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

:good

 

Lets take a look at Lewis championship years 1992-2003

Ruddock - Damaged goods after two brutal beating from Tyson.
Tucker - Drug Addict looked a shell of former self.
Bruno - Out-jabbed Lewis & on verge of KO win when caught with KO punch
Jackson - Who?...handpicked Class D journeyman
McCall - Journeyman who poleaxed Lewis in less than 2rds.
Butler - Bum with as many defeats as victories.
Fortune - who? ...c`mon
Morrison - Tail-end of his career and HIV positive
Mercer - Had been schooled by old Holmes, many feel he won here.
McCall(2) - McCall only days out of Drug-rehab. shame on sport of boxing
Akinwande - Hand-Picked for harmlessness. both fighters pathetic.
Golota - Golota sedated in dressing room due to panic-attack "pathetic"
Briggs - Opportunist opponent for Lewis yet he nearly came unstuck
Mavrovic - European showed Lewis to be "Nothing Special"
Holyfield - Lewis thought to be unfortunate against aged champion.
Holyfield (2) - Evander clearly "Robbed" of his titles. terrible decision.
Grant - Hand-picked tomato can, chosen so as to avoid top contenders.
Botha - Hand-picked, chosen so as to avoid top contenders.
Tua - Grossly overweight, fattest man to ever fight for title.
Rahman - Journeyman who poleaxed Lewis
Rahman - Journeyman who went on to fail each time he fought top guys
Tyson - Addicted to prescription anti-depressants, alcohol, cocaine & cannabis. weighed 20lbs more than in any other fight of his career and clearly in no mental or physical state to be fighting. (Lewis & trainer both knew of his addiction and weight).
Klitschko - Late substitute who due to cut from headbutt clearly a very unfortunate loser.

Holmes 93, Foreman 94-97, Tyson 96, Moorer 94, Sanders 02, Ruiz 99, Byrd 01, Bowe 03, all held version of the heavyweight title... Lewis could easily have said NO to Mike Tyson in 1996 and went ahead with a $14 million payday and guaranteed world title fight. But he never fancied his chances against that version of Tyson.

 

Name them then.

Shoot!

 

If Rahman & McCall can put Lewis lights out then surely any former champion in his prime would smash Lewis lamp to pieces..

Prime for Prime..

Lewis vs Ali
" vs Frazier
" vs Foreman
" vs Wlad Klitschko
" vs Holmes
" vs Holyfield
" vs Tyson
" vs Liston
" vs Dempsey
" vs Louis
" vs Johnson
" vs Bowe
" vs Douglas
" vs Tunney
" vs Marciano

Lets not forget a prime Lewis vs Zelko Mavrovic is the only time Lewis ever fought an opponent who was "At the Top of his Game" and not on the downside of his career. So Prime Lewis is from 93 Tucker, Bruno through Mercer, Akinwande, Mavrovic 98... i would fancy all of the above listed champions in their prime to KO Lennox Lewis fairly easily in a match-up.

 

Clear bias shown here in forgetting Gary Mason.

 

Lewis did not fight Gary Mason during his "Championship Years" 1993-2003

 

I hope you realize all your one sided comments do is nullify anything you say.

As far as I'm concerned your opinion of Lewis is a joke.

If it was less biased and you both forth both the pro's and con's of his career and argued that he's over rated, it would at least merit consideration. But to slam everyone he fought and denigrate all of his wins, tells me that reading your posts are a waste of time.

 

I believe it's no joke, the guy seemingly dislikes Lewis.
It reminds me some threads at General where Pacquiao or Klitschko haters try to eastimate their careers in that way...

 

You dont have to read my posts. i am far from biased putting forward the case for Lewis from 1993-03..i am totally accurate and honest in all i have posted. There is no other way of looking at his career in a honest and unbiased way.. the truth obviously hurts some and spoils their agenda, but its there in black and white and to try to tell it any other way is fabrication.

 

Rated as one of the three best heavyweights at the time and considered the most dangerous fighter in the division - both Holyfield and Bowe had been accused of ducking him. Hindsight doesn't change the regard in which he was held when the fight happened.

Not Lewis's fault Tucker's best days were behind him, but Tucker was still a top ten rated Heavyweight so was a pefectly legitimate opponent for a World Champion.

A difficult fight that Lewis finished emphatically. Qualifying it by saying that Bruno was "on verge of KO win" doesn't change the fact that it was Lewis who stopped him.

Was a stay busy fight while Holyfield decided whether he wanted to retire or have a unification fight.

Lewis was on his feet before the ten count and wanted to continue, and as it was a world title fight, and he was the defending champ, he should have been given the benefit of the doubt and been allowed to continue.

Steward claimed to have trained McCall specifically to take advantage in a flaw in Lewis's style but even if that was true Lewis was looking beyond McCall to an agreed fight with Bowe in 1995 and his eye was off the ball. Either way it doesn't reflect well on Lewis.

Was coming into the fight on the back of 16 conescutive KO vitories and being rated #3 by the WBC and was a legitimate contender.

All champions have easy fights from time to time.

Had defeated a number of fringe contenders on the way to the fight and was a legitimate opponent.

Could have gone either way on the night but if it had been 12 rounds rather then 10 Lewis was the more likely to pull away on the cards having won most of the later rounds.

King's fault for refusing to find a substitute when concerns were raised about McCall's mental state following his arrest in December 1996.

Akinwande was undefeated at the time and reigning WBO champion when he was offered a shot at Lewis. Lewis came to fight, Akinwande didn't even try.

