When Lennox Lewis was asked to name the five greatest boxers in history, he kept it concise and rooted in heavyweight legacy.
Speaking with Hard Rock Bet, the former undisputed heavyweight champion listed Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson, Marvin Hagler, George Foreman, and Joe Louis.
“Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson, (Marvin) Hagler, George Foreman, Joe Louis — there you go,” Lewis said.
When the interviewer pointed out the obvious omission — himself — Lewis didn’t hesitate to add where he believed he stood in that hierarchy. “Yeah, I'm in that room, I'm definitely in that room.”
Notably absent from the list were Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr., two names often included in similar conversations. Tyson, in particular, remains tied to Lewis throughout boxing history because of one of the sport’s most high-profile heavyweight matchups.
Their bout, Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson, took place on June 8, 2002, at The Pyramid in Memphis. The fight was promoted under the banner Lewis–Tyson: Is On and marked a convergence of two eras in heavyweight boxing.
Lewis entered the match as the unified WBC, IBF, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight champion with a 39–2–1 record. Tyson arrived as a former undisputed heavyweight champion, holding a 49–3 record.
The promotion was nearly as memorable as the fight itself. Months before the match, a press conference at the Hudson Theatre in New York erupted into a full brawl when Tyson moved toward Lewis, sparking a melee between both camps. Tyson later admitted to biting Lewis’s leg during the scuffle.
Once the fighters finally met in the ring, Lewis controlled the pace. Over eight rounds, he used precise jabs and power shots to keep Tyson at range. The end came at 2:25 of the eighth round, when Lewis landed a knockout that left Tyson unable to rise before the count.
It became one of the most-watched boxing events at the time, generating $106.9 million in U.S. pay-per-view revenue.