Lennox Lewis' Most Satisfying Victory | Joe Rogan

You know when when you look back on your career like do you have like a most satisfying victory? Yeah, what is it? I've seen rock. I was gonna say that I was gonna say the rematch the first or the second the second When a guy when a guy beats you like that and then you know, you could have beaten him or you should have beaten him Is that what bothered you so much? No, you know, what really bothered me is the fact that I gave him an opportunity Opportunity I gave him a fight when I'm basically waiting for Tyson and I have to keep busy I'm looking down the list of who to fight. He's number seven. I realized that he's durable He's not not one of these guys that get knocks out easy So I wanted to give my fans, you know a proper fight box the best guy out there not box the easy guy That's easy to get knocked out. I don't want to go home in two rounds So and then another reason a lot of people don't know I went to Africa to fight because Muhammad Ali went to Africa He fought in Africa. So I wanted to do that. I wanted to be I wanted to fight in Africa If you know I say I'm a world champion, so I need to fight all around the world So that's what made me go to Africa. The only thing about Africa is I didn't know that it was such a high altitude up there and For me to have a fight. I should have got there a lot earlier, but I was doing oceans 11 at that time I was saying oh you were doing the movie. I wasn't doing no movie I was sitting around half the time waiting for them to change the lights then go out and go out there for two minutes and then Go back and sit there for another two hours while they change the light So were you training at all what that was happening? Yeah, I was training but it wasn't like there It wasn't the conditions of training. You know, I needed a bag. I needed sparring partners. I'm right Up there a lot sooner. So you just kind of exercise. Yes, how many thousand feet was it above sea level? higher than Big Bear it was K-town right so more than six Wow, I didn't know that yeah It was kind of weird because when I start working out, I was like throwing punches then I found myself going So I had to take two steps back I'm like oh no No, don't tell me this fight's gonna be one of those fights where I have to take my time So I basically went out there taking my time. I realized he's dealing with the same thing I'm dealing with although he was there a lot earlier, but You know, I had a couple things going wrong boxing at four in the morning They couldn't find a big enough ring then they when they put the ring together. It was like 18 by 19 so and then The the punch that actually hit me. I actually thought I was gonna block it but it came around this side I put my hand I put my hand up to block it but it came around hit me One of those things where a man threw a terrific punch which my chin happened to be in the way of hmm What is it like when that's over and you're sitting there and you know you lost but you know that under the right Circumstances this guy is not at your level In fact, you know my problem was solved before I got out the ring I knew what I did wrong which was the the greatest thing that ever happened to me is like Oh On another day he wouldn't throw a lucky punch like that It wouldn't hit me and he wouldn't have a ref that you know was on his side as well How was the ref on his side? Um When I say the refs on his side, you know, they called it a little early. I got knocked down in the second round I'm the I'm the champion right at least give me a chance not wave the fight straight, right? Right, you know you seen you seen the Deontay Like Like, you know if that was the ref even the counted him out straight away. Yeah, that's what I stopped it at the press conference That's like a 12th round that right left that Deontay landed the fact that Tyson got up and then won the remainder of the round That is crazy. Yeah, I'm so frustrated that fights not happening again, man every you know, I'm looking at the heavyweight scene and I'm looking at obviously Joshua Joshua from England and You know, he had the opportunity to fight Deontay and didn't take it I'm like if that was me I would have took that chance because you never know what happens down the road likes what's happening now and You know to me he's being put on the shelf now He has to box somebody that nobody really wants him to box. Who's he fighting next? Baby, baby Miller big baby Miller big baby. Yeah, you know big baby Miller. I haven't seen too much of him I don't know too much about him. But you know, he talks a good fight I knew I know he weighed over 300 pounds at one time. He's a baby and yeah and You know now he's got an opportunity to fight Joshua. So he's taking full advantage of it like he should but you know, I Don't see anything in his history to show me that he can beat Joshua You know move you be can he can he can bang though. He can bang if you're there to bang just Joshua's got feet He's gonna move he's not gonna stay there and bang. Yeah, he's gonna boxer. Yeah, he's gonna be a smart boxer in this fight allegedly We'll see right. I mean never know. Yeah, I mean this these are one of those things where I think this is where Anthony's got to be extra careful because Miller is gonna train twice as hard and if Joshua doesn't train like he's fighting Deontay, right? He's gonna he may take it for granted make a mistake and you can do that. I've done that I've done that It's nothing. It's nothing that he's done on purpose. It's not it's like it's a mental Thing yes a mental thing like when you're fighting my vravitch. Yeah, that guy wouldn't go home wouldn't go home Was at that fight gave me a lot of trouble Lennox box this guy around the ring for 12 