Lennox Lewis will see in his 60th birthday today, Tuesday September 2, surrounded by his friends and family in Miami, Florida.

It has been a busy few months for the east London-born heavyweight icon, who was back in his home city recently as a pundit.

For the third time since he achieved the feat in November 1999, a British fighter tried and failed to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. First Tyson Fury lost in successive outings to Oleksandr Usyk then the Ukrainian wizard stopped Daniel Dubois in the fifth round of their Wembley Stadium encounter.

Lewis was ringside for all three fights, admiring the work of another all-time great from the division but quietly thinking to himself how he would have gone about beating Usyk.

“I wish I was in this era of boxing,” Lewis said afterwards. “Because I would have loved to box him. I can’t see why nobody can figure him out because I would be able to. It would be my challenge to go after Oleksandr and beat him.”

Amazingly, across his professional career, Lewis, who finished with a record of 41-2-1 (32 KOs), never boxed a southpaw so the fantasy fight between him and Usyk is a difficult one to picture. That is unless you’re Lewis himself.

“I don’t think he would have lasted against me,” he added. “Because I threw a mean uppercut in there and I noticed he gets caught by them. He wouldn’t have been able to stand up to my uppercuts.”

The day before Usyk beat Dubois, the former undisputed champion was in the Hilton adjacent to the stadium speaking to reporters about what he expected to see 24 hours later. When assessing Usyk’s career, which now includes three undisputed titles, Lewis had suggested that the Ukrainian belongs in ‘the same room’ as Muhammad Ali, himself and all the other heavyweight greats. It was a fine turn of phrase from the man who once coined the term ‘politricks’ for the snakes-and-ladders boxing business.

Now helping nurture young, would-be boxers via the Lennox Lewis League of Champions, he has seen every side of boxing in the 47 years since he first laced up the gloves back in 1978. He won the world junior championships within five years before he went to the Olympics aged just 18. He lost to the eventual champion Tyrell Biggs in the quarter-finals but he would not be denied four years later at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when a more mature Lewis claimed gold for Canada, where he moved to aged 12.

He returned to Britain to launch his professional career in the June of 1989 and it was clear from the outset that the 6ft 5in puncher was destined for greatness. He would not lose a fight until the September of 1994 when, at 25-0, he was stopped by Oliver McCall in the second round in what was the third defence of his WBC heavyweight title.

Back he stormed, with four wins (3 KOs) on the bounce, before he got redemption against McCall at the Hilton in Las Vegas, reclaiming the WBC heavyweight title via fifth round stoppage on February 7, 1997.

That would be the start of his run to undisputed as he racked up four more wins, including memorable knockouts of Andrew Golota and Shannon Briggs, before his first unification clash with WBA and IBF champion Evander Holyfield. The split draw in their first encounter in March 1999 was as controversial as it was surprising given Lewis’ apparent dominance but he made sure in the rematch eight months later.

At the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, Lewis won via unanimous decision, with scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 confirming his status as undisputed heavyweight champion. Nobody else from these shores has managed it in the 25 and a half years since.

Which brings us back to Usyk. Although Lewis never boxed a southpaw, he did fight a former cruiserweight champion in Holyfield, drawing once and winning the other. Perhaps he will point to that fact over dinner in Miami when the subject of conversation inevitably turns to boxing. But he will also raise a glass to a career that will stand the test of time as one of the best in the history of the division and arguably the best of all time in Britain.

As he says himself: “Lennox Lewis is the best, I laid them all the rest, I’m the pugilist specialist, nobody can test.”