AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 19
Neil discusses many of his heroes – boxers, trainers and coaches – from the ring on TalkinFight Monday to Friday – YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live Weekday’s at 7pm EST (6:30 on Fridays) @mrlennoxlewis @cbe #lennoxism
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Transcribed:
Coming up two seconds get out: hey there welcome once again talking pike fans to the neil.
The deal show with neil the deal himself tonight he’s got an episode lined up all about lennox lewis, one of the best heavyweight fighters ever yeah.
Modern era: hey, graham, how are you tonight look where we are everyone? Can you imagine here we are at the new meal.
The deal said downtown toronto on they call it what graham now the scotia bank center.
It says back here in the back here: bush bank arena, scotia bank arena fantastic right on what we’re gon na do guys is we’re gon na.
Thank you thank you and thank you again because without you guys, i wouldn’t be here on top of toronto.
Having a great day a great night, a great life – and i just want to say thank you for all the likes – the shares the uh subscriptions.
The comments have been absolutely amazing and we’re able to bring you now the neil.
The deal show from downtown toronto downtown mecca, town all right.
The six is in the house, that’s the six and we are the oh.
We are the six all right, so listen, graham, i told you i was gon na have a special uh.
This is like a celebration for me.
Thank you very much and uh we’re gon na have a special episode tonight.
We might do it in two parts, because it’s quite a fantastic career, fair, absolutely huge, um, probably as we all know the best number one.
That’S number one boxer in canadian history i mean mr chavalo, god bless you but uh.
I believe that this guy is as uh as big as you are the biggest thing in canadian boxing his own, but this guy’s right behind you right behind.
You is a new era and uh he he did things that were absolutely mesmerizing in the ring mesmerizing.
So let’s just go over a little bit of it.
We’Re gon na be talking about a guy named lennox lewis, graham lennox lewis.
You know about next lewis.
I think he’s here, yeah yeah he’s an amazing individual right.
What is that? I was lucky enough to meet you once lennox at the hershey center.
You were a guest, i believe it was on a sid vanderpool fight.
He was dressed in a he’ll, know: linux.
You were dressed in a full leather, zip up red leather suit.
It was unbelievable, leather and red and black leathers and uh.
It was amazing, so meeting you was a dream.
Come true i’d love to meet you again sometime.
That would be awesome.
If me and lennox could actually come on the neil, the deal show right here in downtown toronto right on bush bank center right, where the leaves play right, where the concerts are right, where the action is.
That’S where we’re hanging out where the action is.
You know what i mean, so the talk and fight guys want to thank you and we’re uh we’re going to talk a little bit here right now, so he was born lennox claudius lewis.
He was born september, 2nd 1965, so he’s same age as me.
Well, actually, i think i’m a little older by a few months.
You know what i mean so, but he was born in a west ham, london, the united kingdom.
I guess that’s part of england.
Is it graham united kingdom yep, yeah yeah, so, amazingly enough when he was born, he was born 10 pounds.
10 ounces.
Do you know any baby born at 10 pounds that would be like a ham or like a roast beef or something like that is ridiculous.
The poor mother, oh sorry, mom so anyways, he was born a giant baby and became a giant man uh, just unbelievable.
He has four kids he’s married, he has 14 and he holds a dual citizenship, canadian and uh british.
All right.
He has a dual citizenship when he was a child, he had a lot of fights.
Apparently he was a fighter as a child.
His mom was always worried about him because he was getting into fights kids in the school yard, i guess or on the street or whatever, and so they moved they.
She decided to move them to canada, so in 1977, uh lennox lewis’s family moved to canada and uh.
Then he became a canadian citizen at that point, um, which is fantastic and the things that you’ve done for us linux over the years.
Uh are undisputably unbelievable out of control.
You you really made me proud to be a canadian linux.
I want to say, and you never you, never let us down every time.
Man is like every time.
So i want to thank you linux from the bottom of my heart.
You are you’ll, always be one of my special guys, all right, so just to talk a little bit about his accolades um going forward.
He has you know how people have like an md or a phd or an mma or whatever it is.
You know like they have letters beside their name uh.
