Lennox Lewis
September 26th, 2008
On June 8, 2002, Lewis defended his title against Mike Tyson. A fight many had hoped would be a classic turned out to be one-sided as Lennox used his jab and superior reach to score a dominant knockout victory over "Iron Mike." By the eighth round, Tyson was tired and sluggish, his face swollen and his eyes cut. As he came out for the round, his corner begged him to give them one more round of solid effort seemingly in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to get him to KO Lewis. However, it was Tyson who was knocked out by a perfectly timed right hand that sent him to the canvas for the full count.
This fight was the highest-grossing event in pay-per-view history, generating $106.9 million from 1.95 million buys in the USA, with an outstanding 4.85 PPV buyrate. Later it was surpassed by De La Hoya-Mayweather in 2007.
Ticket sales were slow because they were priced as high as $2,400, but a crowd of 15,327 turned up to see the biggest sporting event ever in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. Tyson also had to pay Lewis $335,000 out of his purse for biting him at the news conference to announce the fight, which was originally scheduled for April 6 2002 in Las Vegas. Las Vegas, however, rejected the fight and several other states refused Tyson a license before Memphis finally bid $12 million to land it.
In May 2003, Lewis sued boxing promoter Don King for $385 million, claiming that King used threats to have Tyson pull out of a rematch scheduled with Lewis for a month later. Lewis then scheduled a fight with Kirk Johnson for the championship belt of the less-recognized IBO, but dropped it when Johnson suffered an injury in training. Instead, Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, the WBC's No. 1 contender and former WBO titlist. Lewis had planned to fight him in December, but since Klitschko had been on the undercard of the Johnson fight anyway, they agreed to square off on June 21. Lewis entered the ring at a career high 256 1/2 pounds. Lewis was dominated for much of the fight, being wobbled in round two. However, Lewis gave a better showing in the fifth and sixth rounds, and appeared to have Klitschko on the verge of going down after two uppercuts in the sixth round. Before the start of round seven, with Klitschko ahead on all three ringside scorecards, the doctor advised that the fight should be stopped due to a severe cut above Klitschko's left eye.
Interviewed about the fight by HBO, the doctor explained his decision: "When he raised his head up, his upper eyelid covered his field of vision," doctor Paul Wallace said. "At that point I had no other option but to stop the fight. If he had to move his head to see me, there was no way he could defend his way against a punch.
Because Klitschko had fought so well against Lewis, boxing fans soon began calling for a rematch. The WBC agreed, and kept the Ukrainian as its No. 1 contender. Lewis decided to pursue other interests, including sports management and music promotion. Lewis said he would not return to the ring. At his retirement, Lewis' record was 41 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, with 32 wins by knockout. Though it was rumoured in an article published by the Daily Mail on the 24 February that he would return to fight Klitschko once again, Lewis quickly shot down those rumours on his personal website. He announced once again, on March 4, 2007 (after the Edison Miranda vs. Allen Green fight), that he was not coming out of retirement.
Along with Gene Tunney and Rocky Marciano he is one of three world heavyweight champions to have retired with no unavenged defeats.
Lewis is now a boxing commentator on HBO. He also appeared recently in the film Johnny Was as the DJ of a pirate radio station, alongside actors such as Vinnie Jones and Eriq La Salle.
In 2002, Lewis was reportedly offered £5m by WWE chairman Vince McMahon to take up wrestling with WWE. His camp held discussions over a possible match with former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar in February 2003, at the No Mercy pay-per-view event.
Lennox played at the World Series of Poker in both 2006 and 2007, and was knocked out without winning any money.
Lewis appeared on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. He came in fourth place (out of 14).
In 2008, Lewis was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Upon retiring from boxing, Lewis moved to Miami Beach with his wife, Violet Chang, a former Miss Jamaica runner-up. The couple have a daughter named Ling, and a son, Landon. Lewis told AventuraUSA.com in 2007 that he is contemplating opening an "international boxing academy" and perhaps one day starting a record label, but contrary to rumours, he has yet to embark on either endeavour.
Lewis is an avid chess player, seeing chess as a good preparation method for a boxing match. Truly, an outstanding boxer and a very good proffesional.
Muhammad Ali
July 3rd, 2008
He was born on the 17th of January, 1942 and throughout his career gained 3 World Heavyweight Championships.
To date, he remains the only man to have won the linear heavyweight championship three times (the linear title is recognised by tracing an - almost - unbroken lineage of titleholders going back over 100 years, with nearly every champion defeating the previous titleholder in the ring). Ali was also the winner of an Olympic Light-heavyweight gold medal. In 1999, Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and the BBC.
Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay. Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converted to Sunni Islam in 1975 and then Sufism.
