Lennox Lewis can fairly claim to have fought all of the very best heavyweights of his celebrated era.
He had famous wins against the likes of Mike Tyson, and beat Evander Holyfield in 1999 after a controversial draw in the first match.
He also had infamous upset losses to Hasim Raham and Oliver McCall, though avenged both of those later in his career, and both of them by knockout.
One of the hardest fights of his career came in his last-ever professional contest. Vitali Klitschko was a late stand-in opponent who drew Lewis into a gruelling battle but ended up getting two savage cuts which eventually led to the doctor stopping the fight before the start of the seventh round.
Lewis took the win and despite initially saying he was open to rematch, retired in 2004 having beaten every man he faced with a record of 44 fights, 41 wins, 32 by KO.
Speaking to BoxNation, Lewis was asked if he thought he was the best ever, but stopped just short of agreeing but declared he was the best of his era.
“I am the best heavyweight in my era.”
The so-called “pugilist specialist” was, until Oleksandr Usyk repeated the feat in May with his win over Tyson Fury, the last undisputed heavyweight champion.
Usyk is now putting it all on the line once more as he goes into a rematch with Fury in December, and Lewis recently pointed out that Fury made a big mistake in the first fight by moving around too much in the early rounds and not imposing his jab on the smaller man.