He has cm tcm and a c beside his name now cm what is cnm, graham any idea.
What a cm is um, no, no for the canadian order of canada he’s a recipient of the canadian order of canada.
You understand yeah the order of canada and he also the cbe beside his name at the present moment.
Yeah is the uh cbe is the order of the british empire and is the order of chivalry that would that’s what it is given for chivalry.
It is given out by a boxing sanctioned uh the the sanctions the fights in england.
In the uk it’s called the bbb uh uh bbb fc, i believe, um, so the british boxing, the british boxing board uh council in england.
You know what i mean british boxing board of council – something of that sort right.
So this is the sanctioning body that sanctions all the fights in england and uh it changed earlier on.
I believe it was something else and it changed with it in the 20s or something they changed it from.
The original, like england, is basically where i believe boxing originated, but that’s another story in itself, so but um they they definitely they had a big part in in the.
How do we say the pugilism or the professionalism was brought by these individuals in england um? So it’s pretty interesting i had kings and stuff did.
Did chris not talk a little bit about that on one of the episodes? Graham yeah yeah the history of boxing.
He took us back to the queensberry rules right.
So it’s the the british boxing uh, the british boxing board of counts of control control was the word.
I’M looking at sorry guys, british boxing board of control.
Those are the guys that actually sanction the fights within uh england or that part of england or uk.
Whatever you want to call it so he came to canada in 77, lennox did and uh.
He decided that he was going to start boxing, and that was in 1978.
, so he had an amateur career.
Graham and everybody fight fans here watching us live from downtown toronto.
Live from where we want to be the epicenter of the world toronto, canada, all right! So thank you very much for joining us this evening and i really look forward to having you guys every night or when you can come out with the kids and check it out all right.
So let’s talk a little bit about his amateur career.
He had a lot of fights as an amateur there’s, 94 fights right right.
He won 85 of them, graham 85 fights out of 94 in his amateur career, and he had nine losses all right, um funny enough.
They only have 78 amateur fights registered uh for him, but again as scottie olson was saying and other boxers of the era.
There are fights that weren’t recognized that weren’t weren’t uh added to their amateur careers.
For whatever reason i guess they didn’t have the paperwork done properly or whatever it is.
So he has technically more fights amateur than is are stated uh publicly.
You know what i’m saying so he did he.
Basically, he basically was was one of those guys who, in his amateur career, did things that were absolutely unbelievable.
All right and that’s for all of us around the country.
All of us, everybody out there, anybody who’s, a canadian and has not watched boxing or has must have seen lennox in the olympics.
You remember the 88 olympics, graham when he boxed for canada well lennox as an amateur won us a gold medal.
Buddy, that’s the one boom.
Oh yeah.
Look him down like a wet noodle and you know who he took down to win the gold medal.
Remember reddick beau! I do right years later he was going to uh a comeback.
Apparently lennox will tell you about that.
But uh it was all about him and bo in this little thing.
I guess they had and uh lennox basically said you know any time buddy at any age at any time, which is that’s it give it one of those.
The guy thinks he’s better than you.
It ain’t even happening, you showed him in the olympics.
He wrote him as a pro.
He was never like you, he just wanted to be, but nobody’s like you.
So we all know what happened to him and we’re not even going to get into that because he’s just uh whatever washed up, you know he’s not he’s probably cleaning floors.
What i mean so, let’s go through his uh amateur career and some of the stuff that he did his amateur wow we’re talking crazy stuff.
He was the uh.
He was actually our flag bearer, graham at the uh closing ceremonies the 88 olympics when he uh participated.
So that must have been a pretty big uh.
Something for him like mike strange did.
You know – and mike said it was one of the highlights of his career – was carrying the flag from the country and if i ever got the chance to carry the flag for the country, i guarantee that would be the highlight of my career.
So i got ta say linux: you must have been over the top with that one right, that’s over the top, when you get to walk out of the olympics, holding your country’s flag.
That has got to be up there with any of the fights you’ve ever had or anything you’ve ever gone through.
Congratulations, i want to say thank you.
I watched you and i i love you.
