Born in West Ham, East London on September 2, 1965, but holding dual nationality, Lennox Lewis won a gold medal for Canada in the super heayweight weight division at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. On that occasion, he was awarded a controversial Referee Stops Contest (RSC) decision over future undisputed world heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, whom he forced to take two standing counts in the second round.
Lewis made his professional debut, under less contentious cirumstances, at the Royal Albert Hall on June 27, 1989, with a routine knockout victory over Al Malcolm after 0:19 of the second round. Thereafter, he progressed through the ranks, collecting the BBBofC British and EBU European heavyweight titles with a seventh-round technical knockout of Gary Mason at Wembley Arena on August 6, 1991 and the Commonwealth Boxing Council heavyweight title with a similar result, after just three rounds, against Derek William at the Royal Albert Hall on April 30, 1992.
Lewis successfully defended the latter title against Donovan Ruddock at the Earls Court Exhibition on October 31, 1992, in an eliminator for the WBC world heavyweight title and, shortly afterwards, was proclaimed WBC world heavyweight champion, after his old adversary Riddick Bowe refused to face him. After three successful defences of the WBC title, against Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno and Phil Jackson, the man nicknamed ‘The Lion’ suffered a shock second-round knockout by Oliver McCall at Wembley Arena on September 24, 1994, but regained the vacant title with a fifth-technical knockout of the same opponent at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas three years later.
A split-decision draw, followed by a unanimous points decision, in two fights against Evander Holyfield, both 1999, made Lewis undisputed world heavyweight champion. He won his final fight, a bruising encounter with Vitali Klitschko at the Staples Arena in Los Angeles on June 21, 2003, by sixth-round technical knockout and finished his career with a 41-2-1 professional record.
