt when
Riddick Bowe refused to fight him. Lewis would defend succesfully 3 times before stumbling against
Oliver McCall who won in a one punch
knockout.
On the road back to the Championship Lewis defeated Tommy Morrison and Ray Mercer. He then took back the belt by beating McCall so badly that he refused to fight in the 5th round. Lewis picked up the "lineal" title by defeating Shannon Briggs.
This set up a fight with Evander Holyfield for the undisputed Heavyweight title. Their first fight ended in a controversial draw, but Lewis outpointed the former champ in the second match. Lewis then added on wins against Michael Grant and David Tua on his march through the Heavyweight ranks. Lewis was later stripped of the WBA belt for not facing John Ruiz, who no one cares about.
In April 2001 Lennox Lewis stepped into the ring with Hasim Rahman. It was supposed to be a routine title defense but it turned into Tyson vs. Douglas part II. Though Lewis lead through the first four rounds in the fifth he was caught offguard by a huge right and went down for the count. Though Lewis tried to claim it was a "lucky shot" most people feel he made the same mistake as Tyson: he didn't respect the power of his opponent. Rahman made the point that he increased his "luck" with his skill and number of punches.
On November 17, 2001 Lennox Lewis had a rematch with Hasim Rahman. After three rounds of domination by jabs, Lewis landed a crushing blow sending Rahman to the floor in the 4th. Rahman got to his feet but crashed back down to the mat, making Lennox Lewis a three time world champion.
On June 8, 2002 Lennox Lewis was finally able to appear in a fight against Mike Tyson. Because of the antics of Tyson the fight nearly didn't happen. When it finally did Lewis conducted a Boxing Clinic for Tyson by landing crisp jabs, crunching right crosses and accurate uppercuts leading to an 8th round KO.
Lewis has stated many times that he wanted to fight Tyson to "cement his place in history". There have been three dominant Heavyweights in the past 15 years: Lewis, Tyson and Holyfield. Lewis defeated both Tyson and Holyfield. These defeats are marred by the fact that both men were past their primes (especially Tyson). Besides those fights most of Lewis's wins are unimpressive, even though he "cleaned out" the division. Lewis will probably go down in history as an enigma since he had no great nemesis (like Ali/Frasier). If Lewis retires now he will do so after beating everyone he ever fought against (at least in rematches), and defeating nearly every other notable Heavyweight of his Era. As far as I can tell the only way for Lewis to really "cement" his place in History is to defeat a future Heavyweight Champion like Wladimir Klitschko, or even Jameel McCline.
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