Lennox Lewis responds to criticism

Lewis is spot on in that article. The fight should have been made in 2018 but team Joshua swerved it. If anyone denies that, then they are speaking with an agenda. It's not even up for debate. Now it really does look like this fight won't happen until 2020, the same year "coincidentally" that Barry Hearn wanted the fight. Boxing sucks.

However, Lewis is very bitter about AJ. He was the same when he had to praise Wlad before he lost. He grimaced when praising him. Great fighter Lennox but his ego is HUGE.

 

Matchroom FC in HELL

 

Amen to that lennox

 

Let's just see Lewis call AJ a ducker/coward to AJ's face, let's just see that meeting beteeen the two. Lewis needs to stop larging it with a promoter and back himself when in front of a fighter.

I have a sneaky feeling Lewis will change his tune and very quickly become very diplomatic AGAIN.




I'm not going through it all over again but I urge anybody to look on boxrec or anywhere else and see how many fights Lewis had before fighting his "legacy" fights, how many fights it took Lewis to unify the belts, Jesus, look how long it took him to have a unification fight.. 36 fights for that last one I believe.

AJ will be going in to his 23rd and has already pretty much matched Lewis for achievements and done it in better style and remained undefeated.

Lewis is a bitter and jealous man who's time has been and gone and it's now rather obvious in my opinion why he was never truly loved by British fans.

 

Lewis works for PBC, I mean is he really partial?

If you want to critique AJ then go after his inactivity, he should be fighting 3 times a year. Besides that his career has been stellar.

 

Not a Joshua fan as such, but really? Which champions among his calibre fight 3 times a year these days? They all should be and I wish they would, but it isn't going to happen.

 

How dare anyone question what Lennox Lewis has to say. He fought everybody from Bowe to Vitali Klitschko, even granting Klitschko a rematch to their very controversial and exciting first fight! Oh wait, I forgot he did neither! At least he fought a close to prime Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield! Oh wait, they were way past their prime, sorry. Forget I posted. Lol.

 

Yep I agree. No AJ fanboy here, for some reason I've only a passing interest in the guy and, rarely for me, I feel no enthusiasm at all to watch his interviews on all the usual channels.

I think Lennox has this entirely the wrong way round.... He's said some contentious things about Joshua, and the above post is a good example of how those things are both unfair and hypocritical. In my mind it's Lennox that needs to put on the big boy pants. I'm afraid his career in the ring (now quite a while back) doesn't make him immune from someone calling him out when he talks nonsense.

Whatever the commercial wranglings over making fights, I doubt Joshua is actively trying to avoid any fights that are out there. Because I'm not totally stupid I will say Joshua probably has a preferred running order to generate himself another hundred million or so in the most assured way. This is because he is not totally thick.

 

Lewis is a guy with every excuse under the sun when it comes to why he never fought Bowe, took ages to unify, fought a past it Tyson, an old Holyfield and never rematched Vitali.

It's almost like negotiations in boxing can be drawn out and difficult...

That said I'm not saying all those things were his fault. But surely if he's presenting himself as some 'this is what I had to do for my legacy' guy he needs to realise that dumb 'just make the fight' lines are pathetically simplistic. What answer did Lennox have when people were telling him to 'just make the fight' with Bowe/Holyfield/Tyson in the mid 90's?

 

Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield all avoided Lewis at various times.
Tyson even paid him 4 million dollars step aside money rather than defend against him, Bowe threw the belt in the trash can rather than defend against him.

 

I have to disagree with the two fights a year thing. Wilder fought twice in 2018, likewise 2017, likewise 2016. Fury, even before the layoff, fought very infrequently for a guy at his level.

Lewis himself fought twice or less in 03,02,01,99, 98 and 96.

 

I'm not saying they didn't, but don't you see why repeatedly saying 'you've got to make the fight' is too simplistic?

Also, how do you think Lennox Lewis rates his own legacy? Highly? Course he does. Despite not fighting Bowe or Tyson and Holyfield until they were old. So what's different for Joshua? If he fights a 34 year old Wilder what will Lennox say? Doesn't count because Wilder was too old? Looks a bit hypocritical doesn't it?

 

Well in part of that article he says he’s just speaking as a fan.
He just wants to see these fights being made.

 

I think that's naive. I don't believe he's 'just a fan.' I think he's a pretty thin-skinned individual who is still Britain's best ever heavyweight, and hates the idea that Joshua is coming up on the rails.

Joshua could easily lose to a couple of Rahman/McCall types and fail at the big hurdles when Fury and Wilder come along. But he could also beat them all, beat Usyk, and be retiring in a few years time with a legitimate argument being made as to whether he was actually better than Lennox Lewis. And I reckon Lewis is dreading that being a potential outcome, hence the odd nature of his comments about Joshua needing to fight Wilder and Fury now, (or even that it's already too late), when his own legacy fights were an old Holyfield and a shell of Tyson.

 

I agree 100%