You are awesome thanks a lot for the gold medal man that graham that was so impressive to me.
I was just jumping around the house and i was doing all kind of.
I was ecstatic that he did that, because you know how the americans are boxing.
Oh we’re the best well they’re the best at everything, all right.
All right.
We can’t beat us, i don’t you got done and that’s what happened all right, bo bye-bye.
So anyways, let’s go on for a few more things here, the 1986 commonwealth games.
You won a gold medal in the super heavyweight division.
Oh i forgot to mention something about the olympics.
That was the first year that the super heavyweight division was brought into the olympics, so he’s the first heavyweight to win a gold medal in that division.
That’S pretty cool; they created that in the 88 olympics, so not just a tidbit.
I thought that was pretty cool um, so you want the goal for us.
There.
You go lemon wealth games.
Another boom boom boom.
That’S it! Gold medal took him down at the end of them, then he went to the pan am games in 87 and he won a silver medal in in the same division super heavyweight that was in indianapolis indiana in 1987.
He was also in the north american championship here.
In toronto, canada and he won a gold medal.
There you go another gold medal, bingo all right, then he was in the uh north american championships again that year and beaumont, graham where’s, that in the states not sure oman, somebody any guys out there.
[ __, ], fight, land or beaumont is or we have any fans in beaumont.
Let us know, i didn’t really know her all right, so he did that then in 85 he did.
The world cup won a uh, a silver medal in seoul korea.
So again he was in the olympics.
Seoul korea has been uh has been a a good place for him.
He won a gold medal and silver medal.
Oh, thank you very much one of our fans, piked in and just told him it’s in it’s in beaumont, alabama alabama.
There you go so it’s beaumont alabama, that’s where he won that medal, so so the last uh.
The last thing that i’m going to talk about was he won the 1985 junior world championship uh in santa domingo, dominican republic and he won a gold medal and uh that was again a gold medal gold medal.
Oh i made a mistake.
I don’t mind alberta, not alabama alberta.
That makes a little more sense.
There you go.
I was thinking.
What was he doing in alabama? Sorry, guys is my mistake all right so moving on, he turned pro in 1985, all right, his first three years.
First, three years of his career, he won listen to this.
He won the european british commonwealth titles right off the like, like this is what he did right off the hop he took down three major international belts.
Then he reeled off 21 straight wins like straight like whoa.
That is like ridiculous.
Really, so he’s got the titles off 21 straight wins and he became champ in 92.
All right, it became the first time he became a world champion like a real wbaba.
Wbc ibf was when riddick both uh.
Oh there’s his name riddick bo.
Can you imagine check this out? Graham, he relinquished the title because he didn’t want to fight lose so they gave it to lewis without even having a fight against him.
So is that guy ducking and running or what who vacates a world championship and gives it to somebody else because he’s scared that is unheard of, like i think it’s the only there.
I think there’s one other time, maybe, but that’s like the only time history of boxing that heavyweight has related to the title like on his own accord and basically said i don’t want to have it, because i’m scared of you that makes no sense.
Even michael sting fought mike tyson and he looked petrified the second he walked out of there.
He was going down the tunnel, he looked like he was gon na poop, his pants or something i don’t know, but but he got dummied as we know, because he was already before he got in the ring like he had no chance.
It’S unbelievable, so anyways beau did that this long going thing with with you.
I know how you you just basically laughing at the guy.
He basically gave you the title for nothing, so he did that and then he then then he lost the title we’re gon na.
He did lose to a guy named oliver mccall, all right uh about 1990.
I think it was four 1994.
He lost the title and uh back in 97 against mccall, so he revenged his loss and got his title back all right all right and in the arena.
Uh it was, it was to win the debate, yeah pretty crazy stuff.
He then had two epic battles against evander holyfield.
Now the first fight, if you guys want to watch this, this is a noticeable vulnerable fight – is holyfield lennox lewis, the first one lewis’s punch stacks.
I watched the program live like i, don’t miss any of those and obviously atlantic i’d never pressed and he beat him up so bad and called it a draw in the end.
