How does Lewis resume stack up in heavyweight history?

Beat Vitali when he was old so thats a great win..
Holyfield win is a bit underrated I think
Tyson was past it but wasnt shot,decent but nothing special win..
Ruddock,Golota and Briggs are all good wins..
A top 4 or 5 heavyweight resume..

 

Clearly behind the Quality of Ali's
Doesn't have the domination to match Holmes or Louis
Other than that though I don't think anyone's ahead of him, Holyfield has the wins too be, but his losses let him down, Marciano is just a little short of the quality but it's close. Tyson , Foreman, Frazier, Wlad, Liston etc are all a clear level below (or further) imo

 

I love the depth of name opponents he has. It's very impressive, to me. But it all comes down to how much you rate Vitali, who many don't view as a great heavyweight and how far off his best you view Evander. I rate both wins very highly and the Vitali win far, far higher than I did at the time of the fight. I consider it basically three A- to A wins over a top 20-25 or so heavy and a top ten heavy for me. That makes a pretty damned good resume when it sits atop all those other name big men. It's certainly not history's best single HW resume. But it stacks up pretty well, historically, I feel, as an excellent one.

Edit: Also, I'd add, I rate the Tyson victory. No, obviously it's not as meaningful as even the Holy victories over him, let alone what it would mean over a peak Tyson, but because he was so far off his best I feel like people don't see that Tyson was still a solid contender even by then. He'd still have been tough stuff for a lot of champions by that point, in my opinion.

 

Mr Boxed Ears is correct, the Holy wins get treated a little harshly these days. That and the Vitali win are 2 fantastic wins, the depth in his resume is superb as well

 

Lewis is up there in the same way the Klitchko's are, but he is more skilled than the Klitchkos. But his right hand and size make him hard to beat.

 

???

His resume far outweighs the Klitschko's, even combined. And I'm a fan of both brothers.

The only clear, convincing cases for being ahead of Lewis come from Ali and Louis.

I have him 3 or 4.

 

Great Resume.

Take into consideration this guy BEAT more big punchers than any other heavyweight throughout history.

Briggs-Tua-Tyson-Vitali-Ruddock-Morrison-Mason-Golota-Bruno-

even Mercer and Grant were good punchers.

Take into consideration he potentially ruined some elite fighters:

Zeijko first and foremost among them. Zeijko was a massively underrated win. This guy got very good skills, a granite chin and could have gone on to do big things if it wasn't for his personal tragedy.


Take into consideration that despite the 'tko6' threads and troll debate.. Lewis was clearly the one coming on stronger in the 2nd half of the Vitali fight.

Take into consideration Lewis was obviously past it and out of shape. That was a great win.


Take into consideration he avenged both defeats.. Something no other HW achieved.



The Truth is Sanders robbed him of potentially 'top 2 or even Goat' status.

Wlad would have been exposed by Lewis... Emmanuel's entire game plan was to fight Wladimir. Emmanuel knew Wlad was a future ATG even in the early 2000's and was grooming Lewis for the Wladimir Swan Song...

Sanders took that ATG Win away from Lewis.

 

its one of the best ever

 

no way lewis should ever be ranked outside of the top 5 heavyweights ever imo

 

Excellent resume.

H2H - he is one the best too.

Those two losses hurt him badly.

 

I never understood the myth that Lewis was a safety first, cautious fighter. Many americans thought he wasn't exciting.

Ruddock, Golota, Grant, Briggs, Bruno, Botha, Mercer, Holyfield II and Rahman II were either exciting fights or quick blow outs.

 

His resume is far better than the Klitschkos...

 

I would entertain arguments that it is the best. But it is a sure lock for #2.

 

I don´t think we can say that Lewis beat McCall.....I mean, he didn´t ! He just was there while McCall cried....