why did Lennox Lewis turn professional under the British banner ?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by Unforgiven, Oct 19, 2011.


  1. Vanboxingfan

    Vanboxingfan Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Well speaking as a Canadian whose watched his career from day one, I certainly would have wished him to stay for a number of reasons, not the least of which I think the last heavyweight champion we had was Tommy Burns and not only was that over 100 years ago, he wasn't a particularly good champion to begin with.
     
  2. frankenfrank

    frankenfrank Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Interesting and good 2 know and d below expresses my thoughts on this :
    Yes .
     
  3. apollack

    apollack Boxing Addict Full Member

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    I think you should give Tommy Burns another look. Check out my book, In the Ring with Tommy Burns. I think you'll come away with far more respect for him.
     
  4. Vanboxingfan

    Vanboxingfan Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    I was partly being fatuous but that said you're probably right. Given his stature he undoubtedly did the best he could with the tools he had.
     
  5. Rumsfeld

    Rumsfeld Moderator Staff Member

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    Emanuel Steward had this to say in an earlier interview I did with him:

    "They use that Brit thing but he came from England when he was twelve years and started boxing when he was in Kitchener, Ontario which is about maybe forty-five minutes south of Toronto and that’s where he learned to box and he represented Canada in the Olympics and only after realizing he wins the Gold Medal in ’88 that, hey it’s more money with the British Pound than the Canadian Dollar. They decided then to try and relocate him and label him out of England. That’s why they never really accepted him because it wasn’t like he won the Olympics for England and he was fighting international matches—he had never did any amateur boxing in England. So he was never really accepted as a Brit completely. I mean, he was there but it wasn’t like (Frank) Bruno and the rest of the guys. So he was a man that was really like caught in between, you know, Canada, Jamaica which is the place that was the ancestry of both of his parents, and then the Brit thing, and then the fact that he did nearly all of his training in the latter part of his career in America and all of his fighting in America and he had an American staff. So he was really a guy that was tied up with like four countries that he was identified with."

    http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=23410&more=1
     
  6. DonBoxer

    DonBoxer The Lion! Full Member

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    The hard sell. I like it.

    Almost as shrewd as Lennox himself.
     
  7. davidjay

    davidjay Well-Known Member Full Member

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    I don't think many people in Britain cared how 'fake' his Britishness was. We'd waited long enough and he was ours.