MONTREAL, Canada (AP) — Lennox Lewis wants to revive pro boxing in Canada.

The former heavyweight champion is the frontman and one of a group of promoters that hopes to take a sport that has faded everywhere in the country, except Quebec, and put it back in the national consciousness.

“Montreal has carried the flag for the rest of Canada,” Lewis said yesterday. “Now I’m coming on board because I want the rest of Canada to come on board. I want to give an opportunity to young kids to box as professionals.”

Canadian boxing was in the doldrums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even Montreal’s Arturo Gatti headed to the United States to turn pro in 1991.

Lewis’s group will start with a fight card September 11 at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, featuring Adonis Stevenson’s sixth defence of his WBC light heavyweight title against unheralded American Tommy Karpency.

Top Montreal promoter Yvon Michel will team with Global Legacy Boxing, headed by Lewis and Toronto businessman Les Woods, and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to put on the show. It will be part of fight manager Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series on US television.

It is the first world title fight in Toronto since Aaron Pryor defended his light welterweight belt against Nick Furlano in 1984. If all goes well, there are plans for more fight cards in Toronto and other Canadian cities.

The 49-year-old Lewis left for Britain to turn pro after winning the gold medal for Canada at the 1998 Seoul Olympics because there were few opportunities to make a boxing career in Canada. Lewis was born in London and moved to Kitchener, Ontario, when he was 12, and fought as an amateur for Canada.

The 6-foot-5 boxer went on to become a three-time heavyweight champ before he retired in 2004 with a 41-2-1 record.

“It’s important that the rest of Canada realises that boxing is available to them,” Lewis said. “That they don’t have to take a plane to Vegas, that they can be in driving distance of a great fight.”