Joe Rogan Experience #1260 - Lennox Lewis & Russell Peters

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Just don't cras- crash…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      Just don't cras- crash as much. You don't think that's the issue?

   2. RPRussell Peters0:03

      No, no, no.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:05

      Four, three, two. This time, we're live. (object thuds) Ladies and gentlemen, we are live with the great and powerful, Russell Peters. Hello.

   4. LLLennox Lewis0:16

      Hi.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      And one of the baddest motherfuckers to ever get into the ring-

   6. LLLennox Lewis0:20

      Yes.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      ... Lennox Lewis.

   8. LLLennox Lewis0:21

      Don't mess with the best.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      That's a fact. That, you know, you're walking around on this earth, one of the baddest motherfuckers of all time.

   10. LLLennox Lewis0:29

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       Verified, 100%.

   12. LLLennox Lewis0:31

       I feel good about it too.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       It's gotta feel good.

   14. LLLennox Lewis0:33

       Yeah, I don't get in any fights.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:34

       But you know what else? You have your wits about you, 100%, you- you're smooth and relaxed, you know? How did you do that?

   16. LLLennox Lewis0:42

       Oh, I started out that way. (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       (laughs) (claps)

   18. LLLennox Lewis0:47

       It's like, uh, you know, (sighs) apple don't fall too far from the tree, type of thing. Uh, I've always been that way, uh, col- collective thinker, uh, soft-spoken, and, um, what you don't know about me, what you don't know about me, when you do know about me, you love me even more.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:06

       Do you exercise at all anymore, boxing-wise?

   20. LLLennox Lewis1:08

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:08

       Do you, do you hit the bag and-

   22. LLLennox Lewis1:09

       Well, not, not hit the bag, I'm more into, like, working out with the weights. It was, uh, like, it was hard for me when I retired. That was the worst part. Uh-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:18

       What was the hardest?

   24. LLLennox Lewis1:19

       Just, you know, saying, "Okay," you know, "I'm eating more, so I need to exercise," 'cause I'm not doing no exercising, but when I start exercising, I'm training for a fight.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:27

       Right.

   26. LLLennox Lewis1:28

       So it's like, "Okay, training, training. Why am I doing this? I'm not gonna fight, but I'm still training for a fight." So mentally, I had to say to myself, "Well, let me try the soft things," you know? "Let me play tennis and all these different sports which I can play," and that kinda helped me a lot better.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:44

       Yeah, that is an interesting thing with fighters. A lot of times, when they're done, they're done. They just get-

   28. RPRussell Peters1:48

       Look at, look at Maidana.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:49

       Ricky Hatton. (clears throat) Ooh, yeah. Well, he's apparently gotten back in shape, yeah.

   30. RPRussell Peters1:51

       He's, he's training back, he's got, he's back in training camp, but Maidana got big.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      Lost a controversial decision to Sugar Ray Leonard- 1967. He said, "Take care. I'm gonna go do some movies." And that was it.

   2. LLLennox Lewis15:06

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      He just never came back. I mean, it is so rare that a fighter does that.

   4. LLLennox Lewis15:10

      Well, you know what?

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      Marvin was disheartened like a motherfucker for the boxing though. He hated it. He was like, "I'm out." Yeah.

   6. LLLennox Lewis15:15

      Yeah. Um, you know, we... Boxers go through so much and, uh, it's like when they know when it's time... When a boxer says it's time to quit, they know it's time because they've gone through so much and they realize that it's a lot of hard work. For me, I've been boxing since I've been 15. So, you know, I've been training hundreds of hours, training hundreds of hours, uh, working out, resting, uh, working on, uh, technique, sparring, all these different things. After a while, you know, you have to rea- you reach that height where you say, "Okay, that's enough." And sometimes, you know, people, managers and trainers and promoters, they don't want to tell the boxer that's enough because that's how much they're making money off of that boxer every time he steps in the ring.

   7. JRJoe Rogan16:00

      Right.

   8. LLLennox Lewis16:01

      So, um-

   9. JRJoe Rogan16:02

      Did you have a conversation with Emanuel Steward about it?

   10. LLLennox Lewis16:04

       Absolutely.

   11. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       Yeah. And who, who made the decision? Did you guys make it together?

   12. LLLennox Lewis16:07

       Uh, I made the decision. He wanted m- me actually to go on.

   13. JRJoe Rogan16:11

       Really?

   14. LLLennox Lewis16:11

       Yeah. 'Cause I wanted to... You know, Tyson was my main nemesis and, um, you know, he's a, he's a boxer that I would... I definitely wanted to fight before retiring. And, uh, I didn't know if it was gonna happen or not. So I actually stuck around for a couple more years for that fight to happen because I didn't want throughout history people would be saying, "Oh, Tyson would've won," or, "Louis would've won." I wanted them to know who would've won.

   15. JRJoe Rogan16:38

       Right, right.

