Deontay Wilder
Deontay Leshun Wilder is an American professional boxer. He has held the WBC heavyweight title since 2015, in doing so became the first American world heavyweight champion in nine years, the longest period of time in boxing history without an American heavyweight champion; as an amateur he won a bronze medal in the heavyweight division at the 2008 Olympics. This led to his nickname of "The Bronze Bomber", which Wilder coined after Joe Louis, known by the nickname of "The Brown Bomber". Wilder is known for his formidable punching power, having finished all but two of his fights inside the distance, his knockout-to-win ratio stands with 19 knockouts in the first round. He is a two-time winner of the Premier Boxing Champions Knockout of the Year award, in 2016 and 2017; as of December 2018, Wilder is ranked as the world's second best active heavyweight by BoxRec, third best by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and The Ring magazine. He is the 14th longest reigning world heavyweight champion of all time, has the 9th longest combined and individual title streaks in modern heavyweight boxing history at eight and seven title bouts, respectively.
Wilder started boxing in October 2005 when he entered Skyy Boxing Gym in Northport and began training under Jay Deas. Wilder was 20 at that time. By 2007 he upset the favorites to win both the National Golden Gloves and the US championships at 201 lb. At the Golden Gloves he defeated touted cadet world champion Isiah Thomas - a southpaw from Detroit - and David Thompson, of Brooklyn, NY in the finals. At the U. S. championship he defeated Quantis Graves and won the final 31–15 over southpaw James Zimmerman of San Jose, Calif. At the Olympic trials he won the Olympic trials in only 21 bouts. Early in 2008 he scored a career-best win by edging out World championships silver medalist and future Olympic champion Rakhim Chakhiyev in Russia, he qualified for the Olympics by beating Deivis Julio 6:5 Jorge Quinones from Ecuador on double countback and Brazilian Rafael Lima 6:5 at the qualifier. Wilder competed at heavyweight in the 2008 Olympics, defeating Abdelaziz Touilbini of Algeria and Mohamed Arjaoui of Morocco before losing to Clemente Russo of Italy in the semi-final to earn a bronze medal.
Wilder had an approximate amateur record of 30-5. Boxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics: Defeated Abdelaziz Toulbini 10:4 Defeated Mohamed Arjaoui 10+:10 Lost to Clemente Russo 1:7 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships: Lost to Krzysztof Zimnoch 20-23 Wilder made his debut at the age of 23 on November 15, 2008, at the Vanderbilt University Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee, he knocked out Ethan Cox in the second round. Cox was knocked down three times in the second round before the fight was stopped. Wilder fought seven times in 2009, winning all the fights in round 1. By October 2012, Wilder racked up an impressive 25-fight win streak, winning all by knockout and all within four rounds; some notable stoppages included former WBA heavyweight title challenger Owen Beck, former WBO light heavyweight title challenger DeAndrey Abron and former WBO heavyweight challenger Damon Reed. Wilder won his first title in professional boxing when he knocked out unbeaten 37 year old Kelvin Price at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, on December 15, 2012.
The fight was slated to take place in August 2012. Wilder fought patiently through the first two rounds and measured Price; the fight ended when a right hand from Wilder caught Price on the jaw and sent him back into the ropes and down. He attempted to get to his feet, but struggled which led referee Ray Corona to wave an end to the bout. Wilder claimed the vacant WBC Continental Americas heavyweight title, which he went on to defend twice. On April 3, 2013, Golden Boy Promotions confirmed that Wilder would fight former European heavyweight champion and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, his UK debut, on April 27. Harrison was coming into this fight looking to rebuild after winning the prizefighter heavyweight tournament two months earlier; the card, being shown live on Showtime in USA, was headlined by Amir Khan's return in the UK against Julio Diaz. Harrison informed the boxing world. Wilder knocked out Harrison in round 1. Wilder found an opening 49 seconds into the opening round and caught Harrison with a big right hand that rocked him back into the ropes.
