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Lennox Lewis Fight Worn Trunks
Lennox Lewis v Tony Tucker
May 8th, 1993.
Fight Worn Trunks From When Lennox Lewis First
Won The Heavyweight Title in the Ring! A very RARE piece
of British Boxing History and probably the greatest piece
of British Boxing Memorabilia you will see!
With Authentication letter from the Sothebys
boxing authenticator:
Lennox Lewis
SOLD
Lewis moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1977 at the
age of 12 and excelled in the sports of football and basketball
in high school; he eventually decided that his favorite
sport was boxing. Future events proved him right, as he
became a dominant amateur boxer and won the world amateur
junior title in 1982.
Two years later, Lewis represented Canada as a heavyweight
in the Olympic Games held in Los Angeles. He advanced to
the quarterfinals, where he lost a controversial decision
to American Tyrell Biggs and settled for a fifth-place finish.
Surprisingly, Lewis chose not to turn professional after
the Olympics, and instead fought four more years as an amateur,
hoping for a second chance to win a gold medal. After winning
several more amateur titles over those years, he traveled
to Seoul, South Korea for the 1988 Olympics and achieved
his goal. In the gold medal match, Lewis defeated future
world champion Riddick Bowe by a second-round technical
knockout.
Having achieved one goal, Lewis now declared himself a
professional boxer and moved back to England, having always
considered himself a British national. The early part of
his pro career was filled with knockouts of journeymen,
and he quickly shot up the world rankings.
He captured the European heavyweight title late in 1990,
added the British heavyweight title in March 1991 and the
Commonwealth title in April 1992. By this time, Lewis was
a consensus top-five heavyweight in the world.
On October 31, 1992, Lewis knocked out Canada's Donovan
Ruddock for the No. 1 contender's position in the WBC world
rankings. But ultimately, the victory won Lewis even more
than that. After Bowe, who had become world heavyweight
champion by upsetting Evander Holyfield, refused to fight
Lewis, his WBC title was declared vacant. On January 14,
1993, the WBC declared Lewis its champion. He thus became
the first world heavyweight titleholder from Britain in
the 20th century.
Lewis successfully defended the belt three times before
he was upset by Oliver McCall on September 24, 1994. He
quickly moved back to the No. 1 contender's slot in the
WBC rankings, but agreed to give up the spot in exchange
for a multi-million dollar payoff by promoter Don King,
who wanted his fighter, Mike Tyson to receive a title shot.
Tyson later returned the favor and relinquished the WBC
title, leaving it vacant for Lewis and McCall to square
off on February 7, 1997 in Las Vegas. In one of the most
bizarre fights ever seen, McCall refused to fight in the
fourth and fifth rounds, beginning to cry and eventually
forcing the referee to stop the fight and award Lewis the
victory.
On March 28, 1998, Lewis retained the WBC world title when
he knocked out Shannon Briggs in five rounds. Now only one
goal eluded him--to become the unified world champion. He
had also retained the title this time against former WBO
world champion Henry Akinwande , disqualified in five rounds,
against Andrew Golota, knocked out in the first, and against
Zevcro Macrovic , beaten by a twelve round unanimous decision.
He believed he had achieved that feat on March 13, 1999,
when he faced WBA and IBF titlist Holyfield in New York
City. Despite the fact most boxing experts believed Lewis
won easily, the fight was declared a draw. But exactly eight
months later in Las Vegas, the two men fought again and
Lewis won a close, but unanimous decision.
Later in 1999, Lewis became the BBC Sports Personality
of the Year.
Lewis later dropped the WBA and IBF titles in disputes,
(Lewis deemed the WBA's number 1 challenger, John Ruiz,
as not worthy) but he continued to be widely recognized
as the world's true heavyweight champion. He successfully
defended his title three times, against Michael Grant, knocked
out in two rounds, against former IBF world champion Frans
Botha , also knocked out in two and agaisnt David Tua, beaten
by unanimous twelve round decision, before he was knocked
out in five rounds by 14-to-1 underdog Hasim Rahman on April
22, 2001 at South Africa. The morning after the fight, Lewis
visited South African President Nelson Mandela, who seemed
to console the fallen boxer . But Lewis regained the title
on November 17 by returning the favor and knocking out Rahman
in the fourth round.
On June 8, 2002, Lewis defended his title against Tyson,
winning on an eighth-round knockout.
In May of 2003, Lewis sued King for the amount of $385
million dollars, claiming that King used threats to have
Tyson pull out of a rematch scheduled Lewis for a month
later. Lewis then scheduled a fight with Kirk Johnson for
the championship belt of the less-recognized IBO, but dropped
it when Johnson suffered an injury in training. Instead,
Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, the WBC's No. 1 contender
and former WBO titlist. Lewis had planned to fight him in
December, but since Klitschko had been on the undercard
of the Johnson fight anyway, they agreed to square off on
June 21. Lewis looked rusty after a year's layoff, and was
trailing on all three scorecards after six rounds. However,
Lewis had been able to open up a severe cut above Klitschko's
left eye. The ringside doctor stopped the fight before round
seven and awarded Lewis the win by TKO .
Because Klitschko had fought so well against Lewis, boxing
fans soon began calling for a rematch. The WBC agreed, and
kept the Ukrainian as its No. 1 contender. Lewis considered
continuing his career and fighting Klitschko a second time,
but ultimately he decided to pursue other interests, including
sports management and music promotion. On February 6, 2004,
in a press conference held in London, Lewis became the first
reigning linear heavyweight titlist to relinquish the title
since Rocky Marciano in 1956. Like Marciano, Lewis said
he will not return to the ring.
Lewis' record was 41 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, with 32
wins by knockout. It is noteworthy that he avenged both
his defeats, and the draw, in rematches.