So so, once that numbers for that fight were like lewis had like 500 shots landed and holyfield had like 165, something dumb like that, like it was just lopsided, and yet there was a judge there.
Some female, hopefully you’re, not a judge anymore, because you don’t know what you’re doing um that basically rob lewis won that fight.
There’S no doubt about it.
No, then he then he had the rematch and uh.
We all know who that went, uh well, the first one was a drawing.
The second was was a win which he then at that point, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world uh, because he had the bba bbc ibm titles under his belt all right.
So he had four, he had four four belts count around his weight and uh.
What happened there? Then he was.
He was stripped of, though a couple of by the sanctioning bodies.
He was tripped by uh wbba in 2000 uh and the ibf wasn’t uh due to the fact that he did not fight number one, which is a mandatory thing uh.
He decided not to relinquish those titles due to the fact that he uh – i don’t know why.
I mean that that would be up to you lennox, like only you.
You gave them up because you decided the mandatory number one contender.
So there’s not a good reason for that um and we don’t know so he had a fight, he was uh chaotic.
I think it’s probably only the only time he was by haseem, a guy named the rock rockmon.
All right and rockmon had a crazy fight.
One time i saw against evander holyfield, where, if you guys watch this, i know it’s a little off topic here, but it’s really weird is uh rockmon, the rock against holyfield, where holyfield kept headbutting them the whole time like third field’s, not a clean fighter mike tyson.
Will tell you why? Because he was not he’s, not a he’s, not playing fit same thing with rock one.
He started hammering him like.
Damn him.
The headlocks like this during the fight and ended up a giant goose egg on his head, the size of a softball and protruding out of the head.
It was the weirdest thing so guys check out rockmon and lewis.
That’S a that’s! A really bizarre uh! Sorry rock on it uh holyfield is the fight with the big goose egg on his head.
It’S really weird! So anyways get back to linux.
Obviously he lost rockmon, but then he regained the title and beat rachman and devastated him when he lost to rock one.
Rockmon was a 20-1 underdog to beat him and he lost and he avenged that uh months later, i guess um a big big upset.
You know so in 2003 he beat uh mike tyson.
We all know who he is.
If you remember the fight linux lewis mike tyson linux, i’m so happy, you did that.
Oh, my god, i was watching that one and i saw you just yeah yeah.
He gave it to him so good it was, it was it was.
It was crazy.
I loved it every minute of it because i’m canadian and you’re canadian and british and i’m scottish and you know how it is well, you got mike, you actually did a job on.
It was an eighth round tko, i believe, against tyson and uh man.
I’Ll.
Never forget not a lot of people beat up on tyson, but you did.
That was awesome.
I was like whoa, but mike i still love you too.
You know that.
Thank you, my favorites, but it’s just surprising to see a guy of your adventure and a big man like lewis, going at it and i’m a canadian you want mike.
I don’t know man, i vote for the canadians right right.
He always works.
That’S who i am marley’s leaf, that’s who we are, you know, so he uh he had his last fight close to his lap.
It was his last fight.
It was against.
The guy we talked about was a vitaly klitschko okay in 2008 and uh.
That fight, god is a notable for sure it was a bloodbath and a battleground fought.
The russian cyborg last fight the iron fist right.
What a fight man! Graham, if you got any time watch lewis glitchco and it was a lot of blood man in that both of them were bleeding profusely.
It was, it was a bloodbath and a serious battle.
Louie thanks louie, you took him down mr lennox.
Thank you took down that russian dude.
Did you eh freaking right on that was awesome, so he’s got a bunch of awards we’re going to go through like major awards um, not only united, as we talked about earlier on, but these awards i mean the list of awards.
Grandma 2008.
He was inducted into the international boxing house in 2012.
He was uh inducted into the the internet into the ontario sports hall of fame here in toronto, canada right ontario, so he was in the hall of fame.
There 2011 uh, he oh sorry, 99 99.
He was fighter of the year boxing writer association of america fighter of the year.
That’S a big accolade, huge uh 99.
He was also the bbc sports personality of the year.
Like the guy’s got birth community right in 2003.