Ali was best known for his fighting style which he described as "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee". Throughout his career Ali made a name for himself with great handspeed, as well as swift feet and taunting tactics. While Ali was renowned for his fast, sharp out-fighting style, he also had a great chin, and displayed great courage and an ability to take a punch through out his illustrious career. Ali also exclusively attacked the head of an opponent, usually ignoring a body attack.
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer, Joe E. Martin, who encountered the then twelve-year-old Cassius Clay fuming over the fact that his bicycle had been stolen. However, without Martin knowing, he also began training with Fred Stoner at another gym. In this way, he could continue making $4 a week on Tomorrow's Champions, a TV show that Martin hosted, while benefiting from the coaching of the more-experienced Stoner, who continued working with Ali throughout his amateur career.
Ali's last amateur loss was to Kent Green of Chicago, who could say he was the last person to defeat the champion until Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 1971 as a pro. Under Stoner's guidance, Muhammad Ali went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Ali's record was 100 wins, with five losses, when he ended his amateur career.
Ali states (in his 1975 autobiography) that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a 'whites-only' restaurant, and fighting with a white gang. Whether this is true is still debated, although he was given a replacement medal during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
After winning the championship from Liston in 1964, Clay revealed that he was a member of the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) and the Nation gave Clay the name Cassius X, discarding his surname as a symbol of his ancestors' enslavement, as had been done by other Nation members. On Friday, March 6, 1964, Malcolm X took Clay on a guided tour of the United Nations building (for a second time). Malcolm X announced that Clay would be granted his "X." That same night, Elijah Muhammad recorded a statement over the phone to be played over the radio that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (fourth rightly guided caliph). Only a few journalists (most notably Howard Cosell) accepted it at that time. Venerable boxing announcer Don Dunphy addressed the champion by his adopted name, as did British reporters. The adoption of this name symbolized his new identity as a member of the Nation of Islam.
Clay had discovered the Nation during a Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, even writing a high school report on the organization. His school teachers at Louisville Central High were alarmed that a youngster with that much potential expressed interest in the nationalist faith. They dissuaded him from becoming involved. Many sportswriters of the early 1960s reported that it was Ali's brother, Rudy Clay, who converted to Islam first (estimating the date as 1962). Others wrote that Clay had been seen at Muslim rallies two years before he fought Liston. Ali's own version is that he did buy a copy of the "Muhammad Speaks" newspaper from a Muslim in Chicago, and a 45 rpm record by Minister Louis X (later Farrakhan) called "A White Man's Heaven is a Black Man's Hell."
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod for controversy, turning the outspoken but popular champion into one of that era's most recognizable and controversial figures. Appearing at rallies with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and declaring his allegiance to him at a time when mainstream America viewed them with suspicion — if not outright hostility — made Ali a target of outrage, as well as suspicion. Ali seemed at times to provoke such reactions, with viewpoints that wavered from support for civil rights to outright support of separatism. For example, Ali once stated, in relation to integration: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." And in relation to inter-racial marriage: "No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters." Indeed, Ali's religious beliefs at the time included the notion that the white man was "the devil" and that white people were not "righteous." Ali claimed that white people hated black people.
Ali converted from the Nation of Islam sect to mainstream Sunni Islam in 1975. In a 2004 autobiography, written with daughter Hana Yasmeen Ali, Muhammad Ali attributes his conversion to the shift toward Sunni Islam made by W.D. Muhammad after he gained control of the Nation of Islam upon the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975.
In 1964, Ali failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub par. However, in early 1966, the tests were revised and Ali was reclassified as 1A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army. This was especially important because the United States was engaged in the Vietnam War. When notified of this status, he declared that he would refuse to serve in the United States Army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated that "War is against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers." Ali also famously said in 1966: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me nigger."
From his rematch with Liston in May 1965, to his final defense against Zora Folley in March 1967, he successfully defended his title nine times, an active schedule for that period. Ali was scheduled to fight WBA champion Ernie Terrell in a unification bout in Toronto on March 29, but Terrell backed out and Ali won a 15-round decision against substitute opponent George Chuvalo. He then went to England and defeated Henry Cooper by stoppage on cuts and Brian London. Ali's next defense was against German southpaw Karl Mildenberger, the first German to fight for the title since Max Schmeling. In one of the tougher fights of his life, Ali stopped his opponent in round 12.
Ali returned to the United States in November 1966 to fight Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams in the HoustonAstrodome. A year and a half before the fight, Williams had been shot in the stomach at point-blank range by a Texas policeman. As a result, Williams went into the fight missing one kidney and 10 feet of his small intestine, and with a shriveled left leg from nerve damage from the bullet. Ali beat Williams in three rounds.
