Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis are two of boxing’s most famous fighters.
Until this May when Oleksandr Usyk repeated the feat, Lennox Lewis was the last undisputed heavyweight champion. He famously beat every man he faced – two at the second time of asking after shock losses – and took on plenty of legends of the sport including Evander Holyfield, Vitali Klitschko and of course Tyson.
It was back in April 2002 that Lewis defeated the once youngest-ever heavyweight champion Tyson by knockout in the eighth round to defend his unified WBC, IBF, IBO, and The Ring titles before retiring a year later.
Tyson went on to fight until back-to-back defeats in 2005 but will be making a controversial return to the ring in November when he takes on Jake Paul, a YouTuber turned-fighter who has had 11 bouts and lost one and is still not yet 30.
Speaking on the Option One podcast, Joe Egan was asked which of the two men he would rather face in the professional ring having done plenty of sparring with Tyson and after losing to Lewis in the amateurs.
“Lennox Lewis. He didn’t hurt me as much as Mike. People asked me how badly Mike Tyson hurt me. He made me cry many times. The uppercut that Mike used to throw would lift men off the ground. I’ve seen it. Every punch he threw with bad intentions. He used to want to hurt you with every punch.”
‘The Lion’ had a 78% knockout-to-win ratio during his campaign whereas the smaller but more ferocious ‘Iron’ Mike topped that at 88%.
They say that power is the last thing to leave a fighter – Tyson will be hoping that is the case when he steps into the ring with Paul.
