| Quitting While Ahead |
9 February 2004
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Lennox Lewis Retires from Boxing as Heavyweight Champion
Is there anything quite so sad as watching a "has-been" who doesn't know that the time of greatness has passed? Lennox Lewis is the 38-year-old undisputed heavyweight champion of boxing whose announcement last week that he was retiring has spared the world this pitiful sight. Ali may have been the Greatest, but Lewis could be the Wisest.
His record speaks for itself. In 44 fights over a 14-year professional career, he lost twice. He won a gold medal for Canada (not the UK, he moved from East London at the age of 9, although he is a Brit again now) in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He beat Evander Holyfield unanimously on points, and he beat Mike Tyson in the eight round of a fight in Memphis that was a one-sided affair. He was never a bum, and he spent very little time as merely a contender.
But age happens to the best of athletes. Boxers require a combination of strength, speed and stamina that is unrivalled in sports. It is a young man's game ultimately, and Lewis will admit that he doesn't have the physical abilities he had a few years ago.
Rather than go through a fight with Vitaly Klitschko as the boxing authorities demanded and risk embarrassment, Lewis became only the third man in history to quit while champion -- Rocky Marciano did it last in 1956, and Gene Tunney was first in 1928. Lewis said it best himself, "One of the reasons that I'm retiring is because I respect it so much. It's time for the younger generation of boxers to have their chance."
Were there a few more purses to be won? Of course. Were there a few more fights he could win? Quite likely. Was there anything more he needed to prove? No. And rather than risk injury, defeat and the blemishing of an almost perfect record, he withdrew from the field. In doing so, he will remain forever young in the minds of boxing fans.
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