CANASTOTA, N.Y. — In a sport many view for its violence, Lennox Lewis said Sunday he wanted to be remembered for making it a “sweet science, a magical dance” as he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“Our sport is usually looked at as a brutal, savage sport,” Lennox told fight fans gathered for the hall’s 20th annual induction ceremony. “I see it as a sweet science, a magical dance.
“For me, I just wanted to live up to that, and keep the dignity and the humanistic aspect and the positiveness of it . . . so that people will remember that’s what I did for boxing,” Lewis said.
A towering presence at six feet five and 250 pounds, Lewis displayed a nimbleness never before seen in a fighter his size. The 43-year-old learned to box growing up in Kitchener, Ont., and earned Olympic gold for Canada in 1988.
He retired in 2003 with a record of 41-2-1, including 32 KOs, and entered the hall in his first year of eligibility.
Lewis lived in England until age 12 when his family moved to Canada. He began fighting as an amateur at age 15.
Lewis said it was because of his mother that he became interested in boxing. She would host fight parties when he was growing up.