Lennox Lewis has a dream.
In partnership with Golden Gloves, the former world heavyweight champion wants to find and unearth a world class heavyweight from Africa and polish him into a champion.
Lewis was in South Africa this week to renew a partnership that began 25 years ago when Adrian Ogun, Lewis’ business manager, was involved in a takeover of Golden Gloves, the powerhouse African promotions company.
The trio are now in a consortium that will be marketed throughout Africa with the aim of finding prospective heavyweights and bringing them to South Africa to vet at a Golden Gloves tournament.
Lewis, Ogun and Berman are hugely hopeful of finding an African superstar heavyweight.
“If we did, it would blow up this place. Boxing needs just a couple of [heavyweight] heroes with back stories,” Lewis said at the weekend. “I want to be part of that search with Golden Gloves.
“We also want to open up boxing in South Africa, bringing over British, Canadian and European fighters, a good array of different boxers,” said the Hall of Famer, who envisages hosting master classes, among other endeavours. “Get them at the young stage, ready for the big stage.”
It’s a method that worked for him from his amateur days, highlighted by winning Olympic gold in 1988, and through his years as a professional where he cleaned out the division and became heavyweight champion three times.
“I took all the wrongs and tried to make sure the wrongs never happened to me,” he explained. “For me it was a case of how can I get better, how can I evolve? I never stopped learning.”
It’s this philosophy that informs a large part of Lewis’ thinking: helping youngsters understand the virtue of constant development. Not like the top 10 heavyweight he recently worked with who was more interested in his phone than learning from a legend.
When Lewis boxed in South Africa, in 2001, it was because he wanted to emulate his hero, Muhammad Ali, who had famously fought in Zaire, the famed “Rumble in the Jungle”.
The heavyweight champions all talk about fighting in Africa, but few ever do.
Yet Lewis was different, and he did so after wrapping up filming a part in “Oceans 11” with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. He arrived in South Africa with too little time to acclimatise and it irked Berman, who believed he wasn’t taking the title defence against Hasim Rahman seriously.
“I used to travel around the world to watch him,” said Berman at the weekend. “We had a bad run-in in South Africa . . . I was on his side and he never understood.”
Lewis was knocked out, but avenged the defeat later that same year with a savage knockout that put the heavyweight division back on its axis.
The differences between Lewis and Berman were soon repaired, not least because Ogun was open and engaging. He only ever sealed a deal with a handshake, something Berman respected.
Lewis attended last Friday’s tournament at Emperors Palace where Kestna Davis, his protégé, secured an impressive win. He saw up close – and not for the first time – what South African boxing has to offer.
“Our long-term vision is to bring some great promotions to South Africa. We know they love an event – they love good events.”
His long association with Emperors Palace and SuperSport, and now Lewis’ obvious enthusiasm to develop African boxing, excites Berman. “Nothing would work without Lennox,” said the veteran promoter. “It’s a nice synergy.”
Another fighter linked to Lewis is Constantino Nanga, an Angolan who fights out of Sweden and is 12-0 at light-heavyweight. Videos capture a fighter whose speed and movement mark him as special. “He just needs fights and mentorship,” says Lewis, who works on both.
Nanga is one of the fighters who will benefit from the consortium with Berman already planning a debut for the Sweden-based boxer on African soil. Lewis has business interests in television, coffee, vodka and elsewhere, but he gets his kicks working with boxers with promise like Davis and Nanga, who want to learn.
His “Lennox Lewis League of Champions” programme in Jamaica and Canada is very successful, both as a resource for aspiring boxers and as a means to match boxing with life skills.
“Boxing is like golf,” reasons Lewis. “You must learn the correct way. If you can protect yourself, you’re good. Part of my master class is teaching defence.”
Lewis was always an advocate of hitting without getting hit, the ultimate “pugilist specialist” as he called it.
Now that he’s no longer blocking the shots, he’s intent on being on the front foot in the search for boxing gold.