On February 6, 1967, Ali returned to a Houston boxing ring to fight Terrell in what became one of the uglier fights in boxing. Terrell had angered Ali by calling him Clay, and the champion vowed to punish him for this insult. During the fight, Ali kept shouting at his opponent, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... What's my name?" Terrell suffered 15 rounds of brutal punishment, losing 13 rounds on two judges' scorecards, but Ali did not knock him out. Analysts, including several who spoke to ESPN on the sports channel's "Ali Rap" special, speculated that the fight continued only because Ali wanted to thoroughly punish and humiliate Terrell. After the fight, Tex Maule wrote, "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty."
Ali's last fight in his first reign as world heavyweight champion was on March 22, 1967 against the 35-year old Zora Folley who was seen as something of a journeymen fighter coming into this bout. Folley was knocked out in the 7th round.
Appearing for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces on April 28, 1967 in Houston, he refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. An officer warned him he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called.
As a result, on that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit.
At the trial two months later, the jury, after only 21 minutes of deliberation, found Ali guilty. The judge imposed the maximum sentence. After a court of appeals upheld the conviction, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. During this time Ali was essentially banned from fighting. His trainer Angelo Dundee asserts that Ali would have been at his best sometime during these 3 1/2 years. During this time, people turned against the war, and support for Ali grew. Ali financially supported himself by opening a restaurant chain called "Champburger" and visiting many college universities to give speeches across the country. Joe Frazier, who had become champion during Ali's absence from the ring, often gave financial assistance to Ali during this time.
Muhammad Ali defeated almost every top heavyweight in his era, which has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. Ali was named "Fighter of the Year" by Ring Magazine more times than any other fighter, and was involved in more Ring Magazine "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He is an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and holds wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees. He is also one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. He is regarded as one of the best pound for pound boxers in history. He was a masterful self-promoter, and his psychological tactics before, during, and after fights became legendary. It was his athleticism and boxing skill, however, that enabled him to scale the heights and sustain his position for so many years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools considered renaming Central High School in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. At any rate, in time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Ali lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his 4th wife, Yolanda 'Lonnie' Ali. They own a house in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is for sale. On January 9, 2007, they purchased a house in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000.
Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 1964. Roi's objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.
On August 17, 1967, Ali (aged 25) married 17-year old Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she converted to Islam and changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum (b. 1968), Jamillah and Liban (b. 1970), and Muhammad Ali Jr. (b. 1972).
However, Ali began an affair with a young woman named Veronica Porsche in 1975. By the summer of 1977, Ali's second marriage was over and he had married Veronica. At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December of 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced.
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Ali. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. Their mothers were close friends, although Lonnie has publicly denied the popular notion that Muhammad Ali was once her babysitter. They have one adopted son, Asaad.
Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships.
Mike Tyson
June 12th, 2008
Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 in the first round. He unified the belts in the splintered heavyweight division in the late 1980s. Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion for over two years, before losing to 42-to-1 underdog Buster Douglas in 1990.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a woman, for which he served three years in prison. After being released from prison in 1995, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. He regained a portion of the heavyweight title, before losing it to Evander Holyfield in 1996 by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended in disqualification for Tyson after he bit off a portion of Holyfield's ear. He fought for a championship again at 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis in 2002. Tyson retired from competitive boxing in 2005 after two consecutive knockout losses to journeymen Danny Williams and Kevin McBride.
Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite receiving over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career.
Tyson was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. His mother, Lorna Smith, was forced to provide for her family following the departure of his father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick, when Tyson was two. Tyson's reputation as a child was that he would assault anyone who ridiculed his high-pitched lisp. This was fueled by constant abuse from older children on the streets of Brownsville.
Mike Tyson grew up in crime-infested neighborhoods of New York City. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Brownsville where he lived with his siblings and mother.
Mike Tyson has two siblings: a brother name Rodney Tyson and a sister Denise Tyson (married name Denise Anderson). Sister Denise passed away in her middle twenties. Brother Rodney, older by five years, is a physician's assistant in the trauma center of the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center.
Rodney has always been very supportive of his brother's career and was often seen at Mike's boxing matches in Las Vegas. When asked about their relationship, Mike Tyson has been quoted saying, "My brother and I see each other occasionally and we love each other," and "My brother was always something and I was nothing."
The closest person to Mike as he grew into childhood was his sister Denise, who died of complications at the age of 24. Reports indicated that Anderson, who weighed between 300 and 400 pounds, may have died of cardiac arrest. Tyson financially supported Denise's kids upon her death.
Tyson's mother, Lorna, had two other children from a previous relationship when Mike was born. The Tysons survived on welfare after Lorna's lover Jimmy Kirkpatrick walked away. As times grew harder they were forced out of their tenement in tough Bedford-Stuyvesant and into Brownsville, Brooklyn. Tyson has been quoted saying, "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." Tyson's mother died when he was 16, and two years later, boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato became his legal guardian.
