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[MUSIC PLAYING]
SONG: Them crazy-- them crazy--
The man who's thinking and worrying about getting hit
is not gonna have a good sense of anticipation.
He will in fact get hit.
Gotta be clever, gotta be smart, and not get hit.
And when you're able to do this, you're a fighter.
I'm still the fastest, the most scientific, the greatest
fighter of all time!
ANNOUNCER: Muhammad Ali has won by a knockout.
GEORGE FOREMAN: 45 is not a death sentence.
We can do anything we wanna do.
ANNOUNCER: It happened, it happened!
Lennox Lewis, I'm coming for you.
Lennox the conqueror?
No, I'm Alexander.
He's no Alexander.
I'm the best ever.
I'm just ferocious.
I want your heart.
I wanna eat his children.
Tell Mike Tyson either put up or shut up.
This is the heart of the sweet science.
It's not no street fighting.
He knows what he can eat.
Are we ever going to see, given all the obstacles, Tyson
and Lewis in the ring together?
Mike Tyson has shown he just doesn't want to fight yet.
I wouldn't be afraid to say that Lewis is the best
fighter on the scene now.
Period.
I just come to conquer.
NARRATOR: The heavyweight champion
of the world, the most coveted title in all sports,
held by George Foreman, the strongest, Joe Lewis, the most
iconic, Rocky Marciano, the most unbeatable, Mike
Tyson, the baddest man on the planet, Muhammad Ali,
the greatest.
Who is this man, this heavyweight champion
of the world?
SONG: We gonna chase those crazy baldheads out of town.
Chase those crazy baldheads out of our town.
I and I build a cabin.
I and I plant the corn.
Didn't my people before me slave for this country.
When music plays, I feel no pain.
Muhammad Ali said the sweet science is hit and not get hit.
Lennox is a very measured and calculating man.
He's like an onion that you keep peeling back,
and you think, oh, I've got it.
And then, no.
You realize, no, it goes even further.
His personality is really like a lion.
He's this big guy.
He's ferocious-looking at times when he wants to be,
but he's also very gentle.
As the world heavyweight champion,
you are seen as the most dangerous man on the planet.
That's what I always admired about Lennox.
He never showed his anger in public.
[CHEERING]
There was something about him that made
him unique to other sportsmen.
[SCATTING]
I just fancy Tyson for some reason.
A smart man will beat a strong man any day.
And Lennox Lewis is a smart fighter.
Lennox Lewis after three rounds.
Tyson, round four.
We're gonna have Lewis in five rounds.
And Lewis is gonna get it.
You think Lewis is gonna--
He's gonna get it.
Everybody that I boxed had a math problem.
And the math problem was down for me to solve.
Folks really seem to pay more attention
to where he's from than what he's actually accomplished.
NARRATOR: Being the undisputed unified heavyweight champ
meant that Lennox had the IBF belt, IBO belt,
and the most coveted, the WBC belt,
claimed before by greats like Muhammad Ali and Joe Lewis.
How did he make it to the doorstep of history,
to one of the biggest heavyweight fights of all time?
You have to take a look at his story from the beginning.
Lennox was born in the impoverished East
End of London.
He was raised by his mother, Violet,
who had come to England from Jamaica to work as a nurse
in search of a better life.
See, I didn't grow up with my brothers and sisters.
My mother have 12 of us, so I grow up with another family.
I don't blame her, because she couldn't manage us.
12 kids, no husband, you know?
NARRATOR: Lennox's father had started a new family
and was completely absent from his life.
I met my dad one day.
There was a car outside, nice-looking car.
And a guy in the car, and he said, come here.
And I was like looking at him, like who are you?
He said, I'm your father.
I said, oh.
He said that he wanted to be in my life,
But his wife was fighting against me,
so I was like that kid in the middle.
I just walked back in the house, and my mom
said, well, who's that?
And I said, that's my dad.
Then she went out into the road, and she was arguing bad,
like she was cussing him.
And I was like, you know, confused.
And when she came back in, she was upset.
So we really never talked about it.
And then that was the only time I kind of remember, you know,
my dad.
NARRATOR: When Lennox was seven, his mother
found a better paying job in Canada
and had to leave him behind in London.
She was basically searching for a new horizon,
a different way of life.
You know, she said she had a friend in Canada.
She went to visit.
And she was over there for a while,
and she left me with this lady named Miss Baker.
For some reason, Miss Baker was real mean to me.
While I was in bed at night, she would come over.
I would wake up, look up my eyes, and I see her,
and her eyes and would be looking at me.
And it was like, that would scare me.
And I remember one time I was going into the bath,
and then she was coming in there with a belt to try and beat me.
And I remember jumping out the bath and running past her,
and running outside the house, and I was outside the house,
and I was nude outside the house.
And she was going, "oh, come in.
Come on, come on, come inside.
I'm gonna put the belt down."
"No, I ain't coming back in.
I want people to come and see you and make
you embarrassed about that."
And she was.
She was very embarrassed about it.
Police came and said, well, what's going on?
And then I remember Miss Baker being upset, saying, "boy, I
don't know why your mother don't call for you and send for you
and get you out of my house."
And you know, they took me away from her
and put me in this home.
You know, I basically felt like I was abandoned.
I was out there by myself.
NARRATOR: He ended up passing through a number of boarding
schools and getting kicked out for fighting
until he finally ended up in a school for troubled youth.
Lennox most definitely would have been part of a gang
and been mixed up in all sorts of skulduggery at that time.
And it was actually much better for him
that he had left England and went
to Canada to stay with our mum.
When my mother sent for me and I took that plane,
we were going through the airport, and all I could hear
was my mum's voice.
I didn't hear it for years, and I heard her voice.
She was like, "there's my son, there's my son!"
And it was loud, and it was like music to my ears, you know.
At first, he was like a bit of a rebel.
PRODUCER: Was he?
Yeah, he used to get in fights,
and the teacher used to phone me at work,
and then I'd have to leave work and come home and get him.
And sometimes I'd meet him on the way coming
home with his lunch pail.
So--
When he first came to Kitchener,
it was basically just him and his mom.
Because he was the new guy on the block,
they tried to pick on him a little bit, right?
Because he wasn't always that big.
You know?
NARRATOR: By bringing Lennox to Canada,
Violet had completely changed the course of his life.
He easily could have become a victim of police brutality
on the streets of London.
Racial tensions grew between the cops
and the black immigrant community in the '70s and '80s,
resulting in violent clashes like the Brixton riots.
But in Canada, when Lennox got into trouble
with law enforcement, they did something
completely unexpected.
Why don't you go down to the police club and try out boxing?
Hook McComb, he was a staff sergeant for the Waterloo
Regional Police.
My trainer said, go, I want you
to move around with this kid.
Bobby Prue was smaller than me, lighter than me,
and I was bigger than him and more lankier.
He was dancing circles around me.
I was swinging away, trying to hit him,
and I couldn't hit him.
And he hit me in my nose.
I'm like, ah, my eyes started watering.
The only boxing I knew was like Muhammad Ali, because we
used to watch him on TV.
So I pretended I was Muhammad Ali moving around.
And it was like a game to me.
It was like a game of tag.
That's when I realized that I enjoyed boxing.
I loved it.
Hook McComb taught me and Lennox for a long time.
As the years went on and Arnie came into the picture.
Lennox came down with a couple of his friends
to our boxing gym in Kitchener.
He stood out immediately as a little bigger than the others,
and showed an interest.
And the biggest thing I noticed, and the most important thing I
noticed, he listened.
He would look at you and hang on to every word that you said.
So much credit of how Lennox developed should go to Arnie.
He was a rock.
He was his coach, but he was also a father figure to him.
They had a relationship that extended way past boxing.
Arnie was always there for Lennox.
And kind of turned into a dad figure.
We went camping together.
We went fishing together.
Lennox and I met when we were 11, almost 12 years old.
We both played inner city football here in Kitchener.
Once we played, that's how we got to know each other.
As we both grew up, 12, 13, through those years
we became friends.
I knew him from football.
Some of my friends knew him from basketball.
Other friends knew him from boxing.
The friendship developed from there until we ended up here
at Cameron Heights as schoolmates
and teammates on the same football team at 16.
You got that man.
Come on, mate.
Let's go.
Nah, I can't even believe you're doing that.
We gotta go.
No way.
They're waiting on us.
No, no.
That's no excuse.
That's his favorite trick.
Every time he's losing, he walks away.
"We've got some more important to do."
To win the championship, I mean, having Lennox
made me look like a genius.
It was basically pitch the ball athletics,
and have Courtney Shand lead block.