A follow up barrage from Wilder sent Harrison into the corner. Harrison used the ropes to get to his feet at the count of eight, but referee Terry O'Connor waved an end to the bout; the official time of stoppage was 1:22 of the first round. Four days after the fight, Harrison announced his retirement at the age of 41 years. On May 9, Frank Warren announced a card that would take place at the Wembley Arena in London on June 15, 2013, which would feature Wilder and British boxer Dereck Chisora as the main event. Prior to the announcement, Golden Boy and Wilder's camp stated; the fight fell through after Wilder was arrested in May following a domestic assault in Las Vegas, Nevada. Days Wilder signed Al Haymon as his new advisor. In June, Golden Boy announced Wilder would return to the Stateside and main event a triple header of a Showtime card at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California against former WBO heavyweight champion Siarhei Liakhovich on August 9, 2013 in a 10-round bout. Liakhovich would fight for the first time in nearly a half.
Wilder knocked Liakhovich out i
Victor Ortiz
Victor Ortiz is an American professional boxer and film actor. He held the WBC welterweight title in 2011, was rated as one of the world's top three active welterweights by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring magazine, BoxRec, ESPN, his crowd-pleasing and aggressive fighting style made him the 2008 ESPN Prospect of the Year. Outside of boxing, Ortiz has had roles in the films The Expendables 3 and Southpaw, made a cameo appearance in the TV series Ray Donovan. Ortiz was born and raised in Garden City, is the third of four children of Mexican parents; when he was seven years old, Ortiz's mother abandoned her family. Shortly thereafter, Ortiz began boxing at the insistence of his father, an alcoholic who beat his children following his wife's departure. In an interview, Victor said, "I hated that lady. I drew her a card once with a little rose on it and I gave it to her, she just threw it down and said'What do I want that shit for?' That's. My Dad started screwing up, drinking."Ortiz' father abandoned the family five years after their mother left, which forced Ortiz and his five siblings into the Kansas foster care system.
Ortiz was twelve years old at the time. His older sister moved to Denver, Colorado. Ortiz and his younger brother moved in with her. While training at a Salvation Army Red Shield Community Center, he was noticed by former heavyweight boxing contender Ron Lyle, who had become a supervisor at the center. In 2003, Lyle guided Ortiz to a Junior Olympics tournament, where, at the age of sixteen, he won the 132-pound weight division with a perfect 5-0 record; this time, he was noticed by another former boxer, Roberto Garcia, who had held the IBF Super Featherweight Championship during the 1990s and whose father was the trainer of Fernando Vargas. One of Ortiz's notable early amateur fights was against Amir Khan, against whom he lost in a second-round stoppage. Though Garcia was based in Oxnard, California, he offered to train Ortiz, who accepted and moved from Colorado to California, where he began training at La Colonia Youth Boxing Club. Garcia became Ortiz's legal guardian, Ortiz graduated from Pacifica High School.
At age 16, Ortiz won the 2003 Police Athletic League national championships in Toledo at seventeen, Ortiz reached the United States Olympic boxing trials in the 132-pound weight class, where he was eliminated in the champion's bracket semifinals. Ortiz turned professional in 2004 while still only seventeen years of age; when he reached the age of eighteen in 2005 and became a legal adult, he gained custody of his younger brother, now a college student. Ortiz continues to reside in California. Victor Ortiz boxed at The Garden City Boxing club, where he was trained by five trainers who all worked together to get him ahead in his boxing career, his original trainers included Ignacio "Buck" Avilia, Manuel Rios, Antonio Orozco Sr. Juan M. Aldana Jr. and Alfred Ritz. He won the Ringside National Title in 2001 and 2002 and the National Jr. Olympics in 2002. After turning professional, Ortiz won his first seven fights against weak opposition. However, on June 3, 2005, Ortiz was controversially disqualified in the first round of a bout against unknown Corey Alarcon in Oxnard.
