Lennox Lewis is one of the few boxers who timed his retirement perfectly.
Walking away from the fame, adrenaline and finances of boxing is never easy. Many boxers fight on too long, some leave too early and come back in disastrous fashion, and many spoil great careers by taking losses they never should have as they get older.
Lewis is a true heavyweight legend who was the last undisputed champion before Oleksandr Usyk in May last year. He beat a who’s who of fellow stars such as Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno and is still held in high regard by fans and media alike.
In a post on X, Lewis has gone into detail about his final fight with Vitali Klitschko and thoughts about possibly returning to the ring once more afterwards, but ultimately, he retired instead.
“Let me clear this up for you. Vitali was ALWAYS supposed to be my last fight but it got moved up. I took it on 10 days notice. No champ has ever taken on a #1 contender on such short notice.
“I looked forward to [the] moment of starting a family and no more camps. I seriously considered a rematch, but in the end, decided to go with the original plan. Vitali went on to be a great champion in his own right. I also knew that Father Time was not in MY corner.”
Lewis met Klitschko in in June 2003, and was pushed hard throughout the bout before ultimately winning by sixth round TKO after the Ukrainian was unable to continue due to a bad cut.
The decision to retire was likely a wise move from Lewis. As he recognises, age was slowly catching up with him, and Klitschko went on to be a long-ruling champion so avoiding a second contest allowed him to retire as champion having beaten every man he faced.
