Lennox Lewis' Legacy

By Roy Pickering

The recent history of boxing's heavyweight division has not shown the public eagerly embracing every significant champion, but rather, every other one. The people loved Muhammad Ali, particularly in the latter stage of his career when his religious & political views didn't stir up so much controversy. Even when it was clear that he was well beyond his prime and shouldn't be in the ring anymore, he still had the full support of fight fans and beyond.

His era was followed by that of Larry Holmes, who was neither a bad man nor a bad fighter. In fact, for the most part he was a real class act, and one hell of a fighter to whom nobody really stood a close second during his reign as champ. Yet the public never took to Holmes. In comparison to the adoration poured upon Ali, you could reasonably argue that Larry was disliked. The fact that he beat up an over-the-hill Ali certainly didn't help Holmes' appeal. The only fight that Holmes truly had strong support for was when he fought Gerry Cooney, and that was mostly due to how their promoters effectively employed the race card. Just about everybody was pulling heavily for one guy or the other in that fight. Yet race was not the only reason why many white fans pulled for Cooney. After all, they weren't clamoring for a white champion when Ali held the crown. And when the next people's champion came along - Mike Tyson - a white champion wasn't desperately sought for then either. It wasn't a white replacement that many people longed for when Holmes was champ, so much as they wanted a charismatic one that their hearts could effortlessly find reasons to pull for.

When Tyson took center stage in the heavyweight boxing biz, it was apparent from the start that his style and personality was nothing like that of Muhammad Ali. Yet for an entirely different set of reasons, Tyson garnered similarly fierce support and loyalty from legions of fans. His technique may have reminded people of Joe Frazier and his demeanor of Sonny Liston, but his popularity was clearly a follow-up to the Greatest of all Time. The era of Larry Holmes was quickly forgotten about, as if it had never occurred.

Once Tyson self destructed, with a little help from Buster Douglass & Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis became the next Big Man in Boxing (I'm skipping over Evander Holyfield, because as popular as he was, he never held the title for very long stretches of time. He was certainly a brave warrior, but simply too small to consistently vanquish all of the giants he faced. Sometimes he was a Bowe beater, other times a guy with a medically questionable heart, always the little engine that could, even when he couldn’t.) Just as Tyson was the follow-up to Ali in terms of public appeal, Lewis has been the successor to Holmes. Up until his most recent fight, Lennox dominated the division with relative ease. His only weaknesses are the indifference he sometimes displays when in the ring against a clearly inferior opponent, and a suspect chin that he leaves inadequately guarded in such contests. Avenging these lapses of concentration came easily to Lennox. And more often than not he took care of business the first time around. He comports himself with class while packing a punch that resonates like a sledgehammer. Yet for a variety of reasons both simple and complex, the American boxing public has never truly warmed up to him.

Now that Lennox Lewis is seriously contemplating retirement, he surely must be giving his legacy some consideration. If he wants to leave the fight game just as Holmes did, a solid champion who was never truly appreciated by fans, much less loved, then we have seen the last of Lewis. If he does want one last shot at earning adoration, such an opportunity has presented itself. He simply must sign up to go toe to toe with Vitali Klitschko once more. Vitali has shown in his last two fights (one of which was a loss to Lewis due to excessive bleeding, but not insufficient boxing ability or courage) that he is up to the task of going punch for punch with Lewis. This is something I don't believe his more lauded younger brother could manage, despite Vladmir's supposedly superior skills. Lennox Lewis has shown in the past that when he is seriously motivated for a fight, he is virtually unstoppable. If these two men were to face each other while both in top physical and mental condition, both equally motivated (one to finally become champion, the other to ultimately be remembered as one of the great ones), and both willing to box as aggressively as they box intelligently, it could potentially be one of the greatest heavyweight clashes of all time. I really do hope that the pieces all fall into place and this fight happens. I believe that Lennox Lewis has more to gain by taking the fight against Vitali Klitschko (even he ended up losing it) than he does by retiring. If he quits now, he'll still be rich and he'll forever be a former heavyweight champion, but he'll never be viewed as one of the beloved icons of the sport. This may or may not mean much to Lennox. We'll find out soon enough where his interests lie.

My prediction for the fight if it were ever to happen is that the judges shouldn't bother keeping score. Both men will get hit harder than they've ever been hit before, and both will keep punching until one of them goes and stays down. Then again, the quirky history of boxing has shown that it never quite delivers what you expect, until it does, and then some.

About the Author:

Roy Pickering is a freelance writer residing in Maplewood, NJ. Having recently completed his debut novel, "Patches of Grey", he is now in search of an agent and publisher while hard at work on editing a novella and writing a second novel. Roy is in no particular order, an amateur photographer, a Jets and Knicks fanatic, a budding tennis phenom, a Playstation connoisseur, an aquarium enthusiast, and a fitness buff. Another of Roy's favorite leisure time activities is perfecting his technique on the tenor sax. A showcase of his prose and photography is located at www.roypickering.net. Roy's fiction can be found in numerous magazines and ezines as well. He is a contributor to two short story anthologies, "Proverbs for the People" by Kensington Books, and "The Game...Short Stories About the Life" by Triple Crown Publications. To continue following his Sports Issues column, current and future articles will appear at Associated Content and also at Gather.com.