Why didn't Lennox Lewis carry his power to the late rounds?

He was actually an extremely cautious fighter.
(*I'd say over-cautious (from a boxing fan's POV).

As cautious as Wlad Klitschko, overall.

 

If he was in to the groove of outboxing a perceived durable or dangerous opponent, he'd rarely the gears up in the last third of the fight. He'd play it very safe.
Hence no late KOs.

And I'm sure the guys he stopped in the 8th round were ready to be taken a few rounds earlier than that too.

 

Well out of the distance fights, Tua, Holyfield twice, Mercer, Mavrovic and Tucker all had monster chins .. that is a huge factor ..

Tua was never KO'ed, Mercer not till after the age of forty, Holyfield had an exceptional chin, Mavrovic was never KO'ed, Tucker was never KO'ed till his later 30's and went the distance w a prime Tyson too ..

 

A plus interesting factor.
Tucker was total faded he was far away from his ripped/ muscular "era".
The 87s Tucker had great stamina the Douglas fight proved this.
Lewis was lucky because this Tucker wasn't the Douglas or Tyson
version great athletic fighter .
It was a slow,tired out of shape Tucker.
But don't forget Lewis' Chanet,Mason,Mccall and quitoris kos
weren't POWER knockouts !:shock:

 

Excuses...

 

what excuses are you talking about?

Guys who were dangerous where usually disposed of early or in some cases such as Tua it was decided just to win on points and avoid the risk, makes logical sense to me. Certainly we can see from the 6th round against V.K. that Lewis had plenty of power in that round, and had the fight continued he very likely would have gotten a TKO or a KO in the later rounds.

 

His cardio wasn't up to snuff. He fatigued in later rounds of his fights and had to lower his punch output and play possum quite a bit. This is the main reason why he was a very poor late finisher. In the fight with Vitali he was absolutely spent after 6 rounds from being forced to fight at a frenetic pace that he wasn't comfortable with. He had no energy left at the end and he looked like he didn't even want to get off of his stool.

 

Only a novice would make such an uneducated statement.

 

Lennox Lewis was far and away the best super heavyweight that ever fought. Every fighter is the sum of their parts but Lewis was very top guy regardless of competition and era ..

 

That's your opinion, not an objective fact.

 

He didn't take risks, at times he would gas out late. He did what was best for him.

 

Lewis benefited from his main challengers being shot by the time he got to them. He chickened out of a rematch with Vitali. If rahman gave him a rematch then why did he not do the same for Vitali. If he had any dignity or class, he would show a bit more respect towards his opponents, his condescending attitude towards Vitali

 

Max Kellerman who was a Klitschko antagonist at the time said Lewis crashed down hard on his stool and he never saw Lennox as tired at the end of the 6th round. Not all punchers carry their power to the later rounds.

Lewis was one of them. In his case he was often up on points and didn't want to risk getting knocked out.

 

News flash: Lewis didn't give Vitali a rematch because (a) he won the first fight and (b) he retired.

Regarding Rahman there was a rematch clause in the agreement, which is pretty much standard when a champ puts his title on the line.