rounds like literally the guy's head snapping back on this guy's not going Yeah, he was going nowhere. That is that would it that's gotta be a weird feeling too When you know how hard you punch and you see a guy just eating him Like some people just are built weird They just can take a shot. No, I learned that coming up I learned that like you're some guys that are tough to the head a week to the body Some guys are tough to the body a week to the head and some guys just made out of rocks. Yeah Yeah, it's almost like a ignorant bliss. I just don't know they're supposed to feel bad. I don't know I mean, I really think it's a physiological thing. I think some guys can just take a shot They just did just built better sometimes I've been in fights where I've gone in the man's hit me on the chin first couple Minutes and it's like it just glanced off my chin. I was like I ate it up Ain't the punch up and it didn't hurt me and it was like what happened to that punch? It was so hard to hit you on the chin. Everybody was saying yo, did you see that punch? You never felt it. I'm like no and when I look at tape of it, it's like wow, I did get it. Hmm Is it because like are there a bunch of factors like how much you got hit in training how well you feel coming into the fight Yeah, where you're at in your career. There's a lot of factors like for instance Let me give you a good wicked factor if you haven't boxed for two years and all of a sudden you step into the ring and It's a title fight and you box you can the first good hit you get is gonna concuss you really because you haven't been getting Those hits for that two years now this man hit you with a two years And you're getting used to it and you've you felt it and you've gotten over it you need to get over that hill Is it a mental hill it is a mental hill because even for me for me when I haven't fought for a while You know I got there until I get hit Once I get hit that wakes everything up like yo This is not supposed to go like that. You're not supposed to hit me. I'm supposed to hit you So I get I get going So the Hasim rockman fight after it was over were you worried that you were gonna get it We're not gonna get a rematch. Yes. I was very worried in fact we chased him to three courts around the world and He didn't want to fight me, and I you know if I was in this position I wouldn't want to fight me either because you know I'm coming back for revenge plus There's a big money fight out there with Tyson, but he so So happened to say after the fight no more Lewis Tyson no more Lewis Tyson and he actually left South Africa without visiting Mandela like why you go Africa not visit Mandela hmm. I did he just wanted to get out of there Yeah, he just belt yeah, and that's seven million dollars that he got off of Don King so The fight got made again because after the third courtroom The judge says whose signature is this? Hasim said it was his you signed it. Yes. Well. You got to give him the rematch This is you signed it to give him a rematch so you have to give him a rematch So he didn't want to hear that so I was happy so the remade how long did it take two years two years? And there was all that all those brawls and remember the ESPN studio when him and rock my got into a fire They knocked over the table and everything yeah, then X was wearing his big Steve Harvey suit Let me tell you it was a Steve Harvey suit Cuz I had this I'ma have the slippery shoes in the world I didn't come there to fight right I came there to like you know do press Slippery shoes are the worst if anything goes down you got those leather shoulder. Oh, yeah, you're done. Oh my god on carpet You know like just give up. I went That's what you got to learn jiu-jitsu. Yeah now when you were in that time period. I don't remember Did you have fights in between? Yeah, how many fights did you have after rock? Oh? No, I didn't have no fights. No fights in between No, I just trained for rockman. Just waited. Yeah, so it took you two years two years I must have been so frustrating It was it was because you never know if you're gonna get the fight or not or you know these guys are running from you They signed to fight a rematch because you know now they didn't want to sign it I remember when that right hand landed. I remember that I was watching at home, and I threw my arms up in the air I Was like oh shit. Yeah, yes, I went to sleep Sleep hammer let's check this out man. Yeah, I mean for a long time coming you waiting for it You know for this this fight rockman couldn't cut catch me because my speed was different You know in South Africa was a lot slower now. He got kind of frustrated because he couldn't catch it is boom Yeah, oh man no over the top of the shoulder. I got your Cortez let him count still oh That was a phenomenal put that was probably one of the most satisfying one punch knockouts ever watched Yeah, because I knew what you had gone through and I knew like everybody knew you were one of the greatest of all time And to have you get KO'd like that first of all it made it endeared people to you in a way Because it showed your vulnerability, but also your character and your ability to come back Which is not easy man when you get stopped like that like psychologically. It's got to be fucking with your head Let me tell you the first time I lost Everybody was coming up and shaking my hand and said well. What are you gonna do now? I'm like what do you mean? What am I gonna do now? Yeah? Well? What you gonna do now? I'm gonna go back and win my championship. I said okay. You know they didn't think it was gonna be possible, but I'm thinking Muhammad Ali Gained the championship three times yeah, so I've only lost it once I can do it again It takes a special person to do it, and I can do it