He was ranked by magazine number 33 out of a hundred greatest punches 2017 boxing news number two best british boxer of all time number two, all right for britain all right, because he has a dual citizenship, so he he fights for well.
He fights for britain now, but originally he fought for us right um.
I think well we’re not even going to get into that.
I know why he did that so anyways yeah also in 2017, he was he was named by ring magazine the 11th great weight of all time, all right.
It’S great box wreck.
We all know box number, seven greatest european of all time and number four great box developed in the weight division, so he’s got some serious accolades behind him, um the only other, guys uh that are ahead of him in box rack.
He they.
They said he was the third greatest um third greatest heavyweight of all time, the only two guys ahead of them rocky marciano and joe lewis, and that’s it he’s ahead of ali he’s ahead of like what i ran.
I was like wow.
That is a wicked man.
That’S unbelievable, so he’s also one of only three fighters to have retired abraham with a victory over every opponent.
He ever fought so when he did lose a couple of fights right.
He avenged those right, he basically avenged them and uh.
That was that which was which was really crazy, so we’re going to talk a little bit about his pro record.
I forgot to talk about his actual pro record, all right after his amateur record, so we’ll go through that right now, um his amateur record was from 89 to 2003 uh.
Sorry, his career was 89 to 2003 and i believe his pro record started somewhere in the 90s.
I guess graham the early 90s, maybe right so his total fight, fedex lewis, total fights 44 right right.
He had 41 win with 32 two losses and zero draws, so he he had a he basically lost two fights 44 right, which is crazy and uh.
He was also a three-time world champion and two-time lineal champion champion means you own all the belts all right.
So when you own all the belts, i believe lineal, it means it’s the wbc wba the ibo and the ibf, i think or if you have all those belts and you’re the millennial champion, just like zab judah right, there’s a few guys out there millennial champions, because It’S a very hard thing to do so he did that he also he had the notable all right.
The notable fights was obviously when he, when he had the fight against dice in the eighth round, tko all right, uh, the two, the the fight against bender holyfield, was great.
He had two uh.
They were actually six months to the gate park.
One was march 13th.
99, the other was november 13, 99.
, so the first one was that he beat the crap out of holyfield literally and got robbed wanting his decision on the next one, so he basically won them.
Both.
He just didn’t get credit for it, um that glitch gold fight, graham, that klitschko guys, watch that out there talking fight fans kneel the deal.
Thank you uh that has seen rockman.
He uh lost the title and then he won the title back.
So he’s always good and uh.
He he beat a bunch of guys along the way names big name, guys that you don’t hear much about anymore.
I know about them, obviously, so go through a bit of those guys mike weaver.
Remember mike weaver, graham yep yeah.
It was wpa world uh champion for a a small tour uh time uh.
What about banks? Remember him: gold, medalist for the united states, elizabeth terrell, biggs, yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem took him down and then uh.
He beat this guy named glenn.
I haven’t heard of him, but mcroy mc mccorry mccory.
I guess m-c-c-r-o-r-y corey.
He was a world champion cruiserweight champion, so he beat him as well, so um that in itself, again is something else is just like: wow wow he’s beating guys in all divisions, winning all the titles and just unbelievable.
So upon his retirement yeah, he became a uh analyst.
You ever remember boxing in the dark.
Graham, i used to watch it every time like every time i it was on boxing after i think it was called boxing boxing.
After is what it was hbo, i believe, was hbo um from 2006 to 2010.
Apparently, he loves to sing.
He likes to sing music.
He’S been on a few music videos and likes to sing a bit like me.
I like me, i love the singing stuff.
It’S my favorite stuff other than this, i’m singing too right um.
He also uh.
He made tv show appearances, he’s beating movies, he’s done all that kind of stuff.
He acted a bit.
He also was in the world series of poker 2006 2007.
.
He didn’t cash but uh at least he got a chance to do it and i let you know all the fans out there.
Neil the deal fans again neil the deal was created through poker.
That’S how i got paid just to let you know so.
I really like poker too right, so linux, hey, wan, na, go to cassandra i’ll, show you how to win money.
You will cash.
I will prove it to you and show you what i got.