Tyson made his way through the streets of Brooklyn by mugging and stealing; by the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys in Upstate New York. It was at the school that Tyson's raw boxing ability was discovered by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer. As Tyson was an outstanding physical specimen, Stewart trained him for a few months and then introduced him to D'Amato.
Tyson was later removed from reform school by D'Amato. He saw Tyson's potential and took over his training; he later became his legal guardian, and Tyson has often referred to his love for D'Amato as a father figure. Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson under D'Amato, and they were occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, who was dismissed by D'Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young boxer.
Expectations for Tyson were extremely high, and he embarked on an ambitious campaign to fight all the top heavyweights in the world. Tyson defended his title against James 'Bonecrusher' Smith on March 7, 1987, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won by unanimous decision and added Smith's World Boxing Association (WBA) title to his existing belt. 'Tyson mania' in the media was becoming rampant. He beat Pinklon Thomas in May with a knockout in the sixth round. On August 1 he took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from Tony Tucker in a twelve round unanimous decision. He became the first heavyweight to own all three major belts — WBA, WBC, and IBF — at the same time. His only other fight in 1987 was in October against the 1984 Olympic Super Heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs, that ended with a victory for Tyson by knockout in the seventh round. Also in 1987, Nintendo released the video game, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, for its Nintendo Entertainment System. Punch-Out!! is an early example of a video game endorsed by a professional athlete.
Tyson had three fights in 1988. He faced Larry Holmes on January 22, 1988, and defeated the legendary former champion by fourth round knockout. This was the only knockout loss Holmes suffered in 75 professional bouts. In March, Tyson then fought contender Tony Tubbs in Tokyo, Japan, fitting in an easy two-round victory amid promotional and marketing work.
On June 27, 1988, Tyson faced Michael Spinks. Spinks, who had taken the heavyweight championship from Larry Holmes via a 15-round decision in 1985, had not lost his title in the ring but was not recognized as champion by the major boxing organizations. Holmes had previously given up all but the IBF title, and that was eventually stripped from Spinks. However, Spinks did become the lineal champion by beating Holmes and many (including Ring magazine) considered him to have a legitimate claim to being the true heavyweight champion. Tyson knocked out Spinks in 91 seconds of the first round.
During this period, Tyson's problems outside boxing were also starting to emerge. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce, and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton. In late 1988, Tyson fired longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, the man many credit for honing Tyson's craft after the death of D'Amato. Without Rooney, Tyson's skills quickly deteriorated and he became more prone to looking for the one-punch knockout, rather than using the combinations that brought him to stardom. He also began to head-hunt, neglecting to attack the opponent's body first. In addition, he lost his defensive skills and began to barrel straight in toward the opponent, neglecting to jab and slip his way in. In 1989, Tyson had only two fights amid personal turmoil. He faced the popular British boxer Frank Bruno in February in a fight where Bruno managed to stun Tyson at the end of the 1st round, although Tyson went on to knock out Bruno in the fifth round. Tyson then knocked out Carl "The Truth" Williams in one round in July.
In 1989, Tyson was granted an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University in Ohio.
By 1990, Tyson seemed to have lost direction, and his personal life and training habits were in disarray. In a fight on February 11, 1990, he lost the undisputed championship to James "Buster" Douglas in Tokyo. Tyson was a 1/42 favorite, but Douglas was at an emotional peak after losing his mother to a stroke 23 days prior to the fight, and fought the fight of his life. Tyson failed to find a way past Douglas's quick jab that had a 12-inch (30 cm) reach advantage over his own. Tyson did send Douglas to the floor in the eighth round, catching him with an uppercut, but Douglas recovered sufficiently to hand Tyson a heavy beating in the subsequent two rounds (after the fight, the Tyson camp would complain that the count was slow and that Douglas had taken longer than ten seconds to get to his feet). Just 35 seconds into the 10th round, Douglas unleashed a combination of blows that sent Tyson to the canvas for the first time in his career. He was counted out by referee Octavio Meyran. The knockout victory by Douglas over Tyson, the previously undefeated "baddest man on the planet" and arguably the most feared boxer in professional boxing at that time, has been described as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports history.
Tyson has been legally married twice and has had children with several different women. His first marriage was to actress Robin Givens, then known for her work on the sitcom Head of the Class, from February 7, 1988 to February 14, 1989. Tyson's marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous with allegations of violence, spousal abuse and mental instability. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine." Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from Tyson. They had no children.
His second marriage was to Monica Turner from April 19, 1997 – January 14, 2003. At the time of the divorce filing, Turner worked as a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC. She is also the sister of Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Turner filed for divorce from Tyson in January 2002, claiming that he committed adultery during their five-year marriage, an act that "has neither been forgiven nor condoned."
Tyson has six children: Gena, Mikey, Rayna, Amir, Miguel, and Exodus. Rayna (born February 14, 1996) and Amir (August 5, 1997) are from his second wife.
