Does anyone feel like Lewis' accomplishments get way too overblown nowadays? I mean don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate Lennox, rate him as a top 5 ATG heavyweight, but people have this picture of him as the dominant heavy of the 90s when he was anything but. He's considered an unbeatable phenom by a lot of posters when in reality he was fairly limited and the quality of his performance varied from fight to fight. He consistently put up subpar and mediocre performances during his heyday in-between good ones, sometimes not even against world class opponents. He was getting picked apart by Bruno, got knocked out by McCall, was lucky to s****e past Mercer, looked bad against unknown Mavrovic, got knocked out by Rahman, was rocked and drawn into a slugfest by a truly terrible Briggs who shouldn't have gotten out of the first, arguably lost to a shopworn Holyfield in 99... There were 6 lineal/legitimate champions in the 90s aside from himself - Douglas, Holyfield, Bowe, Moorer, Foreman and Tyson. He fought two, and one was a complete, over the hill corpse when the fight did happen. So I fail to see how he's regarded as "dominant". Discuss.
I don't think he was limited at all. Yes he had some mediocre performances but this seemed more down to motivation than his ability. He didn't arguably lose to Holyfield, he arguably beat Holyfield twice! No he didn't fight the quality of opposition that say Holyfield did, but his quality of opposition was still good. I didn't follow boxing at the time so I can't comment too much on why fights didn't happen but of those 6 names you mentioned Bowe outright ducked him and Douglas had only a single defence. He also beat Vitali who became champion less than a year later and never lost again.
Good post. Lewis is indeed overrated, and you unfortunately do a little bit of this yourself by putting him in the top 5. He's borderline top ten at best. Lewis never faced the top guys in the era - Holyfield and Tyson - when they were at their best, even close to it, and he never faced Bowe at all. He waited until Tyson and Holyfield were past it, and even with this, as you said, Holyfield arguably beat him in their second fight. On top of this, Lewis is the ONLY top level ATG HW who got starched TWICE in the early rounds by second-tier fighters when he held the title. He is beyond over-rated by some, he's GROSSLY overrated. Lewis isn't even the top HW of the era, that's Holyfield - who, not surprisingly, is grossly under-rated by many of the same people who overrate Lewis. You never saw Holyfield starched early by second-raters. Never.
lennox fought down to his opponents level a few times , but when up for a fight say the rahman 2 fight the talent was obvious. he fought on the road time and time again in his opponents backyard / he fought all the fighters bar ruiz who everyone else was avoiding /he took a few gimmees but by and large he fought the best out there of his era with the sole exception of bowe. douglas and foreman fights were never on that i remember for whatever reason/ only time mooted that i can think of was a night of the young heavyweight bill where morrer and lewis both fought. the bruno fight was even on the cards from memory and in fairness to lewis i attended this fight and i had a jumper /coat/ hat/gloves and i was still cold / must have been about minus 1 by fighttime.
Ruddock is a good win but Tyson beat him better Holyfield is a good win but he was beaten better by Bowe Tyson beaten better by Holyfield and Douglas. Holyfield, Tyson, Bruno, were not in their prime. He does have great wins over a PRIME rahman and a prime Tua. But he also lost to tua. SO yes he is very overrated. but he gave us TKO6 so it trumps everything else.
This is the complaint about the Lewis is that he wouldn't fight the elite fighters in their prime. Oh, and at the time, Vitali was NOT an elite fighter, but an emerging one.
I'm confused, when did anyone lose to tus. ? No one wanted to fight a Lewis in his prime, what he supposed to do? Retire because no one wanted him ???? He beat everyone he ever fought and everyone that was at the top, when he was at the top. You can take any fighter in history and use revisionist history to fit your agenda. It's so sad apparent that most on here DKSAB. So sadly true. Give me one fighter in history in any division I can't rip to spreads in 2 minutes
"No one wanted to fight Lewis in his prime" Well, Bowe did. In 94 it was a done deal, Holyfield losing to Moorer opened a door for a Bowe fight, everything was set, all Lewis had to do was defeat his mandatory, Oliver McCall. We know how that went. Then again, in 95, after Bowe beat Holyfield the third time and won his WBO trinket from Herbie Hide, HBO tried to make another fight with Lewis in 96. Lewis personally declined and fought trialhorse Mercer. Holyfield was willing to fight him in a unification in 94 but him losing to Moorer and Lewis losing to McCall ruined that one. Tyson offered him 13,5$ million to fight him in 96, or 4$ million to step aside and let him unify with Seldon. Lewis took the 4 and walked away. Not a single top fighter ducked Lewis. He and his camp perpetuated that myth because Bowe didn't want to immediately go in with a tough mandatory after winning his title in a war with ATG Holyfield - and rightfully so. In the end, he had 2 shots to fight Bowe and screwed up himself. He could have fought Tyson in the mid 90s but didn't. His fault.
LL tried to fight bowe many times, him losing to McCall put it on hold only, Bowe gave UP his belt instead of facing LL, facts, young boy. Tyson giving 4 Fing mill.. I would take 4 mil to put anything on hold.. you telling me Tyson pay him 4 million is Tyson trying to fight LL, ok great logic... Holy lost to LL badly yet he had to fight him again for no reason, that was a lazy LL and still at worst drew that night . LL was not sought after, no matter how clouded or bias one can be, just think about what you're writing
No, I don't feel like Lewis' accomplishments get way too overblown nowadays and if you rate him as an all-time great top 5 HW, neither do you.
He's considered the GOAT heavyweight by many, and frankly, I don't think you can make a strong case for it at all. His resume is certainly stellar but boxrec results don't translate what occured in the ring.
Lennos KO'd Ruddock in 2 with a brutal finish. Tyson went 19 rounds with Ruddock in 2 fights. How did Tyson beat him better?