I remember we played in the finals, the city finals.
We lost to Eastwood Collegiate 20 to 1.
We're all sitting on the bus, coming home from the stadium.
Everyone's crying, and I'm sitting beside him,
and I had my head down.
I was crying.
I look up, and he's just looking around on the bus.
And I'm like, hey, how come you're not sad?
And he said, "because I've got bigger things to come."
He worked his way up through the ranks.
Started getting a little better and going to tournaments
in Sully's in Toronto.
And he kept going.
And next thing you know it, he's a national champion, and then
the Olympics.
NARRATOR: At Olympic training camp,
Lennox would meet another soon to be world champion.
Ladies and gentlemen, the heavyweight championship
of the 1981 National Junior Olympic
Boxing Championships from Catskill, New York,
15-year-old Mike Tyson.
Bombs away, Jimmy.
Let's watch just carefully.
Because Tyson in the blue is a bomber.
He's trained by no other than Cus D'Amato.
Oh, and there it's all over.
First time I ever met Lennox Lewis was in the Catskills.
He was a real nice guy, really talked proper.
He was really enthusiastic about boxing.
The first day he and Mike sparred, Mike almost
took his head off.
The next day they watched some footage of Joe Frazier
and Muhammad Ali, the Thriller in Manila.
Arnie told him, this is how you have to box Mike.
So he went out, and he did that, and he
beat up on Mike that day.
Cus D'Amato stopped the fight and told them both that day
you both are ordained to become world champions.
You both will dominate the sport.
Cus got pretty friendly with my mother before she died.
She didn't think I was gonna do so good in this boxing thing.
She thought it was all like hype.
I wanted to be successful.
That would be something my mother would have wanted.
Cus, he adopted me, so he's my father figure, yeah.
That's all I knew as a father figure.
NARRATOR: Both Tyson and Lewis had their eyes set
on winning the '84 Olympics.
Tyson's hopes were diminished in the Olympic qualifying match,
while Lewis made the Canadian team
but eventually ended up losing in the quarterfinals.
Well, it was a real bummer, you know?
We both hung out after he lost his match to Tyrell Biggs,
and then decided to turn pro.
NARRATOR: Over the next few years,
Tyson's professional career took off.
He became the youngest heavyweight champ in history.
All the while, Lennox was fighting the amateur circuit
with the desire to hone his craft
and get back to the Olympics.
He was training in Kitchener with a very good
friend of mine, Harvey Dean.
His natural ability to punch was there.
Now we had to work on the power of punching.
I started training with Lennox at the training center Arnie.
Arnie would come, and Adrian would come.
And you know, he was a big talented kid,
a world junior champion.
I'm nervous as usual.
You know, I'm fighting the guy.
I'm a middleweight, and he's like a heavyweight or something
and shit.
Lennox and Egerton, they were sparring together.
They were training together like brothers.
We got in the ring, we started-- we rumbled, man.
I came at him with all I--
I was bringing the fire.
Egerton was good for Lennox in that
because of his work ethics and his tenacity, it pushed Lennox.
You've got a guy now, you're fighting in the amateurs now.
You're fighting at a higher level.
NARRATOR: In 1988, Lennox would travel to Seoul, South Korea
to compete once again and go for the Olympic gold
medal for Canada.
He had gone to the opening ceremony in Seoul
and left the Canadian delegation and walked across the field
to the American delegation, walked up
to some American athletes and said,
"which one's Riddick Bowe?
Show me Riddick Bowe."
And they had pointed him to Bowe, and he walked up to Bowe
and said, "are you Riddick Bowe?
I'm going to knock you out."
The first round when he went out there, I was pissed,
because he wasn't doing nothing.
I was like, what the hell?
Me and Adrian was jumping up at the side of the ring, saying,
what the hell are you doing?
Bowe was beating him to the punch.
He had a little bit more urgency.
This has the makings to be the most
interesting fight of the tournament
or the bomb of the tournament.
I think Lennox got hurt with that uppercut right
hand there a moment ago.
It seemed to stun him momentarily.
Adrian was yelling.
I was yelling.
Right, because we knew.
We knew Lennox had the ability to beat anybody
if he puts his mind to fight.
Came in the corner.
I said, Lennox, wake up, man.
He went there, first punch--
knockout.
COMMENTATOR: Canada's first gold medal in 56 years.
I don't think I have ever been that proud.
The feeling is just indescribable.
My dream was to have an Olympic champion.
Most of the guys within the past several decades
who have won the Olympic heavyweight gold medal
have gone on to become the heavyweight champion
of the world.
And so Lennox had the pedigree.
The only question was, would he fulfill it?
Winning the Olympic gold medal is really a gold ticket
into the professionals.
So it puts you at a high standard.
And the standard is, OK, all the top promoters
are looking at you.
So at this time, there was Don King.
He was really focusing on Mike Tyson at the time.
There was the Duvas.
There was Micky Duff in England.
A lot of different promoters wanted to sign me.
We actually visited a couple of them.
And I was like, wow, everybody sounds so good.
Who do I pick?
And Arnie said, well, follow your heart.
He said, well, you know, we're looking at all the offers.
I said, well, it's funny you should say that.
We've got a guy in England.
Why don't you come over to England
and see what we can do over there?
He flew into Heathrow Airport, and I met him at the airport
that morning.
And when he put his hand out, it was just like a shovel
coming out to meet me.
And I was like, god, he's bloody big.
Then I thought, you are a perfect specimen of a fighter.
You know, I decided to go back to England because I virtually
could write my own contract.
NARRATOR: Lennox triumphantly returned home to his birthplace
to start his professional career with the most
brazen promoter in Britain, a man
who was hiding a deep secret.
From day one, we started with this dream
that we were Britain's first world heavyweight champion,
or Lennox wants to be the undisputed world
heavyweight champion.
And it's my job to do my best to get
that fight made for Lennox Lewis and to guide him in that path.
Lennox's team was quite unique.
It started off first, it was John Davenport.
John Davenport then brought in Harold
knight, who was a fighter that John had trained.
When I came up to the training camp,
Lennox actually was sleeping in one of the cottages.
There was two bedrooms in one cottage,
and I was in the other bedroom.
So I walked in the wrong bedroom,
and soon as I walked in, I see his big old giant stand up
and everything.
And that was my first introduction to Lennox Lewis.
His mum Violet was the captain of the whole training team.
She held the whole team together.
I start going with them to the camp,
cause I have to do his cooking and look after him.
Because he has to eat property.
Well, Mom, she was the boss of the camp,
to be honest with you.
Mom was definitely the boss of the camp, not
only with her cooking, but she was, how can I say,
fair but firm.
She didn't take no mess from anyone.
NARRATOR: Lennox quickly won his first 13
pro fights and his first championship,
the European Title.
Lennox and I had disagreements on where he should come from.
I was adamant he should be British, because that was
the market we was aiming at.
Lennox sort of went to Canada, and he had that accent,
and that might be a little bit why he
wasn't taken really seriously.
Lennox obviously had Canadian roots, Jamaican roots,
and British roots.
So he wanted to be seen as a man of the world.
I mean, I've done some stupid things.
I had Lennox dressed in a top hat and tails with a cane
and photographs done with him.
I took him to English football clubs.
He went along with it, but some of it grudgingly.
I used to get a lot of shtick from a lot of my friends
and a lot of Americans when I came back home
after one of Lennox's fights, because they
didn't accept Lennox.
There was always early on this perception
that the British accent made him more
civilized than the other characters
with whom he would deal in the division,
and he must have a more genteel background than guys who
had come off of rough streets.
And of course that was a myth.
NARRATOR: Lennox no doubt grew up during hard times in London,
but he was fortunate that the police in Kitchener, Ontario
treated him like any other wayward kid
with potential and not a threat because of where he was
born or the color of his skin.
At the beginning of the '90s, he kept his sights on the prize,
building a team that would help him rise up through the ranks
of heavyweight contenders.
At that time I went to school in London, Ontario.
I wanted to be a fitness trainer for pro athletes.
End of 1990, he came to me and said, "look, I need your help.
I need your help.
I'm gonna fight the number three fighter in the world.
I know I can beat him if you help me,
but I need to be stronger."
So we agreed to train for one fight.
I told him I'd help him for one fight.
SONG: I and I build a cabin.
I and I plant the corn.
Chase those crazy baldheads out of our town.
NARRATOR: Lennox surrounded himself with childhood friends,
including Egerton Marcus.
Lennox, he became--
that's my brother.
That's my brother.
Because when he's in a fight, it's like I'm in a fight.
