WHEN journalist extraordinaire Ron Lewis handed away on Friday morning, on the age of simply 54, the response from inside the boxing trade was akin to what follows the dying of an important fighter. One of many tragedies of sudden dying is that the departed by no means absolutely perceive the influence they made in life, and Lewis, whereas ego-free and much happier within the shadows than the limelight, would unquestionably have been proud to grasp the excessive regard his reminiscence will now eternally command.
Lewis has gone too quickly however was nonetheless a veteran of his commerce and consequently one of many best at it. All through his 30-plus years in boxing he by no means as soon as sought approval, he merely did his job in a fashion that needs to be a lesson to all journalists; the phrases he used to craft myriad pages have been solely ever designed to attract consideration to the boxers and the game, by no means himself.
A person of nice (and uncommon) integrity, he steadfastly remained loyal to his beliefs that have been born of an acute moral sense. Lewis was a strict vegetarian lengthy earlier than vegetarianism or veganism have been as broadly embraced as they’re at the moment. Why? Very just because he appreciated animals and didn’t wish to eat them. Anybody who hung out with Ron throughout a visit away can inform you a special story about his adventures searching for meat-free delicacies. All the time a stickler for the reality, he wouldn’t assume twice about telling somebody if he believed they weren’t telling it; whether or not that individual was a world heavyweight champion, a promoter, or an attendant serving him meals.
“Ron was very reasonable. He would all the time quiz you, generally interrogate you,” Eddie Hearn instructed Boxing Information. “However he would all the time hear your aspect of the story. He would all the time are available with a balanced thoughts as a author, a really gifted author. He understood the enterprise and would all the time let you might have your say. He would generally be vital however all the time be honest.”
Lewis first began going to boxing occasions on the Royal Albert Corridor as a nine-year-old when accompanied by his older brother, Tom. Their father would drop them on the door and be there ready for them on the finish of the night time. That fascination grew as a young person within the Eighties when he lined the game for BN, a publication to which he would contribute for the remainder of his life.
His profession in journalism gathered tempo within the following decade on the Hounslow Chronicle, from the place he would go on to work weekend shifts as a subeditor on the Guardian and the Every day Mail. A transfer to the Instances adopted, and that’s the place Ron Lewis would, ultimately, make his identify.
“He spent a large number of years informal subbing, and generally getting the odd little bit of writing – his first being a cricket piece,” stated his spouse, Ellie. “We truthfully thought he would by no means get a author’s job. Even then, they didn’t make him employees; it was on a extremely restrictive retainer contract.”
Lewis’ ambition, coupled with excellent writing expertise, ultimately noticed him change into the paper’s boxing and athletics correspondent, a task that allowed him to attend three Olympic Video games and numerous championship fights. In contrast to a few of his era, Lewis – a long-time fan of Queens Park Rangers – was all the time eager to assist different journalists no matter their age, whether or not that be with a contact, some data or a phrase of their ear if he felt they wanted encouragement or warning. By way of all of it, Lewis turned a fixture each bit as acquainted, and vital, as a nook submit or ending line.
If Ron wasn’t at a boxing occasion, be it a press convention, beginner invoice or world championship battle, then it merely wasn’t price attending. He made it his enterprise to be ever-present, not all the time as a result of he wished to be, however as a result of he knew that to be the reporter and author he was, and the for the game to achieve the protection it deserved, he merely needed to be.
“He was all the time combating for protection within the Instances,” stated Hearn. “I used to be a bit of bit petrified of him once I first met him; there was this notion of Ron that he was actually severe and generally a little bit of a moaner, however he wasn’t, it was a dry sense of humour he had… He would all the time ask leftfield questions and you’ll assume, ‘How are you aware that?’ He knew the whole lot, actually.”
Ron Lewis with Billy Joe Saunders and Eddie Hearn (Mark Robinson)
Maybe the best praise to pay to Lewis’ professionalism is that he was practically all the time the primary nationwide reporter to reach at a battle card, so eager was he to see the undercard and its fighters, no matter the perceived high quality of the bouts. It’s in fact Boxing Information’ obligation to be there on the afternoon or early night’s opening bell however Lewis was by no means far behind, regardless of figuring out that an eight-hour shift awaited and the newspaper he represented would solely need phrases from the principle occasion. As different nationwide journalists began to trickle in throughout the chief-support, Lewis had already been in his seat for hours, digesting the performances of up-and-coming boxers he had invariably lined since their beginner days.
It was that zeal for the beginner code which additional highlights Lewis’ dedication to boxing. “We just lately sat down with Moses Itauma,” remembered Wally Downes, the Solar’s boxing reporter. “Moses had been peppered with Mike Tyson comparisons and questions in regards to the skilled fighters he’d sparred. Then he got here in to the aspect room with us and, in typical Ron trend, he obtained him speaking about his beginner profession, his pedigree, he was changing kilograms to stone and going by all of his coaches at residence and at Workforce GB. When the interview was completed, Moses obtained up and stated, ‘Oh, was that it? I hope all interviews are like that, I can do these on a regular basis.’ I bear in mind we obtained the bus again to Stratford station and Ron stated that moments like that have been why he did it. Moments like that, when a younger child revered him that a lot, meant extra to him than travelling the world and getting bylines.”