I will get you the ding dong and i’ll uh i’ll teach you a little bit along the way that way.
The next time you go to the world series of poker he’ll take down hellmuth you’ll, take down the rest of the floccata, we’ll take them all down.
You can’t they can’t hide.
I’M coming one of these days, i’m coming we’re gon na show up on the world series of poker lake sexting.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah get her done.
Oh yeah yeah nice right, okay, so so he loves that he loves soccer.
Apparently he loves soccer and uh.
His whole team was on his home team is graham, what’s his home team everton, i don’t know everton chelsea.
Where was he born london? I don’t know no australia where, where, where stan? Yes, hey, so what team do you think he follows? Graham, let me guess: west ham, west ham, united yeah yep in the english premier league – i don’t know, are they in the top league, graham the uh west hammers, the premier league yeah yeah, i’m pretty sure i saw him so he he really supports that, which is Awesome, i love soccer linux.
That’S we got us we over here.
We support tfc, that’s who we support, so you got to support your teams right, the leafs, marlies tfc raptors, it’s what we’re all about over here.
That’S who we support all right, love everybody, but we support our teams all right, so uh he’s a he’s literally apparently he’s a real guy.
He simple when i met him.
He was very simple.
He just was very polite uh.
He was very uh in control.
I would say, and a lot of people were trying to talk to him, to be honest with you – i think it was.
The whole stadium was trying to talk to him and try to get an autograph, his dreadlocks, whatever it was interesting situation there and uh.
He was very gentlemanly with everybody and he he talked to everybody just like no problem right, so he’s he’s definitely out there he’s unitary and no doubt like myself um.
He doesn’t shy away from personal appearances and tv shows and poker, and this and music god bless.
You man, that was freaking, awesome and uh.
I want to say thanks a lot to the talk and fight fans.
This is the first episode, i’m so happy because of you guys, because of you guys, i’m able to broadcast here epicenter the six and uh here we are bank arena gram.
This is over the top right, i’m like what wow i don’t know what to say.
So thanks a lot for the likes, the chairs, everything else and i want to say hi to a few people, because it is the first one.
What are you doing? I always say hi to amanda she’s, my friend, i want to say hi to uh the guys that i went to school with all the people i went to school with yeah.
I wasn’t very good in school, i know but hey.
I guess we got somewhere eventually right now we’re on top of pcc.
Here you know what i mean the scotiabank center, whatever thanks a lot for the support guys from everybody around the world, everybody in mexico, africa, new zealand, russia, china, india, england, united states.
Thank you very much for everything guys and i’m so looking forward to this year again, there’s some big stuff coming up might show up.
We love them.
We love the new video, it’s great beautiful song, everything’s beautiful about you buddy.
So let’s get this charity pringle and uh, graham thanks again for everything, i’m so happy because of you guys.
You’Ve made my life.
Let’S do this one how’s that over here, oh that was unbelievable.
Guys thanks again see you tomorrow, 6 30.
.
You know we do the 6 30 fridays so uh we’ll see you then take care of yourselves be safe and uh god bless you all.
Thank you.
Thanks very much, neil appreciate those thoughts on alex lewis uh.
I now have to change my opinion of him uh.
I thought he was like the best heavyweight of the modern era, but i stand corrected according to box, rec he’s actually, third behind uh.
You know two of the greatest ever so that means that uh, you know, lennox is out there ahead of muhammad ali ahead of joe frazier holmes and foreman, like wow, watching so kudos to you for bringing that to light and uh cheers to lenox, because he is A good guy and uh.
I look forward to hearing you tomorrow night, then good enough like share subscribe.
We really appreciate it.
We got ta, give merman olympic gold medalist number one man best box that canada ever created.
To date.
I mean he has a kid that might be better than him.
We’Ll have to see what happens.
I don’t know, but man, you really did the country justice with your career and i won your fight.
I never missed the lennox lewis fight.
I got in a lot of trouble about athletics, but i just wanted to see you do do the job for the country, man, you are awesome, thanks, dude totally two thumbs up double thumbs and we’re gon na give you one of these dude boom boom.
That’S what i
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