Some people on this forum are obsessed by size to the point of mental illness. Yes Lewis was great, and it is good to see him getting his due, but he was pretty beatable. Perhaps the most beatable of the top 10 heavyweights, on their respective worst days.
I think Ali is big, skilled and quick enough to hold his own, against both Wlad and Lennox it would be a close competitive fight I'd say the opposite, beat every man he faced while taking on all comers for over a decade of the deepest HW division in history
Lewis is the only top 10 heavyweight to be taken out by a single punch. However you slice it, this means that his mode of failure is the most repeatable.
Yes because of his speed timing and footwork. Lewis would have struggled with Chris Byrd, thats why he avoided him.
Not only could Ali handle the size of Lewis , he would defeat Lewis in an wide UD . But thats just my opinion .
Ali could not handle the size of Lewis. Ali relied on his own size during his career, and when it did not work he relied on Angelo Mirena's acts.
Well that depends who you have in your top 10, because Tyson, Dempsey and Jack Johnson were ko'd by single blows. Louis was twice ko'd by cruserweights Yet it wasn't repeated by some of the biggest best punchers in history and 3 top 20 ATG HWs. Lewis alongside Ali and Holyfield remains the most tested HW in history A bird
In that case neither was Lewis, he was 35 and underprepared against Rahman, at high altitude where he was gassed and breathing hard, and he got up against McCall. Lewis walked through many big punches in his prime Rahman was a 240lb slab of muscle who could bench press 500lbs, not many competent boxers in history were near as strong as him. It only happened when Lewis underestimated and didn't respect opponents. Against Rahman he came to a high altitude region late not allowing time to aclimatise He probably was alongside Ali the hardest HW to beat in history when he's adequately prepared. A good case for the H2H no1, I'd only fighters I'd give a shot at beating him would be Ali, Tyson, Holyfield and Holmes
of course thaT ali would have tons of problems with lewis, not only with his size but his skill,reach, power, inteligence.. here ali would not have been facing a guy like foreman, a big, powerful guy who had problems with guys with the style of ali, lewis would not tire himself, and he would respond every shot of ali with speed and power, because he was another tactical fighter, ali should have been in his very best 1967 to beat lewis by decision, the 70s version of ali would have lost a decision for sure.