{"id":629859,"date":"2026-04-26T13:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/629859\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T13:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:22:10","slug":"lennox-lewis-gives-honest-assessment-of-vitali-klitschko-fight-and-why-he-subsequently-retired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/629859\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennox Lewis gives honest assessment of Vitali Klitschko fight and why he subsequently retired"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lennox Lewis<\/a> bowed out on his own terms, shortly after defeating Vitali Klitschko<\/a>, but he nonetheless found it immensely difficult to hang up the gloves.<\/p>\n

Prior to retiring, Lewis had firmly cemented himself as an all-time heavyweight great, especially after outpointing Evander Holyfield for the undisputed crown in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Lion\u2019 would then lose to Hasim Rahman in a shock upset in 2001, before avenging his defeat with a fourth-round finish that same year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At which point, he had defeated every man in the opposite corner, and only continued this pattern by securing an eighth-round finish over Mike Tyson in 2002.<\/p>\n

Rather than sailing off into the sunset, though, Lewis was convinced by his legendary trainer, Emanuel Steward, to face Klitschko in 2003.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Sky Sports<\/a>, Lewis said it was simply an opportunity to further cement his legacy against a previous, and potentially future, heavyweight champion. He admitted the performance wasn\u2019t pretty, but said he got the job done.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy trainer Emanuel said, \u2018Listen, you can beat the present and the future with this fight\u2019, and I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ll take it\u2019. It wasn\u2019t a pretty fight, but I still won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it was a torrid battle between Lewis and Klitschko<\/a>, who was ultimately stopped in round six after sustaining considerable facial damage.<\/p>\n

Soon after, though, Klitschko claimed the vacant WBC belt and remained unbeaten \u2013 making 11 title defences \u2013 before retiring from the sport in 2012.<\/p>\n

Lewis, meanwhile, was tempted to make a comeback on several occasions, but remained acutely aware of the focus and discipline he needed to compete at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times I felt like jumping back in the ring. But focus [and] discipline kept me out.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you, it was hard. I wanted to retire and say I\u2019m not coming back and it was hard to stay out of the ring. HBO gave me a job as a commentator and I was there in front of boxing again and I was trying to get away from boxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I\u2019ve done everything already, I don\u2019t need to prove anything anymore. So I stayed out of boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since retiring, Lewis has become a widely-respected pundit, analyst and commentator, largely due to his deep understanding of the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lennox Lewis bowed out on his own terms, shortly after defeating Vitali Klitschko, but he nonetheless found it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-629859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}