Having avenged
the two defeats of his professional career — against Oliver McCall and
Hasim Rahman — makes the task of staying the right side of the ropes
easier.
But the fighter in him remains. Every time he walks into a
boxing gym, he cannot help but hit a bag with the same venom he felled
rivals such as Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
There is a sense from Lewis
that he still cannot quite believe he has it all — the illustrious
fight career and the happy family with a former Miss Jamaica runner-up
for his wife and four children.
“Let me put it like this,” he
says. “When I was younger I came out of high school and had a dream. I’d
seen this picture. This picture had a house at the top of a hill with a
great view — I’d never seen anything like it in my life. That was then
what I was working towards. I’m lucky to have that view now.”
Although he admits there has been a
temptation to return, he says it is one he will never give in to.
“Yeah,
I’ve been tempted,” he says. “When I’ve been commentating ring side,
you can’t help thinking, ‘Let’s show this young guy how it’s done’. It’s
what happened to George Foreman, it was why he came back.
“I felt
that same thing, I thought, ‘I can get back in there, I can show them
how it’s done’. That’s always been the trap for me.
“But if you come back and beat that one guy, the trap’s still there.
There’s always someone else mouthing off saying they’re going to beat
you that you’re not the best because you didn’t fight them. It’s hard to
become the best, it’s even harder to stay the best.
“Too many
fighters live in the past. It’s the past that brings most guys back.
It’s just they’ve lived the boxing life for so long, they’re so used to
it, so they somehow get back in the ring — their natural habitat.
Their
minds are in the past but the problem is that their bodies are in the
present."
“Boxing: it was always my goal to be the undisputed
heavyweight champion of the world. But that’s not my goal any more. My
goals have shifted and I’m looking in a different direction.
My children
are my direction now. You have to make sure you’re there for them —
that’s where the goal setting comes in for me now.”
Nowadays,
Lewis gets his kicks in one-on-one contests by playing chess against
strangers on his iPhone. It is a game he has always played, during his
fight days to keep his mind sharp, similarly in retirement.
He usually keeps his identity secret but admits: “Sometimes
if I’ve played someone a couple of times, I might reveal myself. They
ask, ‘who are you?’ and I tell them Lennox Lewis. Whether they believe
me, I don’t know. It’s fun.”
Despite his passion for chess, Lewis
still lives and breathes boxing. He is not ashamed to admit he regularly
watches his fights back at home.
“I get so excited even though I know what happens,” he says.
He also likes to talk through those fights with former foes.
When he meets up with Holyfield, they immediately cast their minds back
to their two heavyweight contests. “When I see Holyfield, I’m always
telling him how he obviously lost those fights and that he headbutts,”
says Lewis letting out that slow, low, infectious laugh of his as he
does so.
“He tells me in the fights I had my trunks up so high that he couldn’t land a body punch, which wrecked his plan.”
Conversations
with Tyson never turn to boxing nor the moment the American bit Lewis’s
leg at a pre-fight press conference. Instead, the pair chew the fat
over history and current affairs.
“He’s an open guy who always
watches the news and reads up on politics and history,” he says of his
old adversary. “He’s a diverse guy and there’s a lot of respect between
the three of us.”
But as he talks about his past conquests, Lewis
cannot quite believe it is 10 years since he retired. In that decade, he
has carried the title of the last undisputed heavyweight champion of
the world with grave responsibility.
“For me, it is not something
that many people have held in history so it’s of great importance and
dignity is important,” he says.
“It’s like I’m a great king, at
least of the heavyweights and there are certain things you wouldn’t do
in that position. It’s important to do important things, to not waste
time. We are only here for a short time, so we have to make sure it
counts.”
One part of that is
'In Search of Champions', Lewis’s quest
to uncover the next superstars of boxing as part of a worldwide search
and subsequent television program. Candidates have to send in a video
of themselves in action but also explain what it takes to be a champion.
“Everywhere
I go in the world, people want help whether in America, Britain or
Poland,” he says. “But a lot of people don’t get the chances. This is
what we’re trying to do, to find the new superstars and give them all
the backing they need. There are so many people with the talent but what
they lack is the backing. If I hadn’t had the backing I got, I would
have found it very difficult to become champion. We are after people
with dedication.”
Part of the reason for the project is that Lewis
is not happy with the state of boxing and believes someone needs to
take charge of talent from an early age.
Lewis is happy in the comfort of his home in
Montego Bay, Jamaica, Carribean.
