Rewind to 1994 and Lennox Lewis ended the drought that Britain had endured for so long when it came to having a world heavyweight champion. Lewis, who was born in London but moved to Canada at the age of 12, won a version of the crown, becoming the first British fighter to hold the world heavyweight title since the great Bob Fitzsimmons.

Although many people claimed Lewis was Canadian, Lennox maintained that he was a true Brit. And in 1993, after a victory over Tony Tucker, Lewis became the first Briton to win the world heavyweight title since the great Bob Fitzsimmons had won the real one in the previous century. Lewis had taken the version, the one that Riddick Bowe had thrown in the bin, and yet he had made history. Some people, not least the British fans who now “claimed” Lennox as one of their own, believed that the 6ft 5in, athletic puncher might be the best in the world at that weight. In time, that thinking would prove to be right. But first, there was a substantial bump in the road in the road in the form of Oliver McCall and his ace trainer, Emanuel Steward.

Making his third defense of the WBC belt he won by decision over Tony Tucker, Lewis faced a tough, already gray-haired Oliver McCall. Steward armed the “Atomic Bull” with a plain but quite brilliant game plan: throw a right hand to the chin as demanding as you can as soon as Lewis throws his, then drop your hands.

In the second round that night in London, everything worked like a treat. Lewis, with the much less wise but much louder Pepe Correa in his corner, correctly threw a right, then let his hands drop; just as Emanuel had noticed. McCall didn’t miss a beat, firing a right counter with his eyes closed and outshining Lewis in a flash. Lewis stumbled, then stumbled some more before the referee called for a stoppage. Lewis never saw what hit him, while McCall never saw what hit Lewis! But McCall “felt” the shot, as well as seeing the opening.

Lewis’ career took a drastic turn, but the good news outweighed the bad. Steward always said Lewis was the better, more naturally gifted fighter, and shortly after McCall’s disaster, Lewis was trained, educated, and honed by the genius Kronk. The rest is history.

On Saturday night we saw another British fighter suffer an even more ugly defeat in Anthony Joshua (who, we have to admit, isn’t as great as Lewis), so we’ll have to wait and see if AJ can bounce back. Lewis did, although he took significantly less punishment than Joshua in his loss to Daniel Dubois, and the loss to McCall was of course the first defeat for Lennox, who has only lost twice in his illustrious career. At one point, some people were comparing Joshua to Lewis. Never again.

The great boxer Kostya Tszyu turns 55 today, and the former pound-for-pound king has many great fights and nights behind him that are worth remembering.

Think of Tszyu, and you’ll likely immediately think of two of his fights: the huge, upset loss to Ricky Hatton toward the end of Tszyu’s career, and Zab Judah, whom Tszyu met when he was in his prime. Tszyu, who has gigantic wins over the likes of Juan Laporte, Sammy Fuentes, Livingston Bramble, Jake Rodriguez, Roger Mayweather, Calvin Grove, Rafael Ruelas, Diosbelys Hurtado, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Julio Cesar Chavez (a fight the aging Chavez should never have taken), Sharmaba Mitchell, Oktay Urkal, Ben Tackie and Jesse James Leija — went up in flames when he ran into Judah in November 2001.

Tszyu’s stunning, sensational, and even disturbing KO over Zab remains a YouTube favorite.

Why?

If you ever wanted to see what could happen to a fighter’s balance, his ability to think clearly, after taking a single perfectly placed punch to a vulnerable spot on the head—whether it’s the chin or the temple—the brief but highly memorable fight on November 3, 2001 between Tszyu and Judah provides one graphic illustration of that fact.

The two 140-pound contenders met in a three-belt unification bout, and the experts were almost split on who would win. It was a great matchup between two top fighters. Slick southpaw Judah of Modern York was undefeated at 27-0 and held the IBF belt. Tszyu of Australia was 27-1, coming off a loss to Vince Phillips in 1997, and held the WBC and WBA titles.

Instead of a great fight, we got a great KO. A completely devastating knockout that landed the loser in all sorts of trouble.

Zab won the first round, his speed and accuracy admirable, and some fans were already wondering if Tszyu wasn’t just too snail-paced to compete with “Super Judah.” And then, in the final seconds of the second round, it happened. Tszyu landed a perfect right hand to Judah’s exposed chin, a powerful blow that knocked Zab tough onto his back. Judah got up quickly, too quickly, and almost immediately fell back down after trying to talk to referee Jay Nady.

Nady waved the fight to an end immediately after the second knockdown, seeing Judah’s legs completely gone from close range. Judah was inconsolable, crying that it was okay to continue, then he got nasty, grabbing the third man by the throat with his gloved fist, then throwing a stool at Nady. It was an ugly thing. One punch, one perfectly executed punch, ruined the great fighter to the point that Judah didn’t know what he was doing or where he was.

In many ways, Judah’s career never recovered. Tszyu’s punch grenade exploded and Judah suffered the humiliating KO defeat that all fighters fear. Judah fell victim to all sorts of cruel jokes at his expense, with fans calling his “chicken dance.”

All fighters put their lives on the line every time they bravely stepped into the ring. Kostya Tszyu’s brutal knockout proved that many years ago.

Content birthday, champ!

As the scribes wrote at the time, Felix and Oscar were not an “odd couple.” But after Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya fought 12 rounds at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, much was written about how strange the scorecards were. To this day, a quarter-century after the hugely hyped welterweight unification fight, fans argue over who actually won, with some saying De La Hoya was simply robbed on the night of September 18, 1999.

Coming into the superfight, Mexican-American star De La Hoya was 31-0 (25), in excellent shape, and “The Golden Boy” was the current WBC welterweight champion. Puerto Rican superstar Trinidad was also in excellent shape, also undefeated at 35-0 (30) and the reigning IBF 147-pound champion. This was a true pick ’em fight, and fight fans, pundits, and historians were expecting a classic battle.

Instead, we have a chess match. Both men were cautious from the start, with De La Hoya gaining the upper hand with some clever boxing. This was not the Hagler-Hearns crisis some had expected and hoped for. De La Hoya controlled the match, racking up the points, and Trinidad grew increasingly frustrated as he received a real lesson in boxing. It could be argued that De La Hoya deserved to take all nine rounds of the fight. De La Hoya certainly felt he had the upper hand, but as we later learned, it was close after nine rounds – one judge had it 86-86, while the other two had Oscar ahead by a narrow margin, 87-84 and 86-85.

De La Hoya then stopped fighting and threw punches, trying to box to the finish. Trinidad came in sturdy, winning the last three rounds of the fight. De La Hoya was later criticized for “running” in the championship rounds. But De La Hoya felt he had done enough, so why mix it up with a risky banger like Trinidad and risk getting tagged when he tired?

At the bell, both declared victory, but the decision, the majority decision, was Tito’s. The scores of 115-113, 115-114, 114-114 remain hotly debated to this day. Mike Tyson said at the time that “that decision stinks,” and Tyson, along with many others, felt that De La Hoya had been robbed of his belt and his undefeated record. Interestingly, there would be no rematch.

De La Hoya collapsed after a close loss, and his mood only worsened by the insults he received from most of the media. This fight is not as talked about and debated as the Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight and its split decision that was divisive, but damn, it’s pretty close.

So many years have passed and who do you think won the Trinidad-De La Hoya fight?