After having knocked Alarcon down once in the round, Ortiz knocked him down again shortly after referee David Denkin ordered the fighters to separate from a clinch. Alarcon stayed down for the count and was awarded the fight based on Denkin's judgment that Ortiz's knockout punch had been an illegal punch during a break. Following the fight with Alarcon, Ortiz continued to win and had built a record of 18–1–1 as of August 30, 2007, when he fought his first well-known opponent, Emmanuel Clottey of Ghana, in only his second bout scheduled for ten rounds. Ortiz defeated Clottey by technical knockout in the final round. Three months Ortiz followed up on his victory with another knockout win, this time in the first round of a ten-round bout against former junior welterweight titlist Carlos Maussa of Colombia. On September 13, 2008, Ortiz fought his first bout scheduled for twelve rounds, against Roberto David Arrieta of Argentina. Ortiz knocked Arrieta down in the second and fifth rounds and won by technical knockout in the fifth round.
At the end of 2008, ESPN named Ortiz the boxing prospect of the year. On March 7, 2009, Ortiz fought his first bout televised on HBO Boxing After Dark against Mike Arnaoutis of Greece, who had fought top-ten light welterweight contenders such as Juan Urango, Ricardo Torres and Kendall Holt without having been knocked out. However, Ortiz scored a technical knockout of Arnaoutis in the second round. On June 27, 2009, Ortiz faced Marcos Rene Maidana of Argentina in Los Angeles for the Interim WBA Light Welterweight title. Ortiz entered the fight with an eight-fight knockout streak. Maidana, a dangerous puncher, had won 24 of his 25 previous bouts by knockout; the only previous blemish on his record at that point was a close split decision loss to WBA Champion Andriy Kotelnik. Both Ortiz and Maidana were knocked down in the first round. Ortiz knocked Maidana to the canvas twice in the second round. Ortiz was knocked down in the 6th round; the fight was stopped. Many in the boxing media, including HBO, chastised Ortiz for not wanting to continue in the fight, an issue which surfaced again in his career after retiring in his fight against Josesito Lopez.
Before the Maidana fight, Ortiz fired Garcia's father. Ortiz expressed ho
Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya is an American former professional boxer who, in 2002 became a boxing promoter and, in 2018, a mixed martial arts promoter. As a boxer, he competed from 1992 to 2008, winning multiple world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championship in three weight classes, he is ranked as the 11th best boxer of pound for pound, by BoxRec. De La Hoya was nicknamed "The Golden Boy of boxing" by the media when he represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics where, shortly after having graduated from James A. Garfield High School, he won a gold medal in the lightweight division, "set a sport back on its feet."De La Hoya was named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year in 1995, was its top-rated fighter in the world, pound for pound, in 1997 and 1998. He generated $700 million in pay-per-view income, making De La Hoya the top pay-per-view earner before being surpassed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. He announced his retirement following a professional career spanning 16 years.
In 2002, De La Hoya founded a combat sport promotional firm. He is the first American of Mexican descent to own a national boxing promotional firm, one of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilities while still active. In 2018, he began promoting MMA matches as well, beginning with a 2018 trilogy bout between long-time rivals Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, with the inaugural Golden Boy MMA event scheduled for November 24, 2018. De La Hoya has held dual American and Mexican citizenship since 2002, when the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles granted him Mexican citizenship, reflecting his heritage, his parents emigrated from Mexico to the US prior to his birth. He was born in California into a boxing family, his brother, Joel Jr. was a boxer. De La Hoya won the national Junior Olympics 119-pound title at age 15, following up with the 125-pound title the following year. In 1989, he became the Golden Gloves champion, his amateur career included 234 wins — 163 by knockout, six losses.
