Lennox Lewis, The Thread

Lewis has a big reach advantage over most greats. His jab and right hand might be the most powerful in heavyweight history. I actually don't think his defense was that good. He didn't get hit that often but that's because he had a massive reach and a great jab. He controlled the distance very well. His footwork was pretty good for his size (under Manny). About his chin. He was stopped twice in his career with 1 punch. Other times in his career, he showed good punch resistance (Bruno, Tucker, Mercer, Briggs, Holyfield, Vitali). I think that's the problem. His chin can be labelled "suspect". At times he could took a punch (more often than not) and at other times he couldn't. No one can say Lennox had a glass chin. But he wasn't just dropped, he was stopped by decent punchers. It's a weird chin imo. 7/10 is reasonable, I think.

Also, if you dissect his resume, it isn't as great as it looks. A lot of fighters Lewis beat were past their prime (Holyfield, Tyson, Mercer, Morrison, Tucker, McCall). His win over Vitali was certainly impressive, regardless of the circumstances. His performances against Golota, Briggs, Rahman, Ruddock, Grant, Tua were that of an all-time great. These are the kind of performances that separate him from the rest. No one else from the 90s could've beaten these guys the way Lewis did. No heavyweight has a flawless resume (not even Ali). You can find blemishes on anyone's resume. Some fighters dominated a weak era (Wladimir/Vitali, Louis, Dempsey, Holmes, Tyson). Some fighters signature wins came over old or small fighters (Tyson, Tunney, Bowe, Marciano, Lewis, Liston, Dempsey). We can **** on anyone's resume if we try hard enough. Lennox is a top 10 (locked), top 5 (strong case), top 3 (debatable but not out of line).

He's an all-time great and he'd be a tough fight for any heavyweight ever. I picked Holmes, Ali, and Tyson to beat Lewis. None of them were easy picks. Tyson (I had to lol), Holmes (tremendous jab/movement/speed, better conditioning, better defense, more durable), Ali (too mobile and too quick for any SHW, lightning fast jab and unorthodox head movement, great at feinting, lead right hand like no one else). All these picks are arguable. One thing people don't talk about, Lennox was very strong mentally. He never gave in when things weren't going his way. He was getting outboxed by Bruno but he stayed in there and finally caught Bruno and stopped him. His fight against Mercer is a great example. He knew Mercer came to fight and you can see Lewis step it up as the fight goes on. He always tried to stay ahead of his opponent. Same thing in the Holyfied fights. Manny told Lewis he had to win the last round (USA). Even though Lewis had outboxed Evander the entire fight, look at how convincingly he won that last round. Had he taken a round off, he would have lost a split decision lol. Lewis finished strong in the second fight as well. His fight against Vitali is another example. 37 year old Lewis. He was clearly getting outboxed early on. But he couldn't let Vitali have the upper hand. He stepped it up after 3 rounds and he was back in the fight when it was stopped. Then there were certain fights where Lewis didn't come to box, he came to destroy- Ruddock, Golota, Grant, Rahman II (obviously). All in all, Lennox Lewis is one of the best the division has ever seen and his size + skillset make him a nightmare head to head.

 

Evening Jack. I've liked CJ's post above as he says what I think.

It would have been good if he had stayed busy for McCall II with a Mercer rematch as he didn't totally prove superiority over Ray. But at least he didn't duck Ray and then fight a load of stiffs. After Mercer, he took on McCall, Akinwande, Golota and Briggs so he should be applauded for treading a riskier path than others might have chosen.

But Vitali? Lennox was 38. He'd had enough. Why should he stay around and possibly get hurt just to prove himself the better man over a younger man who had had his chance against an overweight, undermotivated version of Lewis who had trained for someone else (I know Vitali was a late sub but Bert Cooper has previously proved that needn't be too much of a problem) and come up short. If he'd been 28, I'd agree but I think any 38 year old should have the right to call it a day if they've had enough without having their legacy questioned.

 

I think that he would be most vulnerable to the great finishers of history.

I think that Jack Dempsey would be a very serous threat to him, as would Joe Louis, and Sonny Liston.

Muhammad Ali would be a serious threat on speed alone.

Larry Holmes would out box him, and it might or might not, deliver him the fight.

Tyson would be a serious problem for him.

The guy who comes out on top out of the current top three, might have a claim, whoever that is!

 

Other:

Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano

I rank Lewis ahead of Tyson H2H but i think Tyson causes too many stylistic issues for Lewis

 

Hello Ed. I don’t agree. He wasn’t overweight or under motivated. He had steadily been putting on weight over the years so like Ali during the latter part of the 70s that increasing weight was what was felt natural for him. Like you said both took the fight against each other at short notice so no advantage there for either. As for proving himself the better man, the fight was still very much in the balance when it was stopped by Vitali’s cuts. Sure technically, it is still an legitimate win to win on cuts but I don’t think anyone including Lewis thought that he proved he was the better man with the fight ending like that. As for why he didn’t give him the rematch, Lewis has alway been a prideful, self absorbed control freak with a ego as huge as his right cross. To hear everyone saying that there should be a rematch because of how the first one finished would have bruised his ego and motivated him to prove them all wrong but I think deep down he knew that at that stage of his career he wouldn’t have gotten any better than in the last fight, probably gotten worse while Vitali could only have gotten better. That why he dragged out the question of a rematch for so long before announcing that he would be retiring instead.

I think when he came out with the quote years later that his mother had told him not to fight Vitali again because she thought he looked too dangerous, everyone laughed and thought he was only joking but maybe he was really of the same mind as his mother and knew he would have lost as well?

Just my take on it.

 

McCall was exposed by Bruno and Rahman didn`t have much of a career and was a very basic fighter.

 

And it's a fair one even though I beg to differ. As you say, Lennox was going down, Vitali was on the up. Each trajectory was only going one way. Lewis did the sensible thing and let his head rule his ego. Shouldn't affect his standing any more than, say, Joe Louis not going after Rocky Marciano again. The time had passed for both. Anyway. Cheers Jack.

 

Ali underestimated many opponents and still took punches to the face. Quit making excuses for chinny girl.

 

Why would he need. Excuses? When you have rematches? He avenged both.
Maybe if Tyson had avenged even one of his losses he would get more respect. Ali? He lost to a few guys in the 70s but they kept giving him back tbe title.

 

He gave Holyfield a rematch after boxing his ears off in the 1st fight. I dont think too many of his opponents wanted anymore of him after they tasted that right hand.

 

I would say easily top 5 h2h. Resume top 10 bare minimum.

He has a few asrerisks* keeping him from being #1 h2h. For one, some of his best opponents were past their prime when he beat them (holyfield, Tyson, Morrison, etc). There were a handful of southpaws in his era and he for whatever reason never fought them (sanders, Byrd, moorer). Despite being huge with long arms, he got outjabbed and frustrated by bruno in a jab fest and even the much shorter ray Mercer. That makes me hesitate to favor him over guys with atg jabs like wladmir and especially holmes (although be certainly has a chance at beating them, no less than 60/40 odds). He also didnt face very many defensive fighters or guys who fight primarily on the outside other than a washed up tony Tucker or Biggs, which leaves a lot of questions in how he'd approach a guy like Ali.

Despite saying all that, I think it would be unreasonable to not have him at least 50/50 at his best against 90% of the champs in history. His ring iq and technically sound ability combined with his size and thudding power is a daunting task for anyone on their best day.

 

Wilder has a better right hand than Lewis had, the right hand he knocked Stiverne out with went straight through the guard, awesome.

 

Tyson would have toyed witn Rahman and McCall though.