NARRATOR: These familiar faces, like his old coach
Adrian Teodorescu and Courtney Shand always had Lennox's back,
but they also kept him grounded.
He always said to me, "you always have to be honest.
You always have to tell me how things are.
Never tell me it's raining when it's sunny, because I'm
going to believe you."
And one day what he did to show me, that day he
told me that we were driving, he closes his eyes and he says--
Listen, tell me which way to turn.
He's driving, and I'm like, "Lennox, Lennox!
What are you doing?
What are you doing?"
And He's like, "just tell me what to do,
tell me what to do."
And he had his eyes shuts tight.
I'm looking at him like, are you crazy?
And he goes, "that's the level of trust I need to have.
That's what I'm giving to you, and please hold on to it
dearly."
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the Omni
Arena here in one of America's greatest sports cities,
Atlanta, Georgia.
Lennox Lewis, he is Canadian and English,
fighting out of England.
Biggs, of course, four years ago,
was the star heavyweight in the Duvas' main event
stable when he fought against Mike Tyson in 1987
in Atlantic City.
The question I have is whether being an amateur
could hurt him in the way it might have hurt Biggs.
NARRATOR: In November of 1991, Lennox got the chance
to write what went wrong in the '84 Olympics, a rematch
with the man that beat him, Tyrell Biggs.
Lewis comes out firing and lands a right hand.
Lennox Lewis looks like much the stronger guy physically.
Looks like he can handle Tyrell on the inside.
Very little head movement for Lewis.
Could be a problem later on, particularly
for a guy who's 6'5.
And down goes Biggs from the solid right cross.
That's an impressive victory for Lennox Lewis.
And I'll go in the ring and find out where he's going from here.
Lennox Lewis is on a mission, and Tyrell Biggs
was a stepping stone.
And all I need is a couple more fights,
and then I'll be in there against the champion.
All right, Larry, so Lennox Lewis takes another step
toward big time heavyweight contention,
and we're gonna talk to one of the big time
heavyweight contenders of all time right now.
George, if you can hear me, what did you think of Lennox Lewis?
I was more than impressed.
He's a great boxer and a good right hand puncher.
I'll tell you this, I don't want any parts of him.
NARRATOR: This was a fighter that the world was not used to.
Articulate, to himself, contemplative,
not getting into trouble with the law,
a chess player, a thinker.
And you do some meditation.
Can you tell us about that?
Yeah, I think you've got to focus
on what you have to accomplish.
And you know, I create my own facade,
so it's very important for me to have an even ground around me.
NARRATOR: This towering dominant contender
for the world heavyweight championship
was mysteriously different.
To take his career to the next level,
he decided to replace John Davenport
with a more seasoned trainer.
It was like a complete 180 in terms
of who he chose as a coach, because he
went to every Pepe Correa.
Pepe was flashy.
He liked movement.
He wanted Lennox not to just stand in the middle of the ring
and use his pure size.
This guy, when you talk to him,
he gets right into your face, and he listens everything.
He hangs on every word that you say, and he makes it easier.
He makes my job very, very easy.
With Pepe coming on was the evolution of Lennox as a boxer.
Pure boxer, not just someone that
could throw punches and get you because he was big,
but move, be fluid.
We had I think three or four fights with Pepe,
and they kept getting better.
The big one was when we fought our Donovan Razor Ruddock.
I think the only fight I was really worried about for Lennox
was the Razor Ruddock fight, because I knew if we'd lost,
that was the end of the whole road and the ride.
But it was Lennox who calmed my nerves for that fight.
In my memory, the first of his fights that we covered on HBO
was actually Halloween night 1992 in Earls Court
in London versus Razor Ruddock.
The battle between Razor Ruddock and Lennox Lewis
for the right to fight the winner of Holyfield-Bowe
for the Heavyweight Championship,
an exciting night in London.
I was impressed that he was so relaxed.
Lennox Lewis can probably be one of the greatest fighters
to ever come out of this country.
And I remember walking away from the meeting thinking,
wow, what a very cool, self-possessed character he is.
I wonder if he knows something that I don't know.
Not since the days of Bob Fitzsimmons and the last decade
of the 19th century has an English-born fighter
held the heavyweight crown.
Lewis initiates the action so far.
He says his plan is to stick the jab,
stay relaxed, move away from the left hook, and outbox Ruddock.
Right hand by Lewis.
Ruddock goes down!
A smashing right cross with perfect accuracy
behind the jab.
You cannot do it better.
And the wobbling Razor Ruddock--
NARRATOR: Many were assuming that Razor's experience
and ability to take a punch would be too
much for Lennox, who struck many as just
a pretty boy from England.
Lewis herding Ruddock with the left hook.
Ruddock in serious trouble as Lewis pounds him to the canvas.
Second knockdown of the fight, and already Lennox Lewis
has equalled Mike Tyson's knockout output
against Razor Ruddock in both of the two Tyson-Ruddock fights.
Lennox Lewis is in total command now.
Can he finish?
Right hand to the body.
Ruddock in trouble.
Second knockdown of round 2.
We have a great new heavyweight on the boxing scene.
Lennox Lewis may turn out to be not only the greatest
heavyweight in British history but the greatest
fighter in European history.
I agree, I agree!
NARRATOR: By 1992, Ring Magazine had Lennox Lewis all the way up
from 9 in 1991 to number two, behind Riddick Bowe,
the guy he had already beat.
Tyson was gone.
And in his place, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis's
old Olympic rival, Riddick big daddy Bowe,
began a four year battle for the top spot in heavyweight boxing.
Yo, bring it on, man.
Yeah, I'm gonna bring it.
He's known for sucker punching people,
because I've seen him do it before.
So I made sure I had my hands close to my face,
ready to block anything he was coming with.
And I said the same thing to him.
"I'm gonna knock you out."
Knock me out.
NARRATOR: During Bowe's second title run with all three belts,
he gave up the most coveted WBC title, the same title
Muhammad Ali fought for.
He mockingly dropped it in a trash
while pressed to defend it against Lennox.
Some would say maybe he didn't want to face Lennox.
Some would say maybe he was afraid
that Lennox would kick his ass, just
like he did in the Olympics.
When Riddick Bowe dumped the belt in the garbage,
Lennox definitely was pissed off.
Disrespect.
That's another reason why I wanted
to beat his ass in the ring.
NARRATOR: Because of his recent victory over Ruddock,
Lennox was awarded the WBC title,
becoming the first British champion in over 100 years.
Lennox had the belt, but he didn't
really win it in the ring.
So in his next fight Lennox had something to prove.
In the very first fight, Lennox was the champion
because the belt was handed to him,
and the opponent was Tony Tucker, Don King's opponent.
He had this thing about Don King.
NARRATOR: Don King was boxing's longest running pimp,
having gone from a neighborhood numbers
running bookie to somehow convincing Muhammad Ali to box
in a charity exhibition to then promoting Ali in the 1974
Rumble in the Jungle, Ali's upset victory
over George Foreman.
Throughout his life, Don King proved
that he was a masterful manipulator and the game's
consummate promoter.
In the late '80s into the '90s, King
had his hooks into Mike Tyson.
Don King is one of the most funniest men I've ever known.
He kept saying, "Lennox, you're the greatest.
You should be with me.
You should be with me, come over to the other side!"
Here he comes now!
Greatest heavyweight champion of all time!
The baddest man on planet Earth, the
meet and greet the heavyweight champion of the world,
Lennox Lewis!
And you think, Don, let's get down to the business.
I'm not worth of tying his shoelace.
He's standing beside me, the messiah of boxing.
Yes, Lennox Lewis!
Once the politics, what he called polytricks, once them
polytricks are more or less smoothed out,
Don King thought Tony Tucker would beat Lennox.
NARRATOR: King had a reason to be confident.
Tucker's record was 48 in 1, his only last being to Mike Tyson.
But after a 12 round slugfest, Lennox won by decision.
With his title legitimized, next up he would face
fellow englishman Frank Bruno.
Great Britain, where prize fighting finds its roots,
the past 100 years have given them little reason to cheer.
There's a great tradition of boxing in this country.
Unfortunately we don't have too many good fighters these days.
And we certainly haven't had too many good heavyweights.
The last undisputed British heavyweight champion
was Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897.
Not until the arrival of Lennox Lewis in 1992
would the British be able to claim another.
But tonight's event takes on greater significance,
as it marks the first time in history that two
englishmen have battled one another
for a world heavyweight title.
This guys been slagging me down ever since he's
come back from Canada.
I'm going to knock him out, knock him back to Canada.
I'm gonna knock him out so hard that he's got to pay
to come back into the hall.