Of those six losses, two were to Shane Mosley. In 1989, he won the National Golden Gloves title in the bantamweight division. In 1990, at age 17, he won the U. S. National Championship at featherweight and was the youngest U. S. boxer at that year's Goodwill Games, winning a gold medal. The joy of victory was tempered by the news that his mother, Cecilia Gonzales De La Hoya, was terminally ill with breast cancer, she died that October, expressing the hope that her son would one day become an Olympic gold medalist. As the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona approached, De La Hoya turned his mother's dream into a strong focus for his training. After an upset victory in the first round over the Mexican boxer Julio Gonzalez. Rudolph had been the only fighter to defeat him in the last several years; the U. S. media publicized his quest to fulfill his mother's dying wish and nicknamed him, "The Golden Boy", which has remained with him throughout his career. In 2000, the Cecilia Gonzalez De La Hoya Cancer Center was formally opened by De La Hoya and his siblings at the White Memorial Medical Center, with a $350,000 donation from De La Hoya, in honor of their mother.
1989 Gold Medalist National Golden Gloves 1990 Gold Medalist US National Championships 1990 Gold Medalist Goodwill Games 1991 Gold Medalist US National Championships 1991 Gold Medalist US Olympic Festival1992 Gold Medalist Olympic Games Amateur record: 223–5 In 2008, De La Hoya was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. On November 23, 1992, De La Hoya made his professional debut by scoring a first-round TKO victory. In his twelfth professional fight, he won his first world title at age 20, stopping Jimmy Bredahl in the tenth round to win the WBO super featherweight title, he defended the title once. On July 29, 1994, he knocked out Jorge Páez in the second round to win the vacant WBO Lightweight title. In his first title defense, he defeated John-John Molina, who had vacated his IBF Super Featherweight title, by unanimous decision. On May 6, 1995, De La Hoya defeated IBF lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas in a unification bout. De La Hoya knocked Ruelas down twice; the IBF ordered De La Hoya to defend against Miguel Julio.
He relinquished the IBF title and defended the WBO title against undefeated Genaro Hernández, who relinquished the WBA super-featherweight title to fight De La Hoya. Hernandez quit after six rounds because of a broken nose. In his sixth and final defense of the WBO lightweight title, he knocked out Jesse James Leija in two rounds at New York's Madison Square Garden. On June 7, 1996, Oscar De La Hoya fought Mexican legend Julio César Chávez for the lineal and WBC light welterweight championship. De la Hoya, with a record of 21–0 with 19 K. Os, defeated Chavez by a fourth-round TKO; the fight was stopped due to a several bad cuts suffered by Chavez above his left eye. Until their rematch in 1998, Chávez stated that De La Hoya did not defeat him since the fight was stopped. De La Hoya defended his titles with a twelve-round unanimous decision against undefeated former WBC Lightweight Champion and number one light welterweight contender Miguel Ángel González. On April 12, 1997, De La Hoya fought Pernell Whitaker.
The fight proved to be a
Tyson Fury
Tyson Luke Fury is a British professional boxer. In 2015 he won the unified WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight titles by defeating long-reigning world champion Wladimir Klitschko; as of December 2018, Fury is ranked as the world's second best active heavyweight by The Ring and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, third by BoxRec. The victory against Klitschko earned Fury Fighter of the Year and Upset of the Year awards by The Ring. In August 2016, Fury was ranked as pound for pound, by BoxRec, he was stripped of the IBF title in 2015 for failing to grant a fight against the IBF's mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov, having signed a rematch clause with Klitschko. In 2016, Fury vacated the WBA, WBO, IBO and lineal titles after suffering from mental health issues leading to alcoholism and recreational drug use; the Ring stripped him of his last remaining title in early 2018. In 2018, following more than two years of inactivity, Fury returned to the ring to challenge for the WBC heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder.
