Reports claim Lewis to quit boxing
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Champ Lewis looks set to hang up his gloves according to reports
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LONDON, England -- World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis is likely to announce his retirement at a news conference in London on Friday according to media reports.
The 38-year-old Briton has not fought since successfully defending his World Boxing Council (WBC) title against Vitali Klitscho last June.
He has been given a deadline of March 1 by the WBC to confirm a rematch with the Ukrainian.
Lewis lost only two of 44 fights in a 14-year professional career after he won the 1988 Seoul Olympic super-heavyweight gold medal for Canada.
He became the WBC champion by default in 1992 when American Riddick Bowe threw the belt into a dustbin but lost the title two years later to Olivier McCall in the second round of their fight at Wembley.
In 1999 he became the undisputed champion with a unanimous points win over Evander Holyfield then confirmed he was the best heavyweight of his era by stopping Mike Tyson in the eighth round of a one-sided fight in Memphis in June 2002.
The BBC and other British media said Lewis would call an end to his 14-year career -- although his management office declined to confirm the decision.
Trainer Emanuel Steward recently said he wanted Lewis to beat Klitschko one more time but would understand if he didn't want the fight.
"If you hesitate about making up your mind, that is not good," Steward said. "If he feels he can go back to the training it is going to take, and the grind it is going to take, he should do it.
"If he wants to go back up the mountain for this one final war, yes, but if he doesn't, my suggestion is just to leave and rest on your laurels."
Lewis' two losses -- to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman -- were huge upsets, but he went on to beat both in rematches. His one draw was against Evander Holyfield in a fight most people felt he had won.
Former manager Frank Maloney, who guided Lewis through most of his career, said the loss to Rahman in South Africa in April 2001 was a sign he was losing his spark.
"He should have gone after the Tyson fight because there was nothing else for him to prove then," Maloney said. "He had achieved everything he had set out to do."
Duke McKenzie, a former world champion at three weights who now is a boxing analyst with the BBC, said he was convinced Lewis was retiring.
"This news hasn't come as a great surprise to the boxing fraternity," the former world flyweight, bantamweight and super bantamweight champion said.
"Lennox has earned a hell of a lot of money from boxing and he doesn't have anything more to prove to anyone now and it is the right decision.
"He had nothing to gain from a rematch and everything to lose. Lennox has been fighting to establish what he called a boxing legacy and I think he's created that now."