He said he's gonna hit you so hard it's
gonna send you back to Canada.
Not a very nice thing to say, but--
Well, he's trying to scare me, but I can't be faded.
You will be knocked out.
Fight like you will leave your feet.
We'll put you to sleep.
I mean, bring a pillow to ringside for you.
Big boy, you going.
And lest you be confused by that graphic,
keep in mind that Lewis was awarded the WBC
heavyweight championship by that governing body after Riddick
Bowe relinquished it rather than to fight
him in a mandatory challenge.
That's why Bruno has the chance to become
the first British heavyweight to win a title in the ring.
No heavyweight has looked better in the last couple of years
than Lewis with his stunning destruction
of Razor Ruddock in 216 seconds in Earls Court last October.
Bruno pounding his fists together to jack himself up.
Mickey Van calls them together, and round 1--
Good right hand by Bruno!
Bruno has Lewis in serious trouble.
Let's see if Lennox knows how to hold on.
Bruno pounding away to the body.
That right hand is one of the biggest punches Lennox Lewis
has ever taken in his career.
Lewis in trouble in the corner.
And lands a sensational left hook.
What a comeback by Lewis.
Now let's see if he can finish.
Bruno in serious trouble.
He's got him now, if he can finish.
Right hand over the top.
It was a left hook that turned this around
and a frozen Frank Bruno is there kicking punishment.
And making Mickey Van is gonna stop it.
It was a one punch comeback.
Lennox Lewis, desperately behind on the score cards,
produced a sensational left hook.
NARRATOR: Lennox started 1994 off with a bang.
He defended his title with an eighth round
knockout of Phil Jackson.
Pepe and I would kind of butt heads
in terms of what was best for Lennox
in terms of what he wanted.
Where Davenport would say to me, "this is what
I need Lennox to do, do it."
Pepe would always be overseeing and overseeing,
and I think that started to rub Lennox the wrong way.
We were in training camp for the Oliver
McCall fight in the Catskills.
And I watched Pepe Correa with Lennox.
And Lennox was sparring.
And he caught one of the sparring partners
and wobbled him.
And it was only the first round or second round.
And Pepe went, "that's great, champ.
That's great, champ.
We don't need to see no more."
And I thought, what the hell's he doing?
One round of sparring?
And I sat with Lennox.
And I said, "Lennox, you're not responding to Pepe.
Please let me sack Pepe."
I said, I'll help Harold.
I'll help Courtney.
We can get through this, because you trust them.
I said, and they're there for you.
Pepe is a cheerleader.
And Lennox went, "Frank, I can deal with it.
I'll win this fight, and then we'll sit down,
and we'll sort out Pepe."
The Atomic Bull, as Oliver McCall is known,
will exit from his dressing room and make his way to the ring
right now.
As you can see, it's the first championship fight for the man
promoted by Don King.
It's not unusual for a fighter of his caliber
to get a championship shot.
What is unusual is that somebody like that should be required
to fight for the Heavyweight Championship by somehow
mysteriously being ranked as the top contender.
Record for Lennox Lewis, 25 wins, no losses.
21 wins by knockout, including two
of the three title defenses.
Jim, it looks to me that Oliver McCall is so emotional,
he's crying.
I had the exact same feeling.
He's trying to screw up his courage,
but I think he's wasting energy here.
That's exactly what I said.
So after some unusual moments--
they seem to crop up in every heavyweight championship
fight--
here we go.
The bull has been known to have very, very good stamina.
If the first round is a prototype,
so far it's a good one for Oliver McCall.
Lennox caught McCall with a good punch in the first round.
And when he came back on his stool, he sat down,
and Pepe Correa went to him, "forget everything I've taught.
Just go out and knock him out."
You're looking good, OK?
You're fighting a very intelligent fighter.
You're taking this next punch away
from him in the right hand. - Right.
He shot it twice, and every time you roll and counter.
You caught him with it once but you're
gonna make him quit throwing it if you keep
throwing everything at him, OK?
Lewis threw more left hands and fewer right
hands in the first round than we've
seen him before, Gill, I thought it was by his own fight plan.
But perhaps that's also the fight plan of Stewart.
And you know--
down goes Lewis.
Down goes Lewis.
He caught a short left hand inside.
Six, seven, eight, nine--
What is this?
The WBC's referee has stopped this fight
after a count to nine with Lewis standing in front of him.
And we're gonna have a riot here.
Jose Guadalupe Garcia stopped the fight in the second round.
But let's take a look at the punch that put Lewis down.
That's hardly a devastating punch.
This is really unusual.
But when you have a heavyweight championship fight,
the heavyweight champion should have
a chance to defend his title almost to the last breath.
It's a strange sport, Gill, and you see
strange things all the time.
You don't wanna leap to too many conclusions too fast,
but you saw the joy with which Don
King embraces his return to a part
of the heavyweight championship.
It's been a few years, and he's back.
Returned from almost oblivion.
Back on top again with a heavyweight champion.
Never count him out.
Are we going to see you again, Lennox?
Yes.
I may be down, but I'm not out.
Thank you very much, Lennox.
We were all sad coming back into the hotel room,
you know, with our faces down.
He said to us, "why are we all down?
We shouldn't be down.
You know, I'm gonna come back, and I'm gonna beat this guy."
That morning, about 5:00 in the morning,
both he and Frank Maloney, they were
already plotting how we were gonna
go back and get the title.
NARRATOR: Lennox maintained the same core
team throughout his career.
People like Courtney and Egerton, who we grew up with,
or like Herald Knight, who was right
there at the start of his career, people that kept him
grounded.
But at critical points, Lennox always found a better captain
to steer the ship, especially when it
went through turbulent waters.
After the upset victory of Oliver McCall, who
better to hire than the architect of his only loss,
Emanuel Steward?
Emanuel Steward was good friends
with one of my first mentors, John Davenport.
So when he came with us, our team with Lennox Lewis,
I was more happy than Lennox, because, man,
Steward was like a sage.
He was a guru.
Frank Maloney and myself, after Lennox got knocked out
by Oliver McCall, we literally pulled Emanuel Steward right
then and there in the ring, you're coming
with us from here on out.
NARRATOR: Before engineering Lennox's only defeat,
Emanuel Steward had developed a reputation
for turning good boxes into champions
of the highest caliber.
When I first became involved with Lennox,
Lennox actually was too tentative and too cautious.
But I've always predicted that Lennox Lewis would
be a great heavyweight, was possibly the best heavyweight
out there, even when I was training Evander
Holyfield and Oliver McCall.
Particularly the fights where people are questioning
his toughness, I would say.
Those seem to be the fights that motivate him the most.
One of the things that made Emanuel Steward the greatest
boxing trainer of all time, in my personal view,
was that he perfectly understood that every single fighter comes
from a different incubus, a different background.
And he wanted to know who they were, and know what made
them tick, and respond to that.
The first time I actually met Emanuel Steward,
he said he watched me boxing, and he thinks
I have a lot of natural talent, and he thinks
I'll be a champion one day.
But he told me that way when I was an amateur.
And then we picked him up at the airport,
went out for dinner, and Lennox, while we
were having dinner, started saying "Manny,
tell me how you beat me."
And he'd get up and he'd demonstrate.
"I saw you doing this.
This is what we looked for.
We knew this was one of your tendencies,
and we wanted to lure you into this position.
We're gonna get in the gym, and I'm gonna change that,
so you never get caught with that punch again."
He said to Lennox, "I want you in the gym
tomorrow morning, 9:00."
The one thing that was different about Manny,
he got right in the ring, and he showed you.
I went to meet with Lennox, and after the meeting
I had a good feeling.
And we worked out in the gym.
There was very good chemistry between Lennox and I.
And I decided that I was gonna do it.
When Emanuel took over, I think
more of the technical side came out in Lennox.
It was more about boxing, more about the jab,
more about the uppercut, the right hook.
He wasn't just a trainer, a coach, a mentor.
He was a people's person.
He used to take myself, obviously Lennox Lewis,
and Courtney Shand driving around town in his candy
apple Rolls Royce with the white top, with the white top down.
And that personal relationship, he used to talk with Lennox.
He used to talk with all of us.
We always went to camp for like almost 12 weeks.
The first week was just, I want you guys to sleep.
I want you guys to get some rest.
We're gonna get up.
We're not gonna start training right away.
Just come in, rest.
You remember Pepe Correa, who was Lewis's trainer,
fired after Lewis's loss to Oliver McCall.
Tonight, he will work in Lionel Butler's corner.
Emanuel Steward trained Evander Holyfield to his upset victory
over Riddick Bowe, and then trained
McCall, as we've mentioned, to his victory over Lewis.