The fight was scored a draw, with some outlets calling the result controversial.. Fury's performance against Wilder earned him Comeback of the Year and Round of the Year awards by The Ring, as well as nominations for three further awards. World Boxing News named him Fighter of the Year in a readers' poll; as an amateur, Fury represented both England and Ireland after tracing his family lineage to relatives in Belfast and Galway. He won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008 before turning professional that year. At regional heavyweight level he went on to hold the British and English titles twice each, as well as the European and Irish titles. Tyson Luke Fury was born and raised in Wythenshawe, England. At birth, he weighed only 1lb after being born three months premature, his father John named him Tyson after the then-world undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.. He began boxing by visiting the Egan Gym in Manchester as a young boy, his family is of Irish Traveller heritage. His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, County Galway, the birthplace of his father, John Fury.
The Furys of Galway are of Gaelic origin, deriving their present name from Ó Fiodhabhra. His maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary and his mother was born in Belfast; the Fury family has a long history in boxing. Fury's younger brother Tommy Fury made his professional debut on 22 December 2018 with trainer and two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton, he is the older cousin of professional heavyweight Hughie Fury. He is a distant relative of "self-styled King of the Gypsies" Bartley Gorman, hence Fury's own self-styled nickname,'Gypsy King', he has styled himself as'The Furious One' and'2 Fast' Fury. He is the distant cousin of professional Nathan Gorman, trained by two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton alongside his younger brother Tommy Fury. Despite identifying with his Irish heritage, Fury has had problems in gaining dual citizenship because, in the 1960s, his father's birth in County Galway was not recorded civilly, as Irish Travellers at the time only recorded births through baptism with the Church, rather than with the state.
Tyson fury is promoted by Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions alongside Bob Arum's Top Rank in the United States. The promotional deal was announced on the 12th April 2018 ahead of his comeback after 3 years out of the ring, he is signed to management team MTK Global. Tysons trainer is Ben Davison who trains Isaac Lowe and middleweight world champion and super middleweight Billy Joe Saunders. Fury first trained with Steve Egan at the Egan Gym in Manchester, he trained with the trainer of Carl Froch and heavyweight Anthony Joshua, Robert McCracken in one of his early fights the late Emmanuel Steward who trained Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed and Wladimir Klitschko. His uncle and trainer Peter Fury was with him in his early career and up until his win over Wladimir Klitschko; as an amateur, Fury represented both England. Fury represented Ireland three times at international level, he was based at of the Holy Family Boxing Club in Belfast, Northern Ireland, switched to the Smithboro Club in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.
In a double international match against an experienced Polish team in 2007, the Irish team lost 12–6 overall. In another Irish match against the US, Fury won his bout by knock-out, he was forced to withdraw from the Irish national championships after officials from the Holy Trinity Boxing Club in West Belfast, the club of the Irish amateur heavyweight champion, submitted a protest regarding his eligibility. He won a bronze medal at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in 2006. In England, whilst representing Jimmy Egan's Boxing Academy, he participated in the senior national championships in 2006 but was beaten by David Price 22–8. In May 2007, he won the EU Junior Championship representing England, lost to Maxim Babanin in the final of the European Junior Championships; as a junior, he was ranked number three in the World behind the Russians Maxim Babanin and Andrey Volkov, but lost out to David Price for a place representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Beijing, where each country is restricted to one boxer per weight division.
Fury unsuccessfully tried to qualify for
Larry Holmes
Larry Holmes is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002. He grew up in Easton, which gave birth to his boxing nickname of "The Easton Assassin". Holmes, whose left jab is rated among the best in boxing history, held the WBC heavyweight title from 1978 to 1983, The Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight titles from 1980 to 1985, the inaugural IBF heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, he made 20 successful title defenses, placing him third all time, behind only Joe Louis at 25 and Wladimir Klitschko at 22. He holds the record for the longest individual heavyweight title streak in the modern boxing history. Holmes is one of only five boxers—along with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick—to defeat Muhammad Ali. Holmes won his first 48 professional bouts, including victories over Norton, Earnie Shavers, Mike Weaver, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams and Marvis Frazier, falling one short of matching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49–0 when he lost to Michael Spinks in 1985.
