Lennox Claudius Lewis (born September 2, 1965 in West Ham, London, England) is a retired professional boxer who represented Canada in the Olympics and fought under the British flag as a professional. He is a former undisputed heavyweight champion. Along with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, Lewis is one of three boxers in heavyweight history to have won the Heavyweight Championship on three separate occasions. Lewis is 195cm (6 ft 5 in) tall and sports a 84 inch reach, much longer than average for his height. During his boxing prime he weighed 112kg (247lb). Lewis often referred to himself as "the pugilist specialist".

Lewis was born in West Ham, London in 1965 to Jamaican born parents,[2] and moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1977 at the age of 12. He attended Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute for High School, where he excelled in the sports of Canadian football, soccer and basketball.[3] He eventually decided that his favourite sport was boxing. Future events proved he was quite skilled as well, as he became a dominant amateur boxer and won the world amateur junior title in 1983.[3]

The next year, Lewis represented Canada as a super-heavyweight in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. He advanced to the quarterfinals, where he lost a controversial decision to American Tyrell Biggs and settled for a fifth-place finish.

Surprisingly, Lewis chose not to turn professional after the Olympics, and instead fought four more years as an amateur, hoping for a second chance to win a gold medal. After winning several more amateur titles over those years, he travelled to Seoul, South Korea for the 1988 Summer Olympics and achieved his goal. In the gold medal match, Lewis defeated future world champion Riddick Bowe by a second round technical knockout.

Having achieved one goal, Lewis now declared himself a professional boxer and moved back to England, where boxing had a significantly higher profile than in hockey-mad Canada. The early part of his pro career was filled with knockouts of journeymen, and he quickly shot up the world rankings.
Source : Wikipedia