Lennox Lewis. Does he have some holes in his legacy?

The Vitali situation is still controverisal and has many of us divided.I think Byrd and Ruiz are the only guys he's missing that were makable fights.

Of the other fighters he missed:

-We all know the story of Bowe
-Tyson was either unavailable or rebuilding, the one time they could have met, Holyfield took priority.
-Moorer spent most of the 90s in an IBF circle jerk
-Wlad was still being groomed and had set backs.
-Johnson was still being groomed and had set backs, than got fat and missed their date.

 

Wlad never got knocked out like Lewis did.

Wlad continually got up. Lewis didn't.

 

Actually he rose after the McCall knockdown and was taking the count when Mills Lane stopped the contest.

 

True. And I have never questioned his chin. He survived punches from Vitali Klitscko, David Tua, Shannon Briggs, Tommy Morrison, Gary Mason, Mike Tyson and Razor Ruddock ( though I don't know if Ruddock ever really hit him clean. )

 

Whatever happened to the idea of not getting knocked down to begin with?

Lewis was knocked down twice in his career, Wlad was knocked down more than that in one fight, as was Foreman.

The idea that Lewis can't take a punch because he was down twice and never got up, ignores the frequency, or in his case infrequency, of how often a fighter went down in his career. In my mind not going down to begin with is better than going down and getting back up.

 

Lewis was up when the McCall fight was stopped. And Lewis rematched both men who stopped him and kod them in the return.
Wlad never rematched Purrity or Sanders.

 

Mills Lane wasn't the ref in the first McCall fight. If he were, Lewis probably would've been allowed to continue.

Yeah, Lewis maybe has some holes in his resume, but for the most part he conducted himself in an exemplary manner. He gets bonus points for retiring on top.

One thing I said to myself, though, after the first Rahman fight was "Larry Holmes always got up."

 

In contrast to other 90s Champions, Holyfield is the only guy from that class that really doesn't have any holes.

Tyson fought Holyfield and Ruddock but missed most of the 90s due to suspensions, prison..etc.
Moorer didn't fight anybody but Holyfield and Old Foreman.
Old Foreman only fought Holyfield and Moorer.
Bowe only fought Holyfield.

 

I think that's because everyone thought we was beatable and didn't view him as a huge risk.

 

I forgot who reffed. thanks

 

No doubt he does.

Avoided Bowe and Tyson in the 90's.

Was desperate to fight Tyson's ghost in a rematch and filed a law suit against Tyson when he wasn't playing ball.

Ask yourself why he was happy to accept step aside money in 1996 rather than face Tyson?
Why wasn't he as enthusiastic in 1996 as he was in 2003?.

Lewis was a liar. Lied all throughout his career.

Lied about Bowe ,when it was him who was hiding behind the WBC and waiting out the deadline.

Lied about being a 5 dimensional fighter , then slipped up when he was only able to list 3 dimensions.

Made nonsense statements like he cleared all the misfits out of boxing.
The list goes on and on.

 

I think you harshly over-state the case .... and perhaps you have an agenda ....

.... BUT there's a large element of truth in your post. :good

Lennox Lewis DID make a big deal his whole career out of being the "victim" and "outside" the boxing establishment.
He was quick to make it sound like he had to work twice as hard as the American fighters and the Don King fighters.
Which was not true at all.

In actual fact, he was quite pampered by the promoters and the sanctioning bodies, the WBC in particular - run by Don King's pal Sulaiman - and was supported in getting huge paydays (incl. step-asides) and titles by his expensive lawyers.
He put a lot of spin on these events.

(It's probably actually more accurate to view Rid**** Bowe and Rock Newman as the "outsiders", who, for whatever reasons, did not cosy up to Don King and the WBC.)

I have sympathy for Lewis being robbed in the first Holyfield fight, he benefited from HUGE support in the aftermath, deservedly ... but again, conveniently used the event to justify the nonsense about him being the unwanted man in the division.

I don't blame him for spouting the propaganda during his career - everyone needs a PR strategy !
But I think neutral fans should be able to see what a lot of BS most of it was.

 

Does this mean Terrance Crawford should give Gamboa a rematch :rofl

 

ZERO demand for Lewis to meet either guy in the US.