Holmes made repeated comebacks. He was unsuccessful in three further attempts to regain the heavyweight title, the last in 1995. Holmes fought for the final time in 2002, against the 334lb Eric "Butterbean" Esch, ended his career with a record of 69 wins and 6 losses, he is ranked as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and has been inducted into both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame. Holmes was the fourth of twelve children born to Flossie Holmes. After the family moved to Easton in 1954, Holmes' father went to Connecticut, he worked as a gardener there until his death in 1970. He visited his family every three weeks. "He didn't forsake us", said Flossie Holmes. "He just didn't have anything to give." The family survived on welfare. To help support his family, Holmes dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade and went to work at a car wash for $1 an hour, he drove a dump truck and worked in a quarry. When Holmes was nineteen, he started boxing.
In his twenty-second bout, he boxed Duane Bobick in the 1972 Olympic Trials. Holmes was dropped in the first round with a right to the head, he danced out of range, landing several stiff jabs in the process. Bobick could not corner him; the referee warned Holmes twice in the second for holding. In the third, Bobick started to corner Holmes, who continued to hold. Holmes was disqualified for excessive holding. After compiling an amateur record of 19–3, Holmes turned professional on March 21, 1973, winning a four-round decision against Rodell Dupree. Early in his career he worked as a sparring partner for Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Earnie Shavers, Jimmy Young, he learned a lot. "I was young, I didn't know much. But I was holding my own sparring those guys", Holmes said. "I thought, ` hey, these guys are the champs. If I can hold my own now, what about later?'" Holmes first gained credibility as a contender when he upset the hard-punching Earnie Shavers in March 1978. Holmes won by a lopsided twelve-round unanimous decision, winning every round on two scorecards and all but one on the third.
Holmes's victory over Shavers set up a title shot between Holmes and WBC Heavyweight Champion Ken Norton in Las Vegas on June 9, 1978. The fight between Holmes and Norton was a competitive fight. After fourteen rounds, each of the three judges scored the fight dead at seven rounds each. Holmes rallied late in the fifteenth to win the round on two scorecards and take the title by a split decision. In his first two title defenses, Holmes knocked out Alfredo Evangelista and Ossie Ocasio, his third title defense was a tough one. On June 22, 1979, Holmes faced future WBA Heavyweight Champion Mike Weaver, regarded going into the fight sporting an uninspiring 19–8 record. After ten tough rounds, Holmes dropped Weaver with a right uppercut late in round eleven. In the twelfth, Holmes went on the attack, backing Weaver into the ropes and pounding him with powerful rights until the referee stepped in and stopped it. "This man knocked the devil out of me," Holmes said. "This man might not have had credit before tonight, but you'll give it to him now."Three months on September 28, 1979, Holmes had a rematch with Shavers, who got a title shot by knocking out Ken Norton in one round.
Holmes dominated the first six rounds, but in the seventh, Shavers sent Holmes down with a devastating overhand right. Holmes got up, survived the round, went on to stop Shavers in the eleventh, his next three defenses were knockouts of Lorenzo Zanon, Leroy Jones, Scott LeDoux. On October 2, 1980, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Holmes defended his title against Muhammad Ali, coming out of retirement in an attempt to become the first four-time World Heavyweight Champion. Holmes dominated Ali from start winning every round on every scorecard. At the end of the tenth round, Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee, stopped the fight, it was Ali's only loss without "going the distance" for a judges' decision. After the win, Holmes received recognition as World Heavyweight Champion by The Ring magazine. Ali blamed his poor performance on thyroid medication which he had been taking, claiming that it helped him lose weight, but it left him drained for the fight. Holmes seemed to show signs of regret, or at least sadness, in punishing Ali so much during the fight.
