Dressed from head to toe in green fatigues, yet no longer readied for combat, former undisputed world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis will not be drawn immediately into answering whether he would have dominated this era of three thus-far undefeated heavyweights.

But then, almost as an afterthought, Lewis, 53 next week, whose career spanned 41 victories and two losses, cocks his head and with a mischievous glint in his eye, redresses those thoughts.

Who would have been the king today? “Me! Of course I would have, I would have beaten them all,” he bellows as he prepares to go on stage at Indigo at the O2 next Thursday to discuss the highlights of his 15-year professional career and offer his take on the world of boxing today.

Lewis has become much-loved since he hung up his gloves – “I think it’s because of the way I carried myself inside and outside the ring” – but, asked for his view on Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, he outlined in those mellow, deliberate tones the pluses and minuses of the triumvirate, before politely excluding himself from the equation with a twinkle in his eye.

“Look, this is a different era, just as mine was a different era, just as Muhammad Ali was in a different time,” Lewis says at the Peacock Gym, a thriving, bustling hub of professional and amateur boxers in the heart of Canning Town.