Lewis suddenly doing a lot of work with the left hand.
And that is relatively new.
Go out there and jump on this.
You gotta jump on him, hit him in the head.
Keep your right hand up.
Your biggest mistake is your right hand is too low.
And that right hand might be enough to finish it.
And it is.
And the thunder is still there in Lennox Lewis's right hand.
Lennox Lewis has got this punching power.
All he needs is a little more confident.
This guy can rule the heavyweight division
for a long time with that extra reach he has.
Resistance.
There's a lot of it.
He's caught here and [INAUDIBLE]..
It stopped.
Even before he hit the floor, Roy [INAUDIBLE]
decided that that was enough.
His were blocked by Lennox Lewis's arms.
And there's a monumental uppercut.
This is the best Lewis we've seen
in a while, much more measured, less wild, better footwork.
Much better footwork.
Lane is getting very close to a stoppage here.
You get that sense.
Now goes Morrison again.
A terrific performance by Lennox Lewis.
Defensively he kept that right hand up,
so that he completely neutralized Tommy Morrison's
outstanding left hook.
You describe for us how you were different,
or how you felt different in this fight
than you have in some other fights.
Differently Emanuel Steward.
I have to give credit to Emanuel Steward and the team
behind me, Courtney Shand, Harold the Shadow Knight.
They've helped me develop this.
NARRATOR: Lennox beat Tommy Morrison in brutal fashion.
Meanwhile, Tyson was out of prison
and making his own comeback, winning the WBC belt
for the second time after he defeated
Frank Bruno, who had won it by beating Oliver McCall.
Every fight brought us a new objective.
I wanted to know that if a man's blocking my jab
and he's learned to control my job, well,
I've got a right hand.
If he's learned to control that right hand,
I've got an uppercut hook.
For the winner on a split decision, Lennox Lewis!
The WBC belt, what happens now?
If you don't fight Lennox Lewis, they're
either gonna take it away or something's gonna happen.
I take all challengers.
Line them up.
NARRATOR: After defeating Ray Mercer,
the WBC named Lennox as Tyson's next mandatory challenge.
But Tyson's handlers wouldn't agree to a fight
with Lennox, which led to a rematch with Oliver McCall.
Good combination by Lewis.
Left hook and a right hand over the top.
Just take your time, son.
Start ripping into the body a little bit now, OK?
You're not pushing back any.
You gonna start pushing back.
McCall is doing a very strange thing here, folks.
He's walking around.
He's wandering around the ring.
He hasn't gone to his corner, and he's trying to figure out
what's gone wrong.
Lennox Lewis in an awfully difficult and awkward position.
Lewis doing what he has to do.
You wonder how much longer Mills Lane will allow this to go.
And that's-- that's gonna be it.
NARRATOR: After avenging his only loss by defeating Oliver
McCall, Lennox dominated his next three opponents, all
of them top 10 contenders, who many thought
would give him trouble.
While Lennox was blazing through the division,
Mike Tyson was struggling to defeat his own demons.
What happened here?
He got bit, I think.
My goodness, he's got a bloody right ear!
Holyfield bit by a dirty Mike Tyson.
See, look at him.
You can see it.
You can see it!
There it is!
I can't believe what I'm seeing, fellas.
He's signaling that it's over.
I think they've just about had enough.
Tyson showing desperation and biting Holyfield two times.
Look out now!
More fighting in the ring After the end of the fight.
NARRATOR: With two victories now over Tyson and Bowe
out of the picture, Evander holyfield
was considered the real deal.
Lennox ranked number two behind him for three years in a row.
'96, '97, and '98.
That had him burning up inside.
There was only one way to settle it.
Riddick Bowe didn't want to fight Lennox,
so Riddick Bowe came to me.
Tyson didn't fight Lennox.
He fought me.
Each and every time that they had an opportunity
to choose to fight Lennox, they chose to fight me,
because they thought I was a lesser opponent.
And I always surprised them.
So out of respect, I had to face him and give him
the opportunity that he had given
me of being the three time heavyweight champ of the world.
With a victory over Evander Holyfield,
Lennox Lewis will become maybe one of the most powerful men
to ever be in boxing.
This will take you and bring you into full visualization.
This is your hour.
Before you talk about Tyson, Tyson
will be bigger than the event.
No matter if you win, you don't win.
You know what I mean?
Holyfield has diminished that light.
You've got it going in here.
I don't know what it is, but this is the type of fight
that's got us all excited.
It broke me out into a cold sweat.
NARRATOR: The time had come for Lennox and Evander Holyfield
to touch gloves.
Entire career, two-time heavyweight champion
of the world, Olympic gold medal winner,
it won't mean anything if he does
not beat Evander Holyfield.
He will just be another kid with dreadlocks from England.
I got Sean Connery doing the voiceover on the commercial.
Get out of here.
Yeah?
007, baby!
And what's it been like the last few days in New York?
Countless press conferences, everybody
wanting to talk to you?
You must get fed up with it.
You must want to get on with it now.
Yeah, definitely.
I've done countless interviews asking the same questions
over and over.
Now I think these questions need to be answered with a fight.
Believe me, Holyfield gonna put
something on his hands, man.
Oh, yeah, he gonna pound on his ass.
Come on, man.
He gonna get pounded on, man.
We couldn't paint a ticket in if we were an artist.
It's a sold out fight three months before the fight.
It's the fastest sell-out in heavyweight history,
in the history of the garden.
And so we have just the biggest fight, four times
as big as any event money-wise in the garden.
So these are some first in history making events
that you have with the Real Deal Holyfield
against Lennox Lewis, Holyfield, of kind of the IBF
and the WBA, Lennox Lewis, the king of the WBC,
and Don King, the king of the ring.
Don't even worry.
Lenny, you got your jacket?
Yeah.
Before you was born, it was written.
This is the moment of truth.
Lennox Lewis enters first.
He has labored long and bucked the tide
of a lot of disrespect on this side of the Atlantic
to get to this threshold.
As a professional, 34 wins, the one second round knockout loss
one punch at the hands of McCall later
avenged, 27 knockouts for the two-time belt-holder
from England.
(SINGING) We sing Holy Father, power and strength to the Lord.
And here we go.
It's the moment you've all been waiting for.
Only three men left in the ring.
And we're underway.
Holyfield seeming to slip as Lewis landed
the first punch of the bout.
That goes by the wayside because Holyfield only
threw 17 punches in round 1.
Quiet here at floor level, where the Holyfield
fans are wondering why their man doesn't get off.
Raucous noise in the upper deck, where
the englishmen are enjoying Lewis's early dominance.
--won't win for Evander Holyfield.
And he cringes against the ropes as Lewis lands a right hand.
They're singing upstairs.
They're cheering downstairs.
The applause is building.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
[BELL RINGS]
Not since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897
has a citizen of Great Britain held an
undisputed heavyweight title.
We may be minutes away from that watershed right now.
Final punch stat numbers are overwhelmingly
one sided, Lewis landing 218 more blows,
more than doubling Holyfield's landed punch number,
and nearly doubling his output.
We go to the scorecards at this time.
Judge at ringside Eugenia Williams scores
about 115 to 113 in favor of Evander Holyfield.
[CHEERING]
Judge at ringside Stanley Christodoulou scores
about 116 to 113 in favor of Lennox Lewis.
Judge at ringside Larry O'Connell scores
the bout 115 to 115.
Even a draw, the decision is even a draw.
Both champions retain their belts.
That's a travesty.
That is, ladies and gentlemen, a travesty,
an outrage, a highway robbery.
Lennox Lewis has just been robbed
of the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
He won it, and he didn't get it.
You know, that is a shame.
Emanuel Steward, first give us your impression
of the scoring of the fight.
You know, first of all, it was a terrible decision.
Anybody can see the fight.
Now, I normally don't even complain,
even the Thomas Hearns Sugar Ray Leonard number 2 fight.
But this fight is really what's hurting boxing.
Every time we try to move boxing forward and make a great fight
of some type like this, this kind of crap
just comes on, where Evander only won
three rounds, four at the most.
But nevertheless, it's called a draw.
This is what's killing boxing.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Watch it, watch it, watch it.
[INAUDIBLE]
I was fucking afraid of that.
A draw?
You shut his ass down.
Let's talk like we're champions.
We won the fight.
That's how we're talking at the press conference.
Yeah.
positive vibes.
Positive.
We're the people's champion, at all times.
We're here.
We're here to face all of our accusers.
Don't be shy.
If you think that he lost the fight,
tell him that you think that.