   16. LLLennox Lewis16:39

       And then after that, after the Tyson fight, you know, Manny said, "Listen, Klitschko's around. That's the new generation. You can beat the, the guys from this generation and the guys from the next generation." I'm like, "Yeah, that sounds good." So he kind of talked me into doing that fight 'cause I wasn't really gonna go do that fight.

   17. JRJoe Rogan16:55

       Mm-hmm.

   18. LLLennox Lewis16:56

       And then, uh, you know, that was a year after Tyson and I didn't really want to, uh, box him straight away. I wanted to box somebody else because the main nemesis was Tyson and, you know, once I, once I beat Tyson, you know, I could relax a little bit. I relaxed for a year and then getting back into boxing, I boxed Klitschko, was my first fight, which was a mistake. Took the fight 17, 17 days notice. At my worst, I beat him at his best.

   19. JRJoe Rogan17:24

       Why did, why was that such a short notice fight?

   20. LLLennox Lewis17:26

       Uh, uh, because the opponent that I actually picked to fight didn't fight... didn't wanna fight me. He actually said no.

   21. JRJoe Rogan17:34

       Who was that supposed to be?

   22. LLLennox Lewis17:35

       Uh, Johnson from, uh...

   23. JRJoe Rogan17:38

       Oh yeah, Kirk Johnson-

   24. LLLennox Lewis17:39

       Kirk Johnson from Nova Scotia.

   25. JRJoe Rogan17:40

       ... from Nova Scotia. And you were doing him a favor?

   26. LLLennox Lewis17:42

       I think Klitschko felt that he was doing him a favor. "Listen, take... Let me take the fight off. Been training for two years for this guy. I'm ready. And then we'll give you the first shot after I win." That's what was promised to him.

   27. JRJoe Rogan17:55

       Vitali had such a weird style, didn't he?

   28. LLLennox Lewis17:58

       Yeah. He did and that's that kickboxing style coming into play-

   29. JRJoe Rogan18:01

       Mm-hmm.

   30. LLLennox Lewis18:01

       ... a little bit because he would throw a punch and lean back like this.And that's the first time I've actually seen that style.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Oh, man. …

   1. LLLennox Lewis30:00

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      Oh, man.

   3. LLLennox Lewis30:01

      And now-

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:01

      Over the top of the shoulder. And I took all- And Joe Cortez let him count still. Oh. That was a phenomenal pu- that was probably one of the most satisfying one-punch knockouts I've ever watched.

   5. LLLennox Lewis30:11

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:12

      Because I knew what you had gone through, and I knew, like everybody knew you were one of the greatest of all time.

   7. LLLennox Lewis30:17

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:17

      And then 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 gotta be fucking with your head.

   9. LLLennox Lewis30:33

      Let me tell you, the first time I lost, everybody was coming up and shaking my hand and said, "Well, what are you going to do now?" I'm like, "What do you mean what am I gonna do now?" "Yeah, well, what you gonna do now?" I go, "I'm gonna go back and win my cha- championship." They said, "Okay." You know, they didn't think it was gonna be possible. But I'm thinking Muhammad Ali gained the championship three times.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:54

       Yeah.

   11. LLLennox Lewis30:54

       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.

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:01

       D- do you, do you feel like there was, like, two stages of your career? Like pre-Emanuel Steward and then post?

   13. LLLennox Lewis31:06

       Yeah, absolutely. Uh-

   14. RPRussell Peters31:07

       There was two sizes of him too, then, if you look at ... And serious.

   15. LLLennox Lewis31:10

       (laughs)

   16. GUGuest31:10

       (laughs) Yeah.

   17. RPRussell Peters31:11

       Like, he went from, like, a, like a, a, a skinny, a skinny kid to a man, like a just giant fucking man out of nowhere.

   18. LLLennox Lewis31:17

       Yeah. Um, the pre-, the pre-Emanuel Stewart was obviously, you know, me learning how to be a professional, learning to fight pro. And then once I got to Emanuel, w- we just like, yo, he said, "Hey, you're a great fighter. You know, you used to move around lot. You gotta bring that back." I'm like, "Okay, cool." So the movement he brought back, he taught me a couple, uh, Kronk tricks.

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:42

       Mm.

   20. LLLennox Lewis31:43

       You know, that check hook and different things that the Kronk fighters do which works well. Um, and, uh, you know, he was easy to understand and what, what I liked about him, what he said, I can do, I could accomplish. He just told me what to do, I'll do it.

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:58

       Yeah.

   22. LLLennox Lewis31:58

       If he said, "Lin, we need to win this round," I'll win that round.

   23. JRJoe Rogan32:01

       Mm.

   24. LLLennox Lewis32:02

       You know what I mean?

   25. JRJoe Rogan32:02

       Yeah, you had that kind of relationship, right?

   26. LLLennox Lewis32:03

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:04

       He was really one of the great masters. You know, there, there's, there's certain masters when it comes to, like, boxing training. Like, when you would hear him discuss fighters, like, p- I really loved hearing him do commentary as well-

   28. LLLennox Lewis32:14

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:15

       ... because he would discuss fighters and what they need to do, and he was always just dead on. He just knew things. He understood boxing so comprehensively. He just knew what a fighter needed to do. So I was so excited when he started working with you because I was like, "Well, that's, that's exactly what Lennox needs."

