My First Time by Lennox Lewis as told to Anson Wainwright
upbringing. The kids that went to that boarding school were kids whose parents are getting divorced, they’ve got jobs and they’ve got a kid, now they need to put the kids somewhere while they sort out their problems. Rich kids – but they’re bad. “In the morning, we had one teacher, then another teacher in the afternoon, and we’d go through all the subjects. I was kind of considered one of the rough kids, and I would play rough, too, and the other kids weren’t used to the rough play. Punching a guy in the arm and saying, ‘What’s up?’ “There was a teacher there who would see my roughness and talk to me about it. He said, ‘I’m going to bring some gloves and teach you how to box.’ He brought gloves one time, and my boxing was swinging. Now, looking back, he was basically allowing me to blow off steam. He would say ‘Put on
More than 20 years after his final professional fight, Lennox Lewis remains one of boxing’s most respected luminaries. The former undisputed heavyweight champion is a magnet for media and cameras. His wry-witted interviews are delivered with a laid-back accent that is the product of being born in London to Jamaican parents and moving to Canada as a tween, and his keen ringside commentary is an incisive addition to any live broadcast. Most importantly, his in-ring accomplishments still resonate deeply with fans who witnessed his career. Lewis was defeated in the quarterfinals of the 1984 Olympics, but he returned with a vengeance – something he was later known for as a professional – in 1988, claiming the gold medal by halting future champion Riddick Bowe. Upon turning professional, Lewis embarked on a career that would see him run through a list of standouts from the 1990s and early 2000s – Donovan “Razor” Ruddock, Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Oliver McCall, Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, Shannon Briggs, Andrew Golota, Evander Holyfield, David Tua, Hasim Rahman, Mike Tyson and Vitali Klitschko, among others – and finish with a record of 41-2-1 (32 KOs), both losses avenged, to become recognized as the best heavyweight of his era. THE FIRST TIME I LACED UP GLOVES “It was actually at boarding school in England. I was about 11, 12. I wasn’t in one of the regular city ones; I was in one in the country, south of London. “I’m a rough kid myself; I’m coming from a rough
the gloves’ and say ‘Hit me,’ but [he] knew how to protect himself. He was a big teacher; he looked like he weighed over 300 pounds. That was my first introduction to gloves and fighting.” MY FIRST AMATEUR FIGHT “First amateur fight, I was around 15. My trainer used to bring as many of us that could fit into the car, like nine of us, down to Toronto. We would weigh in that day, see the doctor that day and fight that night. “The first fight, I didn’t know who the guy was; he went through the same routine I did and we were matched together, and I went in there and I hit him a couple of times and I floored him and won. “What I remember about the fight was the first round was ‘get to know you.’ [The second was] ‘try and punch your lights out.’ And the third round was I was tired as hell and [it was] a matter of surviving and trying to hit [him], and [he’s] trying to hit me and surviving. “For my first 10 fights, my last round was the worst. And I got tired of having my last round as my worst, and I trained to make sure my last round was the best.” MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL FIGHT JUNE 27, 1989 OPPONENT: AL MALCOLM “First pro fight, I have the reputation of the Olympic champ. I remember my friend saying, ‘Everyone is looking to get you because you’re the Olympic champion.’ And it’s like they never got the chance to go to the Olympics, so it’s like if they beat you, it’s like them living the life as an Olympic champion. It was important for me to keep that title, knowing there’s a lot of hype behind me, so I’ve got to
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