Lennox Lewis fought a who’s who of heavyweight stars but claims one man hit harder than Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Frank Bruno.
Before Oleksandr Usyk came along and achieved the same honours in May 2024, Lewis was the last undisputed heavyweight champion. He picked up the title in 1999 after beating Holyfield having already stopped the likes of Bruno, Tyson and Andrew Golota.
He infamously lost twice in his career, to underdogs Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall, though he managed to avenge the defeats to later in his career.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine, Lewis picked out Shanon Briggs as the hardest-hitting heavyweight of all the men he faced.
“He lacked endurance but Shannon Briggs certainly knew how to put his bodyweight behind a punch. Unfortunately for him you need the full package when you face me so power isn’t enough. Fans may expect me to say McCall or Hasim Rahman for punching power but I basically set myself up against both of them.”
Back in his day, ‘The Cannon’ faced the likes of George Foreman, Vitali Klitschko, Ray Mercer and Francis Botha. He held the WBO strap from 2006 to 2007 and had an impressive KO ratio with over 60 stoppage victories in his 68 fights – 37 of those stoppages coming in the very first round.. Lewis stopped him in the fifth of their 1998 firefight.
Briggs has always been an entertaining character. He is now 53 years old but has often spoken about a comeback. As recently as May, he announced he would be back in the ring this year on July 1 in Nashville, Tennessee, despite having been away from the sport for a decade.