The judges didn't think it.
And I tell you, he's ready to do it again.
When you get a man hurt, you're supposed to finish it.
You don't play chess with it.
Where was that third round?
That's what I want to know.
What happened in that third round?
Well, Lennox, you know what?
Have you ever thought about when we fight again,
I got another chance to do it?
Yes, yes, it ain't over yet!
Yeah, it's not over.
It ain't over yet!
Thank you very much.
You're very kind, and I love you.
Now we gonna do it again!
Don is a very smart man.
Regardless of what people say about him,
Don is a very smart man.
So when Lennox never signed with Don and beat every fighter,
that more or less incensed Don a little bit more
to have that little thing against Lennox.
It seems so unfair that guys like Don King and Bob Arum
and these guys are getting crazy rich off of the blood
and sweat of these boxers, and then
they end up with very little.
Absolutely.
I mean, if you look at the Holyfield fight,
Holyfield made $15 million in one fight.
I made 10, and Don King made 10.
But he never stepped in the ring.
You know what you guys should have done?
Honestly, after the fight, beat the [BLEEP] out of him.
[LAUGHTER]
Right after it.
Now after being in the ring with Holyfield,
we didn't have to really go back to study tapes and do this,
because Lennox had 12 rounds in his mind.
And once you've fought with Lennox once,
once he's in the ring with you once,
there is no way you're gonna get him the second time.
We knew, OK, we can't leave it to the judges.
We weren't just gonna be fighting Holyfield.
We'll be fighting the judges.
We'll be fighting the establishment.
He hopes for a rematch with you if he can.
Who?
Holyfield.
Boxing for the undisputed heavyweight championship
of the world.
[BELL RINGS]
We shall have drama tonight.
Already we can see Holyfield trying to get closer
to Lewis right from the get-go.
Get his attention.
Keep shooting the right hand.
You're shooting him right, but shoot him low.
Don't shoot him high.
Keep your arms close.
Lewis to the body.
His own right hand lands flush.
They trade shots at close range, and summon the best round
these two fighters have fought against each other in two
fights.
Their heads come together again,
and Lewis produces some good in-fighting as he drives
Evander back to the wall.
Well, Evander Holyfield won't knock down anybody.
Uppercut lands for Lewis.
Multiple punches for Lewis.
Holyfield knocked over, fires the right
and drives Lewis into the ropes.
Lennox goes back to the body and the uppercut.
Lewis throws more and lands more in almost every round.
We're gonna find out in five more seconds of fighting.
They fought a much better fight this time.
[BELL RINGS]
And the fans appreciate it.
We go to the scorecards with a unanimous decision.
Here are the score totals.
Judge at ringside Jerry Roth scores it 115 to 113.
Judge Chuck Giampa scores it 116 to 112.
Judge at ringside Bill Graham sees it 117 to 111, all three
in favor of the winner and the undisputed heavyweight champion
of the world, Lennox Lewis.
[CHEERING]
The first unified heavyweight champion
from Britain in a century, what do you think this will do
for your legacy as a fighter and the respect you have tried
to win over the last decade?
I think I went through some trials and tribulations,
and enough people were trying to stop me.
The Americans didn't want me to take it over the Atlantic
to Britain, but I actually persevered and succeeded.
NARRATOR: Finally, with his clear victory over Holyfield,
Lennox ended the '90s number one from Ring Magazine
for the very first time.
Here he was, Lennox Lewis, the undisputed greatest.
The year 2000 was prime time for Lennox.
He fought Michael Grant, a 6'7 heavyweight
from Chicago who was even bigger and seven years younger.
But he kicked his ass in only two rounds.
Lennox went back to England and got
Botha again in only two rounds.
Finally in November, he took on a real fire hydrant, the guy
that everyone said was hard to hit
like Tyson, Samoan David Tua.
But Lennox showed an ability to adapt to any style
and won a decision in 12.
This is a lights out, artistic performance
by a heavyweight champion who, for the moment,
looks impregnable.
The people of Britain have voted Muhammad Ali the sports
personality of the century.
NARRATOR: Finally, with the respect
of being the undisputed champion,
Lennox was honored by his country alongside his greatest
childhood hero.
Muhammad Ali, our sports personality
of the century, Lennox Lewis, our sports
personality of the year.
NARRATOR: While Lennox was at the peak of his career,
Frank struggled to keep a deep secret hidden from the world.
I've always known I was very different.
From the age of three and four, I am born in the wrong body.
I could never let anyone know this,
so I would have to fight it.
So all my life I went through fighting it.
Lennox Lewis's career and my success in boxing
gave me something else to focus on.
But eventually there was a change in the business
management side, and I thought that this time they
were losing track of what Lennox's career was about.
Being heavyweight champion of the world,
they were now looking more at commercial sides.
We were gonna fight in South Africa.
Next thing I know, Lennox has decided to train in Las Vegas,
because he's in a film called Ocean's 11.
I was shooting a movie with Julia
Roberts and George Clooney.
It was good.
It was great.
I was shooting a fight scene.
I shot my particular little scene for Ocean's 11
with Larry Merchant on one of the days
that Lennox was there to shoot with Wladimir Klitschko.
And we were all aware that in South
Africa was a fight taking place at I
believe 6,000 feet altitude.
Hasim Rahman arrived three weeks before the fight.
I pleaded with Lennox.
Lennox turned up I think seven days before the fight.
Let's go ahead and jump on our plans, try and get organized.
We definitely have to get organized on this, for real.
We're just off to East London for a quick stop
for two to three hours, and then down to Capetown.
OK.
The heart of the whole matter, it seems to me at this point,
based on what everybody's writing
and how everybody sees this, is, are you taking him lightly?
To me, the definition of that comes from one question, OK?
If you were fighting Mike Tyson in Johannesburg on this day--
OK.
You know, I knew that the altitude might be a problem,
so I came over in time, so I would feel like I
would overcome that obstacle.
I'm sure you're confident of Lennox
winning on Sunday morning.
What happens next?
What's the scenario with Tyson?
Tyson is not an issue until after the Rahman fight,
so we will not discuss Tyson, but the priority
is to win the title.
Lennox, I've got to ask you this question.
With the whole fight public calling out for what
could possibly be one of the biggest
fights in history, Tyson versus Lewis, how do you stay focused?
How do you stay focused on Hasim Rahman?
Well, what people don't know, Lennox Lewis
is a true competitor, you know?
It doesn't matter if you say let's run down the street.
I have to be first.
Ow!
Perfect.
In this situation, Hasim Rahman is in front of me,
and he's an opponent, and he's trying to get my titles,
and I'm not gonna allow that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEERING]
Lennox Lewis like a big cat.
Rahman, jab, jab, jab, jab.
Chases Lewis across the ring.
With a thunderbolt from the right hand!
We got a brand new heavyweight champion,
and he's from the United States.
When we lost to Hasim Rahman in South Africa,
that was more shock than anything.
I just got on a plane and came home.
And I knew on that flight that my days with Lennox
was numbered.
And it was numbered.
And it unfortunately there.
Lennox Lewis's career and my success in boxing
gave me something else to focus on.
But eventually I couldn't keep the lid on
any longer, because I was destroying myself.
And I came across a counselor on the telephone.
I kept saying to the counselor, I need you
to tell me I'm not transgender.
He said, until you come to terms with yourself,
there's nothing anyone can do to help you.
And I-- it took me ages to come to terms with myself.
I attempted suicide.
About three days, four days later, I
told my oldest daughter, and she turned to me
and said, "do you know what?
I'd rather have my dad in a dress
than see my dad in a wooden box.
So whatever help you need to find that inner peace,
I'm there for you."
That really said to me, do you know what?
I've got to let Kellie come out full time
and be herself, and put Frank away.
And Lennox Lewis was obviously asked the question,
and he put out a fantastic statement.
"If this makes Frank or makes her happy, then so be it,
and I'm happy for her."
Which I think helped the boxing world
be a little bit more acceptful than I expected it to be.
We've had a lot of good times and a lot of fun,
so it was a little shock.
But once again, who are we to judge anyone?
And Lennox once again, he took the first step to say,
"do what you gotta do, Kellie, and I accept you for Kellie."
And that helped me to accept Kellie for Kellie.
He showed what a compassionate and understanding
human being he was.
NARRATOR: As Frank struggled with his gender identity,
Lennox coped with his loss to Rahman
by meeting another one of his heroes,
Nelson Mandela, who offered sage advice on overcoming adversity.
It is the nature of sport that you will have triumphs
and you will have adversities.
Legends like Joe Lewis, as you know, people like Muhammad Ali
have also had a similar fate.
