Lennox Lewis - the Canadian who's a British ATG...

Nationality is overrated, imo.
People have different views on this and discussion usually descends into silly arguments with political agendas.
Lots of individuals don't neatly fit into any box, and that's not a bad thing.

But, yeah, I do think Canada and the USA boxing culture deserves "the credit" for "producing" Lennox Lewis.
And, yes, his return to Britain after winning a gold medal for Canada was completely a career move.

It's a reverse of a Mo Farah situation, imo. Born in Somalia, trains in America, but really there's no disputing that if any country "produced" him as an athlete, clearly Britain did. Therefore he's a British runner.

 

Farah can claim to be British by nationality, and in some eyes no doubt he is, legally he is, but I'll never cheer the wee Somalian. The Lion is much more British, born in London and his Jamaican parents arrived here by legal invitation in the 60's - not in some criminal Calais traffickers van.

 

He's British with Jamaican heritage

Just because he trained in Canada doesn't make him Canadian obviously. Or the fact he represented them. He's still born and breed here.

 

If Lewis wasn't any good, if his career had failed like Audley's, I suspect the vast majority of people here would disown him as a "plastic Brit" and "Canadian more than British".

It's only because he was champion that they go along with the idea that his boxing background in North America does not matter, and all that matters is place of birth. The argument is constructed around the fact that he was good, and we have to claim him.

 

Okay, you've made your views on Farah pretty clear there.

But Lennox, you say, "is much more British" ... that's not so clear. How many degrees of Britishness is there ??
Is he British or not ?
Is there a scale of 1 to 10 ?

Maybe he's an 8 ... loses a point for EACH TIME he represented Canada in the Olympics ...... and let's deduct a point for the several other major international competitions ..... so that's a 7 ...
... but his mother's Jamaican, and although he was born here it was just a couple of years before Enoch Powell pointed out that Jamaicans were animals ... and Enoch was right, right ?

Still, Lewis might be a 6 on the imaginary British scale.
Respectable score.

 

theres some weight to this argument, in the same way Andy Murray and Alan Wells were "Scots" until they won big stuff and suddenly they were Brits.

The English like success to be attributed to Britain.

 

Then there was Ken Buchanan, one of the greatest British boxers ever and totally ignored by the Scotland that he loves.

 

I agree.

It's an opinion that I think will gain traction over the next few years.

As for Nationality, he is entitled to call himself British, Canadian or Jamaican. He embraces all three and that's his business.

Nobody on here, or anywhere else for that matter can deny him that. He is the sole arbiter of it.

 

I simply don't care. Although prob good for his career it's not like Canadian heavyweight champions didn't receive any credit or appreciation in their home country so he could have easily gone down that route after winning the gold.

Personally I think it's his attachment to London that sealed the deal. We Londoners have special connection with this city and many of my friends growing up counted themselves as Londoners first and foremost with nationality a secondary concern.

Anyway... It matters little. He might be the H2H GOAT at HW so we're prob better off debating that.

 

I get that some feel an affinity for a fighter based on nationality, but for me that's never been pivotal in terms of my liking of a fighter.

It's clear he chose to be British when turning pro because Canada then had little in terms of a professional boxing scene. From interviews I've seen, he seemed to feel kind of rejected by both countries, in Canada he was British, in Britain he was Canadian, maybe that's why he felt such a connection to his Jamaican roots as he was looking for a national identity that was being denied to him.

 

Wrong, Chisora for example wasn't even born in this country and the majority of British deem him British.

 

But Chisora never represented Canada, and was also better than Audley too, so that doesn't disprove anything I said about British fans and Lennox.
If Chisora had represented other country as a top level amateur he'd probably be deemed less British, and if he was also as sh!t in the pros as Audley was, he'd be completely rejected.

Interestingly, Zimbabwean Chisora talks in some sort of an English or London accent, whereas Londoner Lewis only sounds "British" to the Yanks.

 

yeah, I'd say a 6 is about right for Lenny on the imaginary Brit scale. Farah rates about a 2.

 

Lennox has lived 11 years in Canada and 26 years in England, where he was also born. But apparently the thread started and a few fellow morons know better than Lewis himself what nationality he should belong to.

 

perfect thread for seeing what clowns need to be avoided on here

lol someone who is born and lived the majority of his life in a country is not from that country ... seriously you cannot make this $hit up....

ps Us Scots have never disowned or dis-associated ourselves of Buchanan, were damn proud of him and to have a legit top 10 all time boxer from our shores.