One other main boxing reporter, Chris McKenna, added: “I’ve travelled the world with him and we bonded over a love of the beginner sport. He would blow me away together with his data, and never simply of GB and Irish boxers, however boxers from everywhere in the world. The most important battle I ever lined with him was Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao, and his pleasure was to get into the sector early as a result of Vasiliy Lomachenko was on the cardboard as properly. He all the time instructed us, ‘When these nice fighters are in motion, it’s a must to watch them.’ It was sound recommendation and recommendation he all the time adopted himself… Boxing’s going to overlook him, journalism’s going to overlook him and I’m definitely going to overlook him.”
Steve Bunce stated, “What’s clear, with everybody speaking about Ron Lewis, is how revered he was and the way respectable he was – and he was. It’s actually laborious in our enterprise to not get sucked in, to not be swamped by the politics, swamped by the highly effective characters; Ron did a extremely good job of holding off that sort of stuff and simply being respectable and degree and straight, and other people trusted him.”
Information of his dying from cardiac arrest was a horrible, sobering shock. It got here the day after he sat alongside Anthony Joshua at Thursday’s press convention and barely hours earlier than his final piece was revealed by Boxing Scene.
“I’m shocked and saddened on the passing of Ron,” stated Joshua. “He was such a well-respected and valued member of the boxing household. He lined my complete profession and it was a pleasure to work with him. My ideas are together with his household at this immensely unhappy time. He will likely be sorely missed.”
“He was such a beautiful fella,” stated Barry McGuigan. “He might write about something and was so educated. He was a gentleman.”
Ron Lewis was somebody all of us appeared as much as and admired unconditionally. We listened when he spoke and puzzled what he was considering when he remained quiet. Unforgivably, in what ought to function a lesson to everybody concerning how we talk with others, we didn’t inform him how a lot we considered him when he was alive. So ingrained was he within the boxing cloth that we presumed he’d all the time be there, with that smile of his, one which not often left his face whether or not he was bemoaning your opinion, agreeing with it, or regaling certainly one of his many anecdotes from a sport that needs to be eternally grateful that he took it to his coronary heart.
“Ron has forgotten greater than I’ll ever learn about boxing,” stated Dave Anderson of the Mirror. “He was steeped within the topic, it was unbelievable, he knew the whole lot. You’d google one thing [on boxing] and Ron was usually the author. You knew simply from studying the piece that he had the data of these he was writing about. He liked boxing a lot.”
What he adored probably the most, nonetheless, was his household. His beloved spouse Ellie and their two kids, Stanley and Polly. On lengthy automotive journeys dialog would both start or rapidly flip to the delight he felt for his youngsters; fathers who’re at their happiest within the presence of their kids actually are the best of males. If being a grasp of his commerce is why the surface world will bear in mind him, it’s the love he brazenly spoke about for his spouse and kids – notably in a largely male-orientated world the place nonsensical machismo and bravado is so prevalent – that ought to outline him.
“The final time I had a prolonged dialog with him,” remembered Mike Costello, “we took the tube residence collectively and he was gushing about his son’s cricket expertise and he spoke about younger Stanley nearly each time I met him lately. That zeal for different sports activities, that broader data, was evident in his writing down the years and if younger Stanley does develop as much as at some point play cricket for England then we will boast that we knew his outdated man and inform everybody that he was a superb ‘un.”
In October, following the cancellation of the Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn contest, Lewis joined different journalists on an evening out that sprawled into the early hours. “Ron obtained a cab residence at two or three within the morning,” Downes recalled. “Just a few weeks later I requested him if he was, like the remainder of us, within the canine home [with Ellie] for staying out so late. He stated, ‘No, she was actually pleased that I’d been out with the boys and loved myself.’ I by no means heard him moan about his spouse. We’re all a curmudgeon bunch, however I by no means heard that from Ron.”
He would moan and grumble about boxing, like all of us do. However solely when it was price moaning about and by no means as soon as for the sake of it or to slot in with the group. In each means, Ron was his personal man. He was cussed, however proudly so, and all the time trusted his personal instincts and opinions. And it’s these opinions that I’ll miss probably the most. Lately, when he turned a freelancer after the Instances criminally let him go, Boxing Information was fortunate sufficient to showcase his work extra incessantly. If Ron was overlaying an occasion it was a consolation figuring out we have been within the most secure of palms and, being an editor who has spent numerous hours rewriting or correcting shoddy copy, it was all the time appreciated that his was clear as a whistle and a pleasure to learn.
When overlaying an occasion at ringside, the very first thing we do is search for our identify on press row and take our seat. The second job is to scan the names of these alongside us, generally with dread about who we would need to endure throughout the lengthy night time forward. I’ll eternally cherish these nights that adopted realising ‘Ron Lewis’ can be my companion. How all of us now want we might sit alongside him once more.
