‘Saved a lot of lives’: Johnny Lewis hailed a legend ahead of 80th birthday

From famous names to faces in the crowd, people lined up to pay their respects to Johnny Lewis during an extraordinary This Is Your Life-style tribute, recorded for the I Catch Killers podcast.

Legendary boxing trainer Johnny Lewis has been hailed as one of the greatest ever Australians on the eve of his 80th birthday.

From famous names to faces in the crowd, people lined up to pay their respects during an extraordinary This Is Your Life-style tribute, recorded this week for the I Catch Killers podcast.

Born and bred in inner Sydney, Lewis has trained six world champions, as well as coaching the Australian Olympic boxing team and the Kangaroos on an overseas tour. He’s also worked closely with prisoners and former criminals, with several people breaking down in tears describing the influence he had.

“Your impact on my life was like no other,” said the former world champion boxer Jeff Fenech, who Lewis trained from a raw teenager.

“Knowing he was there meant I felt safe. I don’t think I’d be here today without you.”

Johnny Lewis with Gary Jubelin for the I Catch Killers special. Picture: Justin Lloyd

In an emotional video message, recorded as the boxer prepared to go into hospital for planned treatment, he said Lewis “outshines all of us, being Australia’s greatest human”.

Lewis said that training Fenech in the 1980s “was the most wonderful journey I’ve ever been on”.

Growing up tough on the streets of Erskineville, “I never, ever, thought I would train a world champion”.

Lewis went on to lead a series of other fighters to world titles, including Jeff Harding and Kostya Tszyu.

Another former world champion, Danny Green, said watching Lewis and Fenech on television made him fall in love with the sport.

Years later, when he had the opportunity to train with Lewis: “I nearly had a heart attack because I just didn’t wanna stop punching and stop working”, Green said.

Johnny Lewis and Danny Green embrace on the I Catch Killers set.

“I just tried so hard to impress this man. He’s had an incredible effect on human beings without trying.”

Green said Lewis had never sought the spotlight.

“He’s saved a lot of lives.”

Equally emotional during the exchange, Lewis said: “I would like Danny to know that I’m still in his corner”.

Others also paid tribute to the support Lewis continues to provide.

The actor, writer and director Matt Nable wept openly as he described Lewis’s influence on his brother Aaron, who died this month from motor neurone disease.

“It’s still very raw. It’s hard to talk about,” said Nable. “Coming here, I knew it would be emotional.”

Day’s earlier, with his brother close to the end, Nable said a doctor told him that no one would ever forget how Aaron fought against the disease.

“A lot of that had to do with things he learned from Johnny,” Nable said, adding Lewis trained Aaron to an Australian amateur boxing title when he was 19.

Lewis with John Siriotis and Jeff Fenech.

With the funeral due to be held a day after the podcast recording, Nable said Lewis would be sitting at the front, along with the family.

“There aren’t too many people who … have an ability to connect with everyone socially, no matter where they’re from or who they are,” Nable said. “Social standing or hierarchy doesn’t matter to him. He treats everyone with the same love and respect that they deserve.

“We’re all blessed. Our family has been blessed to have Johnny in our lives.”

Also speaking through tears, Lewis described Aaron as “one in a million” and said knowing the Nable family was “as good as winning the Lotto”.

Fox Sports executive director Steve Crawley said: “People are their best when they’re around Johnny”.

Fox Sports’ Matty Johns said: “Most people would like to do great things for people … but very, very, very few people are able to do it.”

“There’s only certain people I think that really would hold a candle to you,” Johns told Lewis. Those were the legendary rugby league coaches Jack Gibson and Wayne Bennett, both widely considered among the best leaders Australia has produced.

Lewis with Fenech during a session.

“I think those three are a very, very special category,” Johns continued. “You’ve got the ability to make people just feel good about you, good about themselves.”

Having started his coaching career at 17, today Lewis is on good terms with people ranging from former premiers, to barristers, captains of industry, athletes, celebrities and ex-prisoners.

As a child, his son Jackson said he hated going to the shops together because people kept coming up to his father, wanting to talk.

“Whenever we went anywhere he’d be getting stopped and dad’s the type of person that’ll sit there and talk to anyone,” he said.

“He’s always got time for everyone. He just touched so many people’s lives. Everyone just seems to love him.”

“If someone’s a friend, they’re a friend,” said Lewis, when asked about this.

“It’s easy to find the good in someone rather than the bad.”

Despite the huge range of people he’d met, Lewis said his children were the most important thing in his life.

Others outside the family also described the way Lewis had a particular influence on those at the lowest point in their lives.

Lewis with a young Kostya Tszyu.

Among them was Garth Wood, a former NRL player who once trained with Lewis and said it was his memories of the trainer that helped him survive a recent spell in prison.

“You’re an old man in jail,” said Wood, who was 45 when convicted over an assault he now accepts was wrong.

“There’s a lot of young blokes in there, so I would go in my cell and I’d just float back to being in the gym, back as a kid with Johnny. All that stuff was just flooding back to me and it saved me.”

Lewis is equally popular among those on the other side of the law, with former deputy state prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC also saying he turned her life around.

“Thank you for changing my life and the lives of the men in my family,” Cunneen said, talking about the influence of Lewis’s guidance.

Today, Lewis still wakes up before dawn each morning to train others near his home at Erskineville.

Among them is Ella Boot, the 24-year-old super-lightweight boxing champion who has her sights on becoming Lewis’s next world champion. Her next fight is on 23 March.

“The real winner is me,” Lewis said. “I wouldn’t be getting out of bed at quarter to five in the morning if I wasn’t enjoying myself.”

Listen to the full interview on I Catch Killers.