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

Lewis and King were demanding options on Bowe along with other crazy things knowing Newman would flip out.
They had it all figured it.

Lewis played the same tricks in 96 to get another vacant belt. Bum.

 

I have him at #3 or 4 depending on the day...

 

Most, if not all boxers are motivated primarily by money. Tyson is no different, in 96 how much was he offered for the Lewis fight? $10m? He went on to fight Holyfield for a record purse at the time of $35m and then another $30m for the rematch. So i dont think Tyson dropped the belt in fear of Lewis, but he went for the cash.

As for wanting the fight even less in 2002, Tyson was actually scheduled to face Mercer, but Lewis threatened retirement and Tyson needed the cash so he s****ped the Mercer fight to take on Lewis instead.

 

I have him at 3 or 4 as well.


Has anyone mentioned that you're a very sound judge of boxing greatness ?

 

Tyson wasn't calling the shots though.
Everyone else had a lot of money to be made off of him.
The whole industry.

As it turned out, the millions that went to Tyson meant absolutely nothing to him, since he was heading towards bankruptcy whatever he did.

Tyson wanted out. Nevada were actually decent enough to ban him.
But the answer for Tyson's people was to keep him out of trouble, keep him on that Maui weed, and dose him up on Zoloft.
Medication, The American Way.

 

I'd rate Lennox Lewis slightly behind Wladimir Klitschko now.
I don't think either of them beat great opposition, but Klitschko's run has eclipsed Lewis's with length and consistency now.


Maybe they squeeze into the HW top 10.

 

Im not sure i'd agree with that.

Firstly you'd have to look at how Wlad would have done in that era and in the same fights.
I don't think he would have held a title.

Lewis had Miles Lane ref a number of his fights , therefor he would have ref'd a number of Wlads fights.
If Wlad fought Brewster II, Peters II , Thompson I , Povetkin , Pulev with Lane in the ring , he would have lost all those fights by DQ. And maybe Byrd II and Mormeck as well.
Remember Lane DQ Ackawadney for much less and threatened Bruno with a DQ in the first round making him box clean against Tyson

Now if Wlad fought in the Lewis era , he'd be forced to fight better opponents without cheating , or cheat even more , upping his chances of DQ ten fold.
We all saw what happened against Brewster when he was forced to abandon his clinching and spoiling tactics.
That was against a very weak opponent who was beaten badly by Charlie Shufford.
Id give him next to no chance in
clean fights against Tyson, Hollyfield, Mercer , Bruno , MaCall . And Briggs and Rahman are toss up fights.

You'd also have to imagine Lewis would have no problem hanging around longer than he did if he was faced with cab drivers like
Two year prior retired CW- Mormeck
Lepai, Pianeta, Wach, Pulev and Jennings who has only 10 stoppage wins in 5 years and needed a point deduction to beat a gassed out, unmotivated Perez.

A long string of wins against poor opponents doesn't beat less wins against HOF-ATG opposition.
If that was the case , Daruiz would rank above Spinks , Charles, Tunny etc etc..

 

Yeah, not many people agree with me.
I think Wlad's opposition's been poor.
I thought Lewis's opposition was just as poor, barring perhaps one or two fighters.

 

At least Lewis never behaved as badly as Wlad. I factor performances in a big way.
If they don't look like a great , they ain't a great in my book.

 

Chris Byrd Lennox Lewis common opponents


Byrd
Vitali Klitschko. RTD 9 (World title fight)
Lionel Butler. TKO 8
Prime David. Tua Points win Byrd
Old Holyfield. Points win Byrd (World title fight)
Golota Draw. (World title fight)
Phil Jackson. points win Byrd

Lewis
Phil Jackson. TKO8 (World Title fight)
Vitali Klitschko. TKO6 (World title figt)
Old Holyfield. draw (World title fight)
Old Holyfield. 2 Points Lewis (World title fight)
Lionel Butler. TKO5 (World title fight)
Fat David Tua. Points (World title fight)
Golota. KO1 (World title fight)

 

Lewis was avoided more than he ever avoided. He should have fought V. Klitschko again and eventually Wladimir, but at that point in Lewis' career he had little to prove.

He was KTFO early twice in his career but in his defense he was very eager to avenge both losses... and he did. It's not his fault McCall didn't want to fight in their rematch. The win over Mercer was very close and could have been a draw or even a loss. The draw vs. Holyfield should have been a win. The win over Holyfield was close and could have been a draw or even a loss.

He beat Ruddock KO2. Dropped Tucker twice and beat him by clear decision, he stopped Bruno KO7, he stopped Morrison KO6, he stopped Golota KO1, he stopped Briggs KO5, and he beat others. He was a great HW who I appreciate more now than I did while he was fighting.

 

Vitali Klitschko

Byrd : was losing decisively and lucky that Klitschko injured his shoulder.
Lennox: TKO's the dude in 6.


David Tua

Byrd: Close win over Tua
Lennox: Shutout



Evander Holyfield

Byrd: Outpoints a shot-to-sh it Holy
Lennox: Decisively whips a near prime Holyfield. Twice.



Andrew Golota

Byrd: Draws with an aging (36) Golota
Lennox: Destroys a prime (29) Golota

 

I know Byrd fought Holyfield 3 years later, and 3 years can mean a lot for an old fighter.

But I don't think Holyfield can be said to be "near prime" against Lewis either.
Nor did Lewis "decisively whip" Holyfield twice. Once, maybe. The second fight was actually very close.

 

Yes, he was 'near' prime. He was twenty months past beating Tyson and sixteen months past beating Moorer.
He was a completely different fighter when he faced Byrd.

I scored the first fight 10-2 and the second fight 8-4.

It was a travesty that there even was a second fight