Lennox Lewis stands as one of the most decorated and respected heavyweights to ever lace up the gloves. Over a long and remarkable career, Lewis not only showcased his immense talent but also demonstrated his resilience and adaptability, beating every man he faced, even if not always on the first attempt.
An Olympic gold medalist, Lewis’s career saw him face unexpected defeats to underdogs – once to Oliver McCall in 1994 and once to Hasim Rahman in 2001. Both fights ended with Lewis flat on his back, but both men would later receive the same treatment in rematches. Lewis, the self-professed ‘pugilist specialist’, went on to compile a record of 44 fights, with 41 wins, 32 of them by knockout. In that time, he became a three-time heavyweight champion and a two-time lineal champion, making him the last undisputed champion until Oleksandr Usyk took that honor by beating Tyson Fury this past May.
In The Ring Magazine’s Best I Faced feature, Lewis identified the best puncher he ever faced, and it wasn’t the likes of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, or even the two men who had stopped him. Instead, he named Shannon Briggs, a choice that might surprise many. “Shannon Briggs. He lacked endurance, but Briggs certainly knew how to put his bodyweight behind a punch. Unfortunately for him, you need the full package when you face me, so power isn’t enough. Fans may expect me to say McCall or Hasim Rahman for punching power, but I basically set myself up against both of them,” Lewis explained.
Shannon Briggs, known for his aggression, boasts an 83% knockout-to-win ratio in the ring. He won the WBO Heavyweight Title against Siarhei Liakhovich in 2006 with a twelfth-round TKO but lost it in his first defense against Sultan Ibragimov.
Although Lewis retired after a bloody and hard-fought battle with late stand-in Vitali Klitschko in 2003, he recently suggested that he might be interested in a fight with YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul, signaling that even in retirement, the allure of the ring still calls to one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
