Lennox Lewis sees Oleksandr Usyk as a worthy successor as a “great” heavyweight world champion.
Usyk grew to become the primary undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lewis when he received his first battle with Tyson Fury in 2024.
The Ukrainian stays unbeaten and has established himself as the perfect heavyweight of his period with two wins over Fury, two wins over Anthony Joshua and two wins over Daniel Dubois.
Lewis, who’s seen Usyk in camp, identifies him as a worthy inheritor. “Yes. Oleksandr Usyk is a great champion, a great person, he trains hard,” Lewis informed Sky Sports activities.
“He’s done it all. He’s sacrificed. He’s got a great family and he deserves his flowers.”
Usyk is within the closing levels of his profession, on account of field kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven in an uncommon WBC title battle in Egypt. However it’s laborious for champions, particularly heavyweight champions, to remain retired.
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Again in 2000 Lennox Lewis received his homecoming battle in spectacular vogue as he punched Frans Botha by the ropes with a brutal mixture
Fury notably has retired and promptly unretired a number of instances.
One of many greats of the game, Lewis had completed every little thing there was to do within the sport. However even for him it was tough to withstand making a comeback.
“Many times I felt like jumping back in the ring. But focus, discipline kept me out,” Lewis mentioned.
“Let me tell you it was hard. I wanted to retire and say I’m 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.
“I mentioned I’ve achieved every little thing already, I need not show something anymore. So I stayed out of boxing.”
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We’re diving into probably the most explosive boxing face-offs caught on digicam together with Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn and Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson!
He completed on a excessive be aware, beating Vitali Klitschko, who would later change into a dominant heavyweight champion, in a violent battle.
“My trainer Emanuel [Steward] said ‘listen, you can beat the present and the future with this fight’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ll take it.’ It wasn’t a pretty fight but I still won,” he mentioned.
Lewis might definitely be happy with having change into the perfect heavyweight of his period. “That was my aim. From when I started boxing I said I wanted to be the greatest heavyweight,” he mentioned.
“I wanted to be just like Muhammad Ali and win all the accolades along by getting up to the top, so if it was European, if it was British, if it was this, if it was that, as long as I won them all.”
