Over come a bad start to become a heavyweight contender in a great era of heavyweights. Is he underrated
Drugs held him back. Talented and immense power. Here's comments from Lamon Brewster. J.S: It’s great to be able to speak with you, Lamont. You had a great, exciting career, and you scored a number of KO’s – one over Wladimir Klitschko of course, and I’ll come to that later. But you were such a tough guy – who hit you the hardest in your career, amateur and pro? Lamon Brewster: I’ve been asked a few times before who the hardest puncher I ever met was. I must say, It wasn’t anyone I actually fought, it was a guy I sparred. A guy named Lionel Butler – wow, he hit so hard it was ridiculous! I sparred Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer, Frans Botha – all hard punchers. But no-one hit like Butler. Why he never made it? It’s real simple: Coke. As soon as he began to make it, he looked to score some drugs. Had it not been for that, I’m sure Lionel would have been champ.
Shame to hear that drugs ruined his career and if Brewster says you can punch you must have some serious power
Tony Tubbs sure thought he hit hard. Burt Cooper is another sub 6 footer who hit like a mule kicks and was undone by coke.
I just watched him on YouTube the other day stopping Bonecrusher Smith. Smith was complaining of a broken jaw, I'm not sure if it was broke but it was swollen.
That's a bout, and result, Lennox Lewis gets zero credit for. But Butler was on like a 15 fight winning streak with lots of ko's. He also fought for DKP. So here we have Lennox, after his recent stoppage loss to another DKP guy, fighting a hitter. and being asked to beat a Don King fighter when you are with another promotional company is shark infested waters. As a minimum. Name the other guys taking on the DKP fighters in cross promotions. And how many come out of those fights with their hand raised? The bout pretty much derailed the career of Butler. Big loss and bigger in the sense of career damage. But like so many prospects, when the ballgame changes facing the elite competition, are they able to show the improvement necessary? Most don't and fall into the what if category. A tough tough sport and so many things need to be aligned to make it to the top of the mountain.
Lionel Butler was a bum. World ranked and in a world title eliminator, he showed up for the biggest fight of his life and clearly hadn't done a day of serious training.
Butler like other 5'11 HW David Tua and Bert Cooper all who had devastating power they just couldn't overcome the physical obstacle and beat the bigger taller HW for title.
'Contender' might be a stretch, high-end gate keeper/fringe contender might be more accurate. Either way I agree he was a sad example of underachieving heavyweights in that era. I also agree that he's an underrated mark on Lennox' record. All the great heavyweights have those low-key but meaningful wins on their ledger.
He was a terrific puncher. Very underrated. Supposedly dropped Vitali in sparring as well, prior to the aborted Rahman fight.
No, that was Raphael Butler in 2005, and via body punch (according to sources). But Lionel indeed was a terrific puncher
Thanks for the correction. Travis Walker supposedly did as well (I think!). Another very underrated puncher.
