Heavyweight great Lennox Lewis, speaking on the new Ring Magazine podcast, was asked to name his all-time favourite delivered punch. During a career that was filled with memorable KO’s scored – over Razor Ruddock, Frank Bruno, Mike Tyson, Frans Botha, Michael Grant, Andrew Golota, and others – Lewis has some great punches to choose from. But Lewis made it clear that his revenge wins, his revenge stoppage wins, over Oliver McCall (a weird ending to a fight if ever we saw one, with McCall suffering a meltdown in the ring) and Hasim Rahman rank as his own personal favourites.
And Lewis said the great Nelson Mandela was somewhat instrumental in him being able to ice Rahman in their second fight. It was in April of 2001 in South Africa when “Rock” Rahman shocked the world by knocking Lewis flat in the fifth round of their world title fight. An ill-prepared Lewis was all set to meet Mandela after the fight, after the win he was sure he would pick up. The win never came but Lennox still paid a visit to Mandela’s home. And Lewis says the words of encouragement he received from Mandela made all the difference.
“The guys that beat me, I came back and beat them. That was very important,” Lewis said. “So Hasim Rahman was a great fight for me. I remember when I lost, he was shouting ‘no more Lewis-Tyson, no more Lewis-Tyson!’ And he actually left South Africa, he didn’t even visit Mandela. I went to visit Mandela, and as I went to meet him, he told me, ‘you’ve got to keep that right hand up.’ But he told me, ‘don’t worry, you’ll get him the next time.’ And that was it, I was like, ‘wow.’ The way he made me feel good, he said I was gonna win the next fight. I was like, yo, I’m gonna win the next fight. And then after that next fight, I shouted out his [Mandela’s] name, in memory of how he told me I’d win the next fight. I showed him I’d remembered.”
Great inspiration indeed, from a man who remains a hero to millions all over the world. Why new heavyweight champ Rahman never took the time to meet Mandela we don’t know, maybe he wasn’t afforded the special invite. In any case, the visit Lewis had with Mandela did him the power of good. As we know, Lenox iced Rahman in the fourth round in November of that year. And now Lewis had a new nickname for Rahman, that of ‘Has-been Rahman.’
Lewis holds the rare distinction of having beaten every single man he ever faced in the ring.
