Salvador Sanchez, Andrew Murray and Cleveland Denny were boxers who lost their lives in the prime of their existence.
Andrew “Sixhead” Lewis though, is one of few Guyanese sportspersons who fit the description of “The great dying young”. The passing of Guyana’s first world champion should be a loss akin to the intense bereavement Mexicans felt when the legendary Sanchez was killed at the tender age of 23.
For he was the very first world champion of any type, sport or otherwise from this country. Eerily, Lewis was killed, in a vehicle incident which also accounted for Sanchez’s demise as well as the former’s compatriot Murray.
Sanchez had the makings of becoming one of the best ever from a great global boxing hotbed, and although “Sixhead” would not qualify in similar mould comparatively, nothing will detract from his achievement of reaching the peak of accomplishment others before him could not attain.
Although he was well past the age of maximum excellence of human sport endeavors, at 44 years, “Sixhead” never got the chance to officially announce his retirement which would’ve deserve a sendoff never bestowed on any local sportsperson prior.
“Life begins at 40 (years)” is a popular expression of yore, and Lewis was yet to enjoy the perks and pleasures of midlife. Disturbingly, the cause of his death smacks of a misdeed by a driver who has since been arrested and held in police custody. If Lewis was indeed struck down on the East Bank public road through no fault of his, like so many others whose lives have been wasted away in a Guyana today, where the breakdown of law and order is pervasive, it is a sadder end than is initially thought.
Growing up in Albouystown, one of Georgetown’s most notorious neighborhoods,”Sixhead” avoided the pitfalls that bedeviled many young residents there. He overcame the gritty, tough environment, using his talent in the fistic sport that compelled him to punch his way to fame and a bit of fortune. With the help of longstanding trainer George “Canchi” Oprecht, who must be regarded as the most unrecognized trainer in Guyana’s sport, Lewis battled his way out of poverty as one of many youngsters the former tutored at the neighborhood’s famed Young Achievers Gym.
“Sixhead’s” talent was obvious to the experts from the time he blew away local competition to earn the chance to battle for a place at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. When he survived the rugged competition at the Americas Box –Off, to punch his ticket to Spain, fans were forced to take notice. Without any overseas preparation, “Sixhead” dropped a narrow loss to German Andreas Otto at the Games, and on his return home, he joined the professional ranks, but slipped down the pecking order of fan favorites in the rugged welterweight division.
Prior to a highly anticipated match-up with Marcelle Daniels, “Sixhead” was the underdog but his ability was obvious to keen observers. Longstanding sportswriter, the late Quintyn Taylor was among those who knew better and quite emphatically predicted a Lewis victory. Demonstrating a series of shadow combinations, the veteran analyst stated at the time, “Sixhead’ is the man, he has everything, power in both hands and ring craft to match”. Lewis won the fight and never looked back.
His emergence burst forth at the tail end of Guyana’s best era in both professional and amateur boxing from the 1970s to the late 1980s. Although Lewis’s world title paved the foundation for Vivian Harris and Wayne Braithwaite to follow suit with WBA and WBC titles of their own, it was the aforementioned two-decade period that cemented Guyana’s place as a country of note worldwide in the “Sweet science”.
The late Patrick Ford, Lennox Blackmore, Kenny Bristol, Ali, Reginald Ford and Mark Harris among others, led an assault on international competition that etched Guyana’s place on the global map. Denny, the Canada-based welterweight was in the midst of a promising professional career when his bravery got the better of him and he tragically died from injuries in the ring at the hands of Canadian Gaeten Hart.
Having not travelled as rough a road his predecessors endured in the world title quest, it would be fair to argue Lewis’s overall career accomplishments are not as sterling as the mentioned trio who came close. He didn’t have to face warriors like Sanchez, who Ford battled for 15 long founds for the WBA featherweight belt, or his subsequent foe Eusebio Pedroza or the buzz saw named Aaron Pryor who stopped Blackmore in his tracks or even Harry Arroyo who quashed Ali’s hopes.
Page was a fighter in decline when “Sixhead” brushed him aside, but had the Guyanese been exposed to the high caliber management his three mentioned compatriots benefitted from, the best of Lewis’s talent might’ve been awakened.
So, it is fair to conclude he will be remembered as the boxing hero who enjoyed the trappings of success more than the dedication required to produce substantially great careers. He was the pioneer from Albouystown, who was not prepared for the attention he received as Guyana’s long awaited boxing hero. “Sixhead” was always the life of the party at the many social functions he traversed throughout Guyana and in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, United States.
Ricardo Mayorga, the man who dethroned him in his second defense of his WBA title, would be considered subpar to Sanchez, Pedroza and Pryor.
But on the night of February 17 2001, Lewis swelled Guyanese hearts like few before him did, when he put Page to sleep. The Golden Arrowhead fluttered at the world’s biggest boxing mecca —— the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas.
It is difficult to accept the reality that “Sixhead” Lewis is no more. We can only have one boxing pioneer, and regardless of his career’s decline subsequently, the memory he brought us will linger forever.