   30. LLLennox Lewis32:32

       So is HBO because, you know, it's funny. I would do fights on HBO and they would say, "Oh, he's doing this. He's not doing this. He needs to do more. He needs to throw the jab more." Then Emanuel started working for me and he's like, "Oh, he's doing the jab. He's doing well." And I was like, "Oh, this is what you need. You need a great coach-"
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   I, I think the…

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      it's hard to listen to.

   2. RPRussell Peters45:00

      I, I think the good news is now we're on the other side of fighters coming out that punchy, I think with all the rules and changes that have been made.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:08

      What, what changes?

   4. RPRussell Peters45:09

      It's very... You won't, you won't meet as many punchy guys as you met from back in the day. Like you listen-

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:14

      Mm-hmm.

   6. RPRussell Peters45:14

      ... to Pernell, you listen to Riddick, you listen to Meldrik Taylor.

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:18

      Mm-hmm.

   8. RPRussell Peters45:18

      Uh, you listen to a lot of guys-

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:19

      Is Pernell out? Is Pernell bad now?

   10. RPRussell Peters45:20

       Yeah, he's a little... Uh, and Pernell never even got hit that much. (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:23

       He was the best. He was so slick.

   12. RPRussell Peters45:24

       But I think Pernell's is probably more from, uh, you know-

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:27

       Cocaine makes you slur your words?

   14. RPRussell Peters45:29

       I don't know, man. You know-

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:30

       (laughs)

   16. RPRussell Peters45:30

       ... I mean, you do enough shit in your life.

   17. LLLennox Lewis45:31

       He drinks, he drinks a lot.

   18. RPRussell Peters45:32

       Oh, is it drinking?

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:33

       Yeah.

   20. RPRussell Peters45:33

       I got drunk with Pernell once. (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:34

       Well, there's a lot of-

   22. RPRussell Peters45:35

       (laughs)

   23. LLLennox Lewis45:35

       Was that two beers?

   24. JRJoe Rogan45:36

       One of the things that they say with older fighters is, uh... Well, and even older football players, is they become addicted to alcohol because, like, they're, they're searching for something to try to, like, recalibrate their brain, you know? I mean, there's a scientific explanation to it, that people talk about people with traumatic brain injury often become, um, alcoholics. It's like they're, they're trying to get some sort of a dopamine rush out of-

   25. RPRussell Peters45:58

       You could also-

   26. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       ... out of booze.

   27. RPRussell Peters45:59

       You could also use the alcohol as a justification as to why you're slurring your speech.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:03

       Well, I know a dude who's a MMA fighter who is... He's, he's punchy, he's had a bunch of shots and this motherfucker will have one drink and you can't understand a word he's saying-

   29. RPRussell Peters46:12

       Yeah, it goes-

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       ... 'cause it, it hits him-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:02:48

   Right. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      y- your standards are higher 'cause you're actually Jamaican.

   2. LLLennox Lewis1:00:03

      Right.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:03

      But for me, it's tasty. I might be off though.

   4. LLLennox Lewis1:00:06

      Have you, have you been to Jamaica?

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:07

      No.

   6. LLLennox Lewis1:00:08

      You need to go.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      Do I?

   8. LLLennox Lewis1:00:09

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Okay.

   10. GUGuest1:00:09

       I think you would like it there.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:10

       I bet I would love it.

   12. LLLennox Lewis1:00:11

       It's f- it's very important to go to Jamaica because everybody always tells you different stories and stuff, but-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:15

       Right.

   14. LLLennox Lewis1:00:15

       ... it's a, it's a, it's a paradise over there.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:17

       Is it?

   16. LLLennox Lewis1:00:17

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:18

       What do you like most about it?

   18. LLLennox Lewis1:00:20

       Uh, (sighs) that you can see different colors, y- you know, 'cause I, I spent a long, long time in London. And when I left London to go to Jamaica, I was like, "Wow, all these different vibrant colors even in the water, in the-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:33

       Mm.

   20. LLLennox Lewis1:00:33

       ... colors in the trees." You know, when you're driving around London, it's gray. Just gray.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:37

       Right. Yeah.

   22. LLLennox Lewis1:00:38

       You know, different cities, they're gray. So I like, I like contacts with, contact with plants.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:00:43

       Vibrant.

   24. LLLennox Lewis1:00:44

       Yeah, energy-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:00:45

       Yeah.

   26. LLLennox Lewis1:00:45

       ... and all that, so...

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:00:46

       Yeah. You know, that's the interesting thing, you know, a lot of people do forget that you were from England, right?

   28. LLLennox Lewis1:00:51

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:00:51

       And that there was a stigma with English boxers-

   30. LLLennox Lewis1:00:54

       Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:24:29