Your Mt. Rushmore of Heavyweights

I'll get back to you on this. I have been trying to answer all morning. Family and whatnot.

 

As far as the way they captured the public’s attention and dominated there eras...

Louis, Ali, Marciano and Tyson

they were the big names of there times and dominated there eras.

Louis for his longevity and record defenses, Ali no explanation needed, Marciano only undefeated hw champion, and Tyson the youngest ever and he unified by the age of 21 or 22 .

 

Great work, regardless.

 

OK, I will add another point to my claim that Mercer is one of the best Lewis victories. I'll compare Mercer to Ruddock - first one is VERY underrated IMO and second one is ridiculously overrated. Ruddock is widely considered as one of the best wins in Lewis resume. Why? Because: 1) that win put Lennox to big scence; 2) Ruddock was very hyped by media; 3) the manner of victory - demolishion.

But for me winning the tough battle against the fight with an ATG jab and chin is way better than KOing the one-dimensional slugger whose only real asset was a left "smash". What did Lewis show in his win over Ruddock? Great power and great precision. What did he show against Mercer? Heart, chin, toughness, ability to adapt and way more skills than he has shown against Ruddock. WAY MORE. In no other fight of his career except of probably first Holyfield fight Lennox used such beautiful combinations as he did in Mercer fight. He had to use every trick in his book, to give all he had to get the victory. For me, overcoming a tough fighter in a tough fight is far better than demolishing one-dimensional opponent.

Then we go to comparing Mercer's and Ruddock's resume. Ruddock had 4 wins over former world champions but all of them were shot when he beat them. Weaver was the closest to his prime and Ruddock barely beat him by SD. Mercer also beat one old former world chmapion, but Witherspoon was better fighter than any of the former champs that Ruddock has beaten. Plus Mercer actualy beat peak version of Tommy Morrison, peack version of Francesco Damiani and peak version of Bert Cooper. Ruddock never beat any prime fighter who was as good as those 3. And he actually got knocked out by wahsed up Morrison, while Mercer KTFOed prime version of Tommy.

I think Mercer is wastly underrated nowdays because of his losses to old Larry Holmes and to Jesse Ferguson. But Holmes was an ATG fighter with the worst style possible for Mercer to face. And Ferguson loss was bad but nowhere near as bad as Ruddock loss to David Jaco. Oh, and Merer avenged that loss to Ferguson, while Ruddock never avenged his loss to Jaco.

Mercer was very, very good fighter, excellent professional and Olympic champion with KO1 win over Zjelko Mavrovic in the amateurs. For me he is CLEARLY among top 3 Lennox victories and the fight against him was the gutsiest, the most multi-dimensional and one of the best overall performances of Lewis' career.

 

With the exception of maybe Byrd, who legitimately entered the picture towards the end by beating Holyfield, these were not the best fighters of Lewis' day.

Wlad Klitschko wasn't anything special when Lewis was fighting. He was in his own WBO pocket-universe, before the WBO belt was a thing. He had three losses before Lewis retired, and blew it against Brewster when they were trying to make the Lewis fight.

Sanders only became a thing when he knocked out Wlad. That was 2003, so do you fault Lewis for fighting Vitali instead?

Moorer was an up and down guy. He chose what he thought was going to be an easy defense against Foreman and blew it. Subsequently he lost to Holy, got destroyed by Tua, etc.

Retroactively, these look like great fights, but in context they weren't. Although you may have a minor point with Byrd.

The point is that Lewis UNIFIED BELTS, and fought the recognized best of his day, giving clarity to the division. Holmes never tried. The 90's was stacked, so it is not possible that Lewis was going to be able to get everyone in the ring.

Exactly right, in your opinion. The 90's were like that...there were lots of guys and a lot of different opinions has to who would be his third best win. Definitionally, Rahmen and McCall accomplished more than Mercer.

Personally, I don't rank Mercer that high. Never mind losing to post-40 Holmes, but guys who lose to Jesse Ferguson don't get there for me.

AT THE TIME, some pundits saw both Norton and Witherspoon the other way. I am not saying that you are not qualified to score a fight or see it your way...of course you are. But, as often happens, a kind of consensus has emerged on those fights that was not there at the time, and given that, and how thin the division was, there should have been rematches.

The problem is that you are not seeing the bigger picture of what I am saying. Holmes' best wins are disputed wins against underwhelming Norton and Witherspoon, and his lack of granting those rematches goes right along with his refusal to