Lewis fought him at the time he was considered one of the most dangerous fighters in the division and destroyed him, the only thing "pathetic" here is Golota's performance and his excuses.

Briggs -rated within the top 5 heavyweights at the time the fight happened - had Lewis in trouble at times but Lewis recovered and stopped him in the 5th.

And undefeated fighter and the WBC's #1 contender. Mavrovic fought well but was outclassed by a lazy Lewis, and had he not been as durable as he was he wouldn't have made the final bell

Holyfield was P4P #3 when this fight happened and Lewis was robbed of a deserved win. He wasn't "unfortunate" not to get the win, it was downright criminal that he didn't Holyfield, at best, won four rounds. That fight being called a draw was one of the most disgraceful dicision in boxing history.

Holyfield did better in the rematch than he had done in the first but he was still clearly second best. At most he won 5 rounds of this fight. Even if you think he did enough to win - somehow - it is simply in no way credible to call this fight a robbery.

#3 rated Heavyweight at the time, the most high profile and considered the most dangerous of Lewis's three potential opponents at the time.

Ruiz wasn't even WBA #1 contender when Lewis signed to fight Grant, and he would fight the IBF's #1 contender Tua that same year

Was rated within the WBC's top ten fighters and was a legitimate contender - not the best one, but still a credible one.

Not Lewis's fault Tua didn't turn up in fighting shape. Tua had a very good record prior to that and was rated #1 by both IBF and WBC at the time of the fight.

Lewis didn't take him seriously and spent the preparation time filming a part in Oceans 11 instead. He turned up 12 days before the fight and gave himself no time to acclimatize to he altitude. He was complacent and lazy and Rahman took advantage of it.

Lewis avenged his defeat and showed himself to be clearly superior to Rahman when he was taking the fight seriously. He would never have lost to Rahman at all if he'd done this in the first place.

Tyson was rated as one of the top three fighters in the division at the time the fight happened.

It wasn't Lewis's fault that this fight didn't happen earlier, and it wasn't Lewis's fault that Tyson was rapidly deteriorating. Whether he knew about Tyson's addiction or weight in advance the fact of the matter is that this was one of lucrative fights in boxing history so it was irrelevant - the money involved was too big to call anything off.

Had the same amount of preparation time as Lewis as he had been training for a fight on the undercard of Lewis/Johnson and he personally claimed to have been preparing to fight Lewis for a year. The cuts were caused legitimately by punches from Lewis - nobody has ever proven otherwise. Vitali started strong but couldn't finish Lewis off when he was on top and was fading so quickly that by the 6th round his punches were having no effect.

Bottom line, Vitali had his chance and blew it, he wasn't good enough to get the job done.

Never tried to fight Lewis, might have got a shot at him if Lewis hadn't lost to McCall.

Fought a WBC eliminator against Briggs for the right to fight Lewis and lost. Prior to that he had shown no interest in any fight against him.

Lewis took Tyson and King to court to force them to give him a shot at the WBC Title. He won this court case but agreed to step aside so Tyson could unify the WBC with the WBA with the provision he get the next fight. When the WBC threated to strip Tyson if he didn't fight Lewis, Tyson dropped the belt so he could get a more lucrative fight aginst Holyfield instead.

Upon beating Holyfield he was asked whether he intended to unify his belt with Lewis's. His response was to say, essentially, "no one tells me what to do" then he signed to fight Foreman and lost his belt and his credibility. He made no attempt to fight Lewis.

Sanders was nobody before he defeated Wlad and would not have been considered a credible oppoent in 2002 - especially considering he hadn't fought a contender since his loss to Rahman in 2000. He might have got a shot at Lewis in 2001 if he'd beaten Rahman and 2003 was too late to get a shot.

Lewis was prepared to fight the WBA's #1 contender after he fought Grant, and the WBA were prepared to let him, but King took them to court to get the WBA to strip him. Ruiz made no attempt to get a fight with Lewis after that and King was quite content milking the title for all it was worth without trying to reunify with Lewis.

Lewis wanted a rematch with Tyson and fights with the Klitschko's at the time for more money and didn't think the fight against Byrd would have been comercially successful. King didn't want to make the fight but had different plans the belt and actively sought to avoid making it happen.

This fight could have happened if Bowe had simply upheld his end of the deal struck by the WBC between Bowe, Holyfield, Lewis and Ruddock but instead Bowe attempted to lowball Lewis before pulling out of the deal entirely, dumping the WBA belt then taking two worthless title defences before losing to Holyfield.

King offered $10million and Lewis wanted $15million: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...40224_1_fight-lewis-bruce-seldon-lewis-claims then King claimed he offered $16million but when Lewis accepted the deal and went to HBO for clearance they refused to give it: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/19...29_1_hbo-sports-undisputed-title-bruce-seldon

 

So "it wasn't Lewis fault"..lol

 

the referee counted too quickly..
Lennox wasn't focused..
it was a lucky punch...
it wasn't Lewis fault...
He was scared of Lewis...
The referee shoulda let him continue..
it wasn't Lewis fault...
the count was too quick...
it was Don Kings fault...
They forced Lewis to accept step-a-side-money..
it wasn't Lewis fault..
They all ducked Lewis...
at least he avenged it..
wasn't Lewis fault..
blah blah

 

I'd like to reiterate that Lionel Butler was a bum.
Basic fighter but big puncher.
Biggest fight of his life against a guy who just lost his title against another basic fighter with a big punch.

Comes in about 40 pounds overweight. atsch
Just a fat crack head.