Kid’s corner

OTTAWA — Perhaps it only makes sense that Lennox Lewis, the greatest heavyweight boxer of all-time in the estimation of George Foreman, was talking philosophically about the benefits of chess.

Even in his loftiest moments atop the world of professional boxing, Lewis often stood apart, a study in contrasts and misunderstandings.

He grew up in Kitchener, Ont., won a gold medal for Canada in the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, but became a British citizen after he turned pro, losing a fair share of Maple Leaf-wearing fans.

While in the spotlight as heavyweight champion, he spoke slowly and softly, without malice and with a British accent, unlike peers such as Mike Tyson. Tyson, you might recall, once told Lewis he was going “to eat your children.” Tyson also bit Lewis’s leg during a news conference before their 2002 fight, which Lewis won.

Lewis, 45, has happily put the fight game behind him. Now sporting dreadlocks and splitting time between Miami and Jamaica, he calls himself an “entrepreneur.” He owns a stake in a Jamaican coffee company fronted by Rohan Marley, the former Ottawa Rough Riders linebacker and son of legendary reggae star Bob Marley.

He’s also active in charity work, and his Lennox Lewis Foundation is charged with providing support for disadvantaged children who need help to reach their goals and stay out of trouble.

If, at first glance, it seems odd for a six-foot-five former boxing champion to be preaching chess as an ideal learning tool, Lewis sees it as an ideal learning tool.

“If you teach a kid chess, you teach him to sit down and think,” Lewis said Wednesday, who is in Ottawa, along with former heavyweight Gerry Cooney, for Thursday night’s 17th annual Ringside for Youth, a sold-out show of amateur boxing, with proceeds going to the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club.

“You think about strategy. You think about the next move. Chess is life. Most kids that play chess, they don’t go out and stab somebody because they’re thinking about the next move down the road, like I could get in trouble and I could go to jail. Chess is good for kids in that sense.”

Lewis said he’s always willing to lend his name to a worthwhile cause.

“We did something for Haiti the other day, but the kids is really my thing because I can associate with them, especially with what they’re doing with the Boys and Girls Club here. For me, it was the YMCA, especially in the summer and after school. I used to go to the YMCA and I played every sport there is. Table tennis. Pool. Basketball. There was an outlet for me.

“I appreciate what the Boys and Girls Club are doing because kids need a place where they can let loose with their energy and be in a safe and good environment that they can learn from.”

While Lewis realizes he was fortunate to have had a second home and “somebody to talk to me and say, ‘Don’t do that, man, it’s wrong,’ ” Cooney says he wasn’t so fortunate.

“For me, personally, I was one of those kids,” said Cooney, who never misses an opportunity to tell his life story to children. “I grew up around alcohol, a lot of abuse, a lot of beatings. I learned to hide in the basement. If they couldn’t find me, they couldn’t hurt me. And (the Boys and Girls Club) helps kids get a voice at an earlier age, to make some changes and maybe make life a little less stressful, a little less traumatic with a lot more love in their life.”

When Cooney’s career went downhill — Larry Holmes knocked him out in the 13th round of his only world heavyweight title shot in 1982 — he dealt with it by turning to drugs and alcohol. Now sober, Cooney considers himself lucky to have found the necessary support to turn around his life.

“(At the time), I wish I had somebody who told me, ‘Don’t go that way, come this way, let’s work a little harder.’ I could have been a champion.

“But I’m alive and that’s the one good thing. Most guys today from the fight game can’t remember who they are. With boxing, they don’t give you a fallback, tell you to go to school. That’s why I’m working with an organization that gives (boxers) an aptitude test and shows them where their strengths are and helps point them in the right direction.”

Ottawa Citizen

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com