Do British fans remember Lennox Lewis's "numbers" ?

I mean, he really didn't sell many tickets.
He wasn't a "stadium fighter".

He struggled to get 10,000 people out to see him face Botha in summer of 2000 in the indoor London Arena, at the absolute peak of his championship fame and popularity, and that was his homecoming return to UK ring after 6 years overseas and declared the last time he'd fight in UK ring.

His fought Bruno in Cardiff in a stadium, with 26,000 people, but let's face it, Bruno was the draw and a proven "stadium fighter" (Bruno had drawn 40,000 crowds to see him against Witherspoon and Bugner in the 1980s).

How do the new breed of British boxing fans view Lennox Lewis in light of his poor "numbers" ?

 

@Puroresu_Fan this sort of discussion is what you live for. Wank away, pal.

 

Never liked Lennox Lewis the man, but a great fighter and i couldn't care less about his numbers.

 

It's funny twent ~i saw him as Canadian at the time and didn't really appreciate him until years later. Personally i felt his "British identity" was pushed on me. I honestly feel that if his nationality was just not talked about i would of embraced him as a boxer. Instead i felt cheated somehow.

 

Sorry twenty somehow thought it was your post!

 

As for the numbers thing i think most people (like myself) didn't want his Britishness shoved down their throats and went raving instead

 

Haha, no worries mate. I agree with @Unforgiven ’s underlining point though. Numbers don’t interest me at all and make zero difference in what I think of a fighter. There does seem to be a great deal of interest in that side of things on here and this admiration of promoters, particularly those who like to point out the percentages in splits and ppv sales.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennox_Lewis

His PPV record isn't bad at all.

6.5 mil buys combined for UK and US. Lennox didn't do too bad considering he wasn't promoted brilliantly. Maloney wasn't a great promoter at all.

 

How many of those PPV buys came from fighting Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield ?

 

Boxing (and indeed, the world) were very different places then. News delivered by paper, only terrestrial television, no internet. In some ways there is more competition now, but in other ways it's far easier to sell a fight these days. Everyone has every fight major fight of the last few decades on a device in their pocket.

Also, Lewis was always, (in many ways still is), seen as a bit of a fake Brit. I'm a massive Lewis fan; I genuinely think he's the best British boxer of my generation. But he was a hard sell at times. Blown up as something of a prospect who had to compete with Bruno who was largely an eternal hero. Then beaten by McCall. It was a long road back to hero status which he largely only got after the Holyfield draw.

I think there are numerous things people attribute to Lewis which aren't deserved. His chin was actually pretty decent. He was capable of proper thrillers and was an amazing finisher. Plus he chased big fights, reeked of self-confidence, and had arguably the best heavyweight jab there has been. But, a guy who left for Canada when he was a kid, lived in the US for most of his career, spent almost all his free time in America or Jamaica, and barely fought in the UK for his world title level career, was always going to be something of a hard sell.

That's my theory anyway.

 

Yes, there are reasons why he was a hard sell.
Reasons why he struggled to draw like the less accomplished Bruno did.
But the point is : It was never a linked to how highly rated he was. His rating by fans in the UK went up with his accomplishments in the ring, and only down when he was knocked out.

No one then confused "accomplishments" with "sales". We all understood then they were two different things.

Nowadays we have the new breed of "fans" who think "boxing accomplishments" are the same as sales !
They think like promoters, not like fans.

 

I think it probably was linked to how highly rated he was. During the 90's Lewis was often regarded by many British fans as a bit of a chinny heavyweight who was actually Canadian. As soon as he got the bigger fights with the likes of Holyfield and Tyson he was the best boxer we had!

I get what you're saying but I can't really think of too many obvious examples. I'm not sure if this is necessarily another Joshua/Fury thing, but if it is, I think the sales just reflect the difference in terms of what sort of styles appeal to fans in general. It's like Lewis and Bruno. The latter was a big puncher and the former, rightly or wrongly, seen as a bit safety-first. (Even though I personally don't think he was.)

 

He also had a lot more wins than a certain other champ who struggles to sell. Fury's not been down talked ability wise because of his inability to draw like Joshua, he's been slept on because he's barely fought since the Wlad win (which many fear/hope/think was a fluke), led a terrible lifestyle since and looked poor by world standards against lowly opposition upon his return.

FWIW I rate Fury and hope to see him do the business against that can crushing US hype job.

 

Now don't go bringing reason and logic into this mate, there's a narrative cooking along quite nicely here about Lewis being some sort of unrevealed "numbers" star of his time.

 

It's because in the main they are football casuals recently converted, who have found Eddie's style to their liking so naturally emanate whatever he comes out with. Either that or they're MR shills with an axe to grind and there's definitely a few of them posting on here (Hi Darren).

I can't recall ever having a conversation with a proper boxing follower in real life for more than about 15 cursory seconds about "numbers".