Lennox Lewis is one of the few boxers who timed his retirement to perfection and has now shared some advice on the subject with Oleksandr Usyk.
Until Usyk came along, Lewis remained the last undisputed heavyweight world champion. He held all of the major belts back in 1999 when he beat Evander Holyfield and fought on until 2003 when he eventually retired as a champion.
In the meantime, he beat every man he faced, including avenging two upset losses to Oliver McCall and Hashim Rahman with KO victories of his own. He defeated Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Vitali Klitschko, Shannon Briggs and many more to leave him with a record of 41 wins from 44 fights and one draw with Holyfield in their first contest.
Usyk remains unbeaten right now. The former Olympic gold medallist became the undisputed cruiserweight ruler in 2018 and then moved up to heavyweight, where he unified all the belts and became undisputed in 2024.
After vacating the IBF strap for a rematch with Tyson Fury, he won it back off Daniel Dubois, beating him for a second time to become history’s first-ever two-time undisputed ruler.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Lewis had some advice for Usyk about when he should walk away – saying the timing was personal but to make sure to do it on a high.
“When a guy retires, it’s really down to him. He’s got to feel that push that he wants to retire, but he can teach a lot of young boxers a lot of different things: dedication, hard work, sacrifice, because he’s been through that. So I would say to him to retire at your own time, but retire on top. Like I did.”
Right now, Usyk has WBO mandatory Fabio Wardley to deal with in early 2026 if he wants to keep hold of all his belts, or Fury is also an option as ‘The Gypsy King’ has called for a trilogy fight in April.