He appeared in a post-fight interview with tears
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Claudius Lewis, is a former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, remains the last heavyweight to hold the undisputed title. Holding dual British and Canadian citizenship, Lewis represented Canada as an amateur at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division after defeating Riddick Bowe in the final. In his first three years as a professional, Lewis won several regional heavyweight championships, including the European and Commonwealth titles. After winning his first 21 fights, he defeated Donovan Ruddock in 1992 to take over the number one position in the WBC rankings, he was declared WBC heavyweight champion that year after Riddick Bowe gave up the title to avoid defending it against Lewis. He defended the title three times before an upset knockout loss to Oliver McCall in 1994. Lewis avenged the loss in a 1997 rematch to win back the vacant WBC title. Lewis won the lineal title by defeating Shannon Briggs in 1998.
Two fights against Evander Holyfield in 1999 saw Lewis become undisputed heavyweight champion by unifying his WBC title with Holyfield's WBA and IBF titles, as well as the vacant IBO title. In 2000, the WBA stripped Lewis of their title when he opted to face Michael Grant instead of mandatory challenger John Ruiz. Lewis was knocked out by Hasim Rahman in a 2001 upset, but this defeat was avenged in the year. In 2002, Lewis defeated Mike Tyson in one of the most anticipated fights in boxing history. Prior to the event, Lewis was awarded the Ring magazine heavyweight title, discontinued in the late 1980s. In what would be his final fight, in 2003, Lewis defeated Vitali Klitschko in a bloody encounter, he vacated his remaining titles and retired from boxing in 2004. Lewis referred to himself as "the pugilist specialist", he was 6 ft 5 in tall, with an 84 in reach, weighed about 245 lb during his boxing prime. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, one of the greatest British fighters of all time.
He has the fourth longest combined title streak in post-war heavyweight history at 15 title bouts. In 1999 he was named Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America, BBC Sports Personality of the Year. BoxRec ranks Lewis as the 25th best heavyweight boxer of all time. Lewis was born on 2 September 1965, in England, to parents born in Jamaica. At birth he weighed 4.8 kg, was given the name Lennox by the doctor, who said he "looked like a Lennox." Lewis moved to Kitchener, Canada in 1977 at the age of 12. He attended Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute for high school, where he excelled in Canadian football and basketball. In the 1982–83 school year, he helped the school's AAA basketball team win the Ontario provincial championship. Lewis decided that his favourite sport was boxing, he became a dominant amateur boxer and won the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in 1983. At the age of 18, Lewis represented Canada in the super-heavyweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
He advanced to the quarter-finals, where he lost by decision to Tyrell Biggs of the US, who went on to win the gold medal. Lewis chose not to turn professional after the Olympics, instead fought four more years as an amateur, hoping for a second chance to win a gold medal. At the 1986 World Championships, he lost in the preliminary round to Petar Stoymenov of Bulgaria; that year, Lewis won gold at the Commonwealth Games. After winning several more amateur titles in the following years, he traveled to Seoul, South Korea, for the 1988 Summer Olympics and achieved his goal. In the gold medal final, Lewis defeated. Lewis would go on to become the first super-heavyweight gold medallist to become world heavyweight champion as a professional. In the Games' closing ceremony, Lewis was Canada's flag bearer. Lewis finished his amateur career with a record of 7 losses, his amateur boxing coaches were Arnie Boehm and the late Adrian Teodorescu, who guided Lewis to the Olympic title in 1988. Notable wins 1983 Junior World Championships – gold medal, super-heavyweight Represented Canada as a super-heavyweight at the 1984 Summer Olympics: Defeated Muhammad Youssef.
