Well Abajan knocked Lewis down to the head in rd2, then KO'd to the body in the next round in amateurs, so you are wrong buddy
Rahman was highly rated by the WBC and IBF and rated in the top 10 by Ring. McCall was the WBC #2 contender and rated #6 by RING and was Lennox Lewis' mandatory WBC challenger when he fought Lewis the first time. He wasn't "fringe." He hadn't been off "a year." He was the mandatory. You're just making stuff up now. Instead of "being inclined to believe" look it up. Neither was fringe. Both were contenders. I can't debate with someone who just makes up stuff as they go along.
Wlad holds the record for a hwy champion not being floored for 10 years. Doesn't mean he has a good chin! He's just become good at protecting it. Lewis is pretty much the same way, except when he held, he used his fists too. Chins are best graded when hit. Lewis wasn't hit that often, or punished. Such is the luxury of being skilled with the greatest amount of reach. But when Lewis' chin was hit by chin checkers, he went down and out. If you want to aid Lewis, you could say he fought in the era of punches.
Where would you rank Snipes and Kevin Isaac as all-time punchers? Right up there with the very best? And Bernardo Mercado got off the floor to stop Shavers in Earnie's next fight after Holmes. I don't consider that "proof" that Mercado had a great chin. I'm not disparaging Holmes' chin. You're disparaging Lennox Lewis' chin. I think their chins are fine. You don't agree about Lennox's chin so any comparison in your mind is apparently a slam on Holmes. Holmes wasn't chinny. And neither was Lennox Lewis. The only time Lewis got stretched as a pro was when was one of the oldest heavyweight champs in boxing history against a top heavyweight contender ... and he wasted that guy with one punch in the rematch.
Kevin Isaac decked Holmes when Larry was in his 7th pro fight. The Snipes incident was more of a flash knockdown. He got up to win both.. McCall and Rahman stopped Lewis. Big difference and nothing to spin there.
He was up by the count of four and continued to finish the round strong. It certainly wasn't anything like Lewis being on ***** Street against Rahman
I'm not "disparaging" Lewis's chin. I've said that several times but you've opted not to listen. If your position is that Lennox Lewis had a good chin then I stand with you. If your argument is that his chin was comparable to Holmes then I might disagree but at least it's an argument I can respect. But if your stance is that Lewis's chin was "better" than Holnes then there's no reasonable argument which can harbor such a claim
The Aplhabet organizations had Bruce seldom and an ancient Tony Tucker as the #1 and #2 contenders when they fought over a vacant title in 1995. So I take that with a grain of salt. McCall and Rahman were fringe heavyweights and who's careers were almost exclusively remembered for having Lewis in their win columns. Sure that's great for THEM but let's not try to turn that into sounding like some great legacy for Lewis.. As for your claim that McCall wasnt off for a year, fine I'll concede that. He beat Francesco Damiani in the fall of '93 then at the beginning of '94 beat the obscure journeyman Dan Murphy before fighting Lennox later that year..