But he came back twice and won the title.
And I say to Lennox, he must not wonder at all if he trains
properly and he uses the advantage that he has,
that left jab of his.
I didn't know that he's been watching me all this time
and studying me.
And this is Nelson Mandela.
So that was a great thing for me,
just to even know that, wow, this guy's been watching me,
studying me, knows how I box, and he can tell me
that I'm gonna go in there and win the next time I go in there
and fight.
We spoke earlier about the first time I met Lennox Lewis.
And in that very first meeting, I
remember being struck by how cool
he was, how unaffected he was by the significance
of that occasion.
The Lennox Lewis that I met that day before the Ruddock
was the same guy who did the interview
with Larry Merchant following the loss to Hasim Rahman.
Lennox, when all is said and done,
did you take him too lightly?
No, not really.
This is what happens in heavyweight boxing.
You get caught with a good shot, you don't beat
the count, they stop the fight.
Simple as that.
But there's always a next time.
You know what I mean?
I can understand how easy it was for him to not necessarily
dismiss what happened in Johannesburg
but to understand it, to look at himself
through a certain filter and say, OK, I did that.
I created the circumstances for that.
I must learn a lesson from it.
And fortunately, I'm big enough and important enough
that I'll get the chance at the rematch.
I've got the mountains to my back in Africa, son.
What do you say?
Is it time for the rematch?
In less than four months, I'll be ready.
I'll be ready.
For most fighters, and particularly for big
heavyweights, once a guy has eliminated you with one
colossal shot, it's very difficult to regain
the confidence, the wherewithal, the self-possession
to believe that you're gonna go in and knock him out instead.
NARRATOR: What do we do with these rare instances
when the chance for redemption is upon us?
The Rahman rematch was one of those moments,
but it was about more than just redemption.
The outcome would determine whether Lennox would have
a chance to cement his legacy in one of the biggest fights
in the history of the sport.
[SHOUTING]
Or leave behind a trail of questions
about what could have been.
There have been times where he's just been sort of painting
his opponent and moving away at the same time,
but he's throwing some hard left hands tonight.
Here some jabs.
That is one stiff jab.
Perhaps Rahman got under Lewis's skin with the taunting,
but Lewis got under his skin with a punch.
He seems for the moment to have
nullified Rahman's righthand.
Ooh!
It's over.
Lennox Lewis!
That may turn out to be Lennox Lewis's most respected
performance ever in the ring.
Isn't that something?
When he came back and won his title back from Hasim Rahman,
that was a really good comeback.
He knocked him out in four rounds.
To me, that was priceless.
The first thought that goes through my mind,
getting ahead of the game.
Listen to the crowd as they watch
that, is that when Mike Tyson sees that,
he might not want to fight Lennox Lewis.
NARRATOR: Having lost and regained
his titles in the same calendar year,
Lennox was number one again.
But there was still this nagging 5'11 225 pound itch.
There was still Mike Tyson.
Something crossed Cus D'Amato said when we were
sparring, "Mike, don't do that.
You're gonna fight this guy someday."
Exact words Cus D'Amato said.
So I was thinking, is this ever gonna happen?
And you know, it happened.
Pans back up.
There you go.
Right back.
There you go.
Good fighting.
I'm trying to get that combination punch in there.
You did a lot of--
I came across as the villain, the bad man,
which I didn't mind.
I don't take it personally.
I like getting under people's skin.
Defense is impregnable.
And I'm just ferocious.
I want your heart.
I wanna eat his children.
He said to some fighter, was it you,
that he wanted to eat their children?
Yeah, I was really disappointed when he said that,
but hopefully when we fight, he's a vegetarian at that time.
This is like in one sense an ultimate match-up
between good versus evil.
I look at myself as the good.
I look at him at evil.
From the moment we got together
for the press conference, there was so much tension.
And I remember when we got to New York
the night before the press conference
and he said, "if Mike makes one move at me,
forget all the money.
I'm not backing down from him.
I'm not backing up from him."
All of a sudden, I seen him take
his hat off and throw it on the ground
and start marching towards me.
Boom, I was on it.
The first three punches were mine,
and the first bite was his.
You're scared now, you ho.
You're scared like a little white [BLEEP]..
Right then I knew, and Lennox knew,
we was gonna beat Mike Tyson.
So that was small little things that play a big part
of that psychological.
Because if you remember, Mike was
always psychologically beating guys before the fight happened.
You see what I'm saying?
So it flipped a little right there.
I remember general sports reporters would literally
giggle when I would tell them that Lennox Lewis had
enormous advantages over Mike Tyson, and it was hard for me
to see how Tyson could ever possibly overcome them.
And because their general attitude was, you know,
Lennox Lewis is an English guy who drinks tea,
and Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson, so obviously
you're out of your mind, Jim.
You don't know what you're talking about.
This is clearly going to be a one sided
wipe-out in Tyson's favor.
That was what they thought was still happening
in every Mike Tyson fight.
This is war.
We ain't come to play.
We ain't come to dance with Elvis.
We come here to knock Mike Tyson out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Finally, 19 years after sparring
in the Catskills, the time had come for these two titans
to face each other in one of boxing history's
most anticipated match-ups.
Too big, too strong, baby.
Trying to tell you.
Too big, too strong.
NARRATOR: A member of the opponent's team
is allowed in the dressing room before the fight
to make sure that the gloves are put on within the rules.
No extra padding, no rough edges at the seams of the leather.
When they are satisfied, they sign the gloves.
This is usually a straightforward process,
but this night was different.
Come on, Lennox.
Let him sign, then get out of your hair.
One for all!
All for one!
Let's go, let's go!
As the challenger for the crown,
Mike Tyson will walk out first.
SONG: This is the fucking shit I've been talking about.
And here comes Iron Mike.
SONG: You think it's a fucking game?
Come on!
The fighters will now touch gloves
in the center of the ring.
Come on, man.
[WHISTLING]
[CHATTERING]
And here comes Lennox Lewis.
[REGGAE MUSIC PLAYING]
The accompanying music, a tribute
to Lewis's Jamaican heritage.
He is really a man of three countries, Jamaica,
Canada, and Great Britain.
But not the US, so they're not gonna give
him too many applause here.
If they didn't like it yesterday, you're no good.
So Emanuel Steward goes in first.
And Lennox Lewis steps between the ropes.
These two great heavyweights must now step
forward when the bell rings.
Only one will be destiny's hero.
Only one will pass from heavyweight greatness
to heavyweight legend.
Let's get ready to rumble!
Well, the jab was a pretty stiff jab.
David Tua made the same mistake.
Mike's supposed to work on the underjabs.
The jabs don't even have to land.
He's gotta hit him--
--hit by Lewis.
That was big.
Boy, Tyson's got a good chin.
Mike Tyson is being dictated to by craft, technique,
professional skill.
That's what Lewis has in addition to his size.
He certainly demonstrated some of the very best of it tonight.
Hugh right hands.
Tyson gets in an uppercut.
Shades of Tokyo and the one time he got to Buster Douglas
in the end of the eight round.
And that's gonna be perhaps the end of the fight.
It'll take some courage for Mike to get up from the shot.
Eight, nine!
He's out.
Lennox Lewis knocks out Mike Tyson
and banishes him from the upper stratosphere
of the heavyweight division.
Lennox Lewis, world junior champion, Olympic gold
medalist, three-time heavyweight champion,
knock-out conqueror of Mike Tyson,
what else could he prove?
And over the years, I studied Lennox Lewis.
He was if not the most important certainly one of the most
important fighters I had covered to that point
in my boxing career.
And I came to the conclusion that having escaped
the nightmare of his childhood, having escaped circumstances
under which he was taken away from his mother,
he had run afoul of difficult circumstances
on the streets in Canada and could have destroyed his life
with a mistake at any moment up there, and eventually ran
into a man Arnie Boehm, who unlike the people who took Mike
Tyson in and from the beginning saw him as a commodity
to exploit, this man in Canada who
found Lennox Lewis saw him as a valuable person
to be supported and redeemed.
And because of the difference in those two mindsets
and the difference in those two processes,
you get the difference in those two lives.
You get the Lennox Lewis, who was capable of brushing aside
almost any setback and continuing to calmly focus
on his belief in himself, and his belief in where ultimately
he could get to, and the deeply insecure Mike Tyson,
who always knew that he was there
to serve someone else's agenda.
Hey, I love you, Mike.
You love me, Mike?
Love you.
All right.
If you piece together those two threads over a long period
of time, you can see the difference in the two
human beings, and you get to the point of the post
fight interview in Memphis.