He claimed he had always considered himself British, but many British fans regarded him as "a Canadian at heart and a Briton for convenience." In 2015 Lewis explained "When I turned pro, I had to go to the United Kingdom in order to pursue my career. The infrastructure to develop boxers wasn't in Canada then."Lewis signed with boxing promoter Frank Maloney and his early professional career was filled with knockouts of journeymen, as well as fighters such as Osvaldo Ocasio. After he signed with Am
Amateur boxing
Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practised at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three minutes in men, four rounds of two minutes in women, each with a one-minute interval between rounds. Men's senior bouts changed in format from four two-minute rounds to three three-minute rounds on January 1, 2009; this type of competition prizes point-scoring blows, based on number of clean punches landed, rather than physical power. This short format allows tournaments to feature several bouts over several days, unlike professional boxing, where fighters rest several months between bouts. A referee monitors the fight to ensure. Referees ensure that the boxers do not use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from punching. Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is injured, or if one boxer is dominating the other. Bouts which end this way may be noted as "RSC", RSCI, RSCH, or KO.
Amateur boxing emerged as a sport during the mid-to-late 19th century as a result of the moral controversies surrounding professional prize-fighting. Lampooned as an effort by upper and middle-class gentlemen to co-opt a traditionally working class sport, the safer, "scientific" style of boxing found favor in schools, universities and in the armed forces, although the champions still came from among the urban poor; the Queensberry Amateur Championships continued from 1867 to 1885, so, unlike their professional counterparts, amateur boxers did not deviate from using gloves once the Queensberry Rules had been published. In England, the Amateur Boxing Association was formed in 1880, it held its first championships the following year. Four weight classes were contested: Featherweight, Lightweight and Heavyweight. By 1902, American boxers were contesting the titles in the A. B. A. Championships, therefore, took on an international complexion. By 1924, the A. B. A. had 105 clubs in affiliation. Boxing first appeared at the Olympic Games in 1904 and, apart from the Games of 1912, has always been part of them.
From 1904 to 2016, the United States and Cuba won the most gold medals. S. and 21 for Cuba. Internationally, amateur boxing spread throughout the first half of the 20th century, but when the first international body, the Fédération Internationale de Boxe Olympique was formed in Paris in 1920, there were only five member nations. In 1946, when the International Amateur Boxing Association was formed in London, twenty-four nations from five continents were represented, the A. I. B. A. has continued to be the official world federation of amateur boxing since. The first World Amateur Boxing Championships were staged in 1974. Computer scoring was introduced to the Olympics in 1992; each of the five judges had a keypad with a blue button. The judges pressed a button for which corner they felt landed a scoring blow. Three out of the five judges had to press the button for the same boxer within a one-second window in order for the point to score. A legal scoring blow was that, landed cleanly with the knuckle surface of the glove, within the scoring area from the middle of the head, down the sides and between the hips through the belly button.
The AIBA introduced a new scoring system in January 2011. Each judge gives an individual score for each boxer; the score given to each boxer would be taken from 3 out of 5 judges either by similar score or trimmed mean. Scores are instead given at the end of each round. In March 13, 2013, the computer scoring system was abandoned, with amateur boxing instead using the ten point must system, similar to professional boxing. In March 2016, protective headgear, in use since 1982 was removed from men's competition due to higher concussion rates occurring in fights using headgear than in fights without the headgear. Women's competition was unaffected, as the AIBA announced that there wasn't enough data on its effects on women; this ruling was in place at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In June 2016, professional boxers were admitted in the Olympic Games and other tournaments sanctioned by the AIBA; this was done in part to level the playing field and give all of the athletes the same opportunities government-sponsored boxers from socialist countries and post-Soviet republics have.
However, professional organizations opposed that decision. There are several different amateur sanctioning bodies in the United States, including the Golden Gloves Association of America and USA Boxing; the Golden Gloves is an amateur boxing tournament, fought at both the national level and the regional level. Although the Golden Gloves refers to the National Golden Gloves, it can refer to the Intercity Golden Gloves, the Chicago Golden Gloves, the New York Golden Gloves, other regional Golden Gloves tournaments; the winners of the regional tournaments fight in a national competition annually. USA Boxing sanctions a national tournament to determine who will compete o
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