In 1999, boxer Lennox Lewis was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating footballer David Beckham into second place and athlete Colin Jackson into third. After picking up the trophy, he said, “”It’s a a great honour to be able to achieve my goal. I’d like to thank the team behind me. I’d like to thank my country. It’s been 10 years through trials and tribulations of trying to acheive this goal and they actually made me box 24 rounds for it [the undisputed world heavyweight title], so I can say I earnt it. For all the young people out and young athletes, may my trials and tribulations be a level for success for them.”
Lewis had won the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title in February 1997, by virtue of a fifth-round technical knockout of Oliver McCall at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. In March 1999, he fought a unification bout against reigning World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Evander Holyfield at Madison Square Garden, New York, which resulted in a split decision draw. The rematch, at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas in November, was another closely-fought affair, which also went the distance.
However, Lewis won by unanimous points decision, 116-112, 117-111, 115-113, to become the first British undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since Bob Fitzsimmons in the late nineteenth century. After three successful title defences, he was knocked in the fifth round by Hamsin Rakman in Carnival City, South Africa in April 2001, but won the rematch at the Manadalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas the following November by fourth-round knockout.
Lewis subsequently knocked out Mike Tyson at The Pyramid, Memphis in August 2002 and stopped Vitali Klitschko at the Staples Center, Los Angeles in June 2003. He retired, as reigning world heavyweight champion, in February 2004, at the age of 38. He retired with a record of 41-2-1, with 32 wins by knockout. The World Boxing Council had set a deadline of March 1 to confirm a rematch with Klitschko, but Lewis chose to become the first reigning heavyweight champion to retire since Rocky Marciano in 1956.