You said you had to win this fight to clean up boxing.
Do you feel you've accomplished that?
I went out there and showed them I'm a pugilist specialist.
I can adapt to any style.
And you know, he showed me one style that a lot of people
didn't think I was gonna be able to deal with,
but I was able to deal with it.
A lot of people thought he was gonna get away from my jab,
but nobody gets away from my job.
Mike, are you sorry this fight didn't take place years ago?
It wasn't meant to be.
I've known Lennox since he was 16, 15 years old.
I have mad respect.
Everything I said was in proposition
for promoting the fight.
He knows I love him and his mother.
And I know that he thinks I don't have respect
and love him, he's crazy.
NARRATOR: Although Lennox only had one fight in 2002,
beating Tyson was enough to keep him at number one.
You've proven everything.
You've beaten everybody.
You've avenged the losses you've had,
and you've conquered the man who you
said would make your legacy.
What now?
Well, you know, I'm gonna take it one day at a time,
see what happens after this.
Lennox Lewis, y'all!
This is the woman that I love.
He's all right.
And she has given birth to this universal champion that
will reign all over the world.
I love the brother.
NARRATOR: Time goes by and people change.
Lennox started to find that other things in life
appealed to him.
And he phones me and told me that he find--
he met a girl, and that her name was Violet.
I ran into him at a restaurant in New York City.
I said, wow, for a boxer he's very handsome.
When I met Lennox and I asked him, where do you live?
He says, I live on the planet.
And then he explained.
He says, "well, I was born in England, I grew up in Canada,
and my parents are Jamaican.
But I identify with the world."
So I found him to be quite introspective,
and it led to further conversations.
On the way out, I walked out of the restaurant.
Halfway to the train station, I turned around
and went back to the restaurant and interrupted his dinner.
And I just remember telling him, "I
really appreciate how you represent us,
because you do represent us well."
And I walked out and left.
Two years later, to be exact, we met again in Jamaica.
When that desire is no longer there
to get up when it's cold outside,
when it's snowing outside, and it's nice and warm in your bed
with silk sheets and you have your fiancee, your future wife
with you, and you don't have that desire to get up anymore,
that's when it's actually time to retire.
But he wanted to show that he was the best.
NARRATOR: For the last fight of his career,
Lennox took on Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko,
and successfully defended his undisputed title
to the very end.
Now, as he entered retirement, Lennox
finally had a partner to help balance
his life outside of the ring.
I think that he achieved his goals.
He achieved his legacy to be a world
champion and the undisputed world champion.
Well, he's one of three to retire with the title.
Not got beat.
Retired with the title, and he went out on his own terms.
I think he would have beat every heavyweight champion.
I saw most all of them fighting and training in the camps.
Ali and Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston,
I've been with all of them.
Larry Holmes.
Lennox Lewis would have beat all of them.
He would definitely have himself established
as maybe the greatest heavyweight boxer now.
When he told me that Violet, that they
were gonna have their first kid, something bigger was coming.
Made me think of that moment when we were kids on the bus,
and he said, "there's bigger things to come, man."
So when he was retiring, that's what was going through my head.
He retired in February, and our son was born in June.
I was born in New York, and I lived in Jamaica
practically my whole life.
His game plan was always focus on
boxing, and when that is finished,
then I focus on my family, my children,
and give them the things that I didn't have,
which was mainly the stability of having a mom and a dad.
He really wanted to break the cycle
of what he had been through.
In life, nothing is really given to you.
You have to earn it.
From my last daughter, we got the news
that she's got trisomy-19.
I didn't realize how extreme it was until we got
all the information about it.
Most kids with her condition don't survive,
but she's strong.
She's really strong.
She's a fighter.
It's still difficult, because it's
like we know kids that have this condition don't last that long.
It's one day at a time.
OK, OK.
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Who knows what that is?
NARRATOR: Building upon the humanity
of those who had taught him how to box, Lennox focused
on charities that would help lift young people out
of their trouble by teaching them to overcome adversities
through the sport of boxing.
You're sticking your chin out.
You've got to hide that.
You've got to hide your chin.
You wanna protect it as well with your hands.
At least one of them.
He is the epitome of what a world
champion is supposed to be.
NARRATOR: Of his 41 winning bouts,
Lennox's reign with the WBC belt lasted 16 fights.
Out of the ring, Lennox kept his mother,
brother, and childhood friends like Courtney and Egerton
around him.
A close-knit family team that kept him grounded.
But he also gathered a team of experts from Frank Maloney
and Harold Knight to one of the greatest coaches in boxing
history, Emanuel Steward, who helped
him climb to the mountaintop.
He retired as one of only three heavyweight champions
in the history of the sport to have
beaten every man he faced alongside Rocky
Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
Who are these men we call heavyweight champions?
Why do we look up to them?
Because they embody all that's heroic and just?
Or is it that we can not look away?
Who are the real champions?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SONG: Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Oh, I've no fear for atomic energy.
Muhammad Ali, he picked us before he passed
to say he wants these two guys, the guys that fought together,
were foes, put them together, and make them love each other,
and put me to my resting place.
When me and Lennox were pallbearers
for Muhammad Ali's funeral, that was just a great honor for me.
Does anybody know who Muhammad Ali is?
Yeah.
[CHEERING]
We sparred when we were kids.
We became very good friends.
And when we were young, Lennox was real tall.
He was 6'5 when he was probably 16.
And remember when you were dancing,
like how you would dance like?
[LAUGHTER]
He still dances like that.
I do, too, now.
But listen, but really why it was
close and meant a lot to me, because Cus was alive then.
Arnie was alive then, right?
No one knew us.
You know, we were just two guys coming up.
And then the '80--
what with the '84 Olympics.
We lost in '84 in Los Angeles.
Do you remember when we lost?
We were just walking around like two schmucks?
Shit!
We went different ways, but yet
we ended up in the same place.
So the friendship, I believe, was always there.
And as a result, just culminated to "we're
back where we started."
Look what we did and we overcame, man?
That's just the biggest--
that's the biggest accomplishment
that we didn't become victims to our environments.
[APPLAUSE]
Because we were statistics that became specialists.
And that's why we're here, really.
Brother, please, just come up here, please.
[CHEERING]
SONG: Let me tell you the story about Lennox Lewis.
Undefeated, every chance he never blew it.
Never lost, because he's the best to ever do it.
Everyone who stepped in the ring honestly knew it.
Undefeated gold medalist against the best of them.
He knew his path was never stressing him.
If you was smart, you wouldn't mess with him.
Also a leader, a teacher, you could progress with him.
Mike Tyson couldn't do it.
Holyfield couldn't prove it.
People know I was the last true champion at the boxing ring,
and I'm stepping in.
Look, put down the guns, pick up the gloves.
Going through so much pain, we need some gloves.
Gotta show the youth there is a better way,
so we can take the time to educate.
And put down the guns, pick up the gloves.
Going through so much pain, we need some love.
Gotta show the youth there is a better way,
so we can take the time to educate.
Now it's for the youth, stay in the right direction.
Be positive, make love rather than aggression.
Nelson Mandela taught us a lesson.
Went to the safari, let Lewis under pressure.
Before he died, Ali crowned him and called him the greatest.
When it comes to helping out, he don't mind doing favors.
Just like that, with your mind you can fight back.
Have to stay on the right track, get the picture like IMAX.
The sky's the limit when you never try to reach it.
Whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve it.
We need to drop where you're from,
and just accept that you are the undisputed king.
That's just what it is.
So until somebody comes and changes
that and breaks that record, you are still number one.
[INAUDIBLE] still alive.
That's awesome.
That's great.
So not wanting to lose really helps me win.
[LAUGHTER]
Who is the hardest puncher you ever faced?
Fuck.
Probably Lennox Lewis.
For real?
Yeah.
That motherfucker's hands was this big.
One night that motherfucker grabbed my weed
and rolled a blunt with one hand.
That motherfucker's hand was this big, one of them.
Yeah, he's a monster.
What was it that set him apart from the others?
Let Lennox weather the storm?
Riots that killed 63 people and injured thousands?
Yeah, yeah.
Don King was boxing's longest running pimp.
I think you got there.
Gotta take it.
Here?
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Some would say, maybe he didn't want to face Lennox.
Some would say, maybe he was afraid
that Lennox would kick his ass, just
like he did in the Olympics.
[LAUGHTER]
That was awesome.
I liked that one.
I kind of shocked myself when that shit came out.
I saw you getting it.
You didn't get that?
What the fuck, Hugh?
[LAUGHTER]
Lennox fucking Lewis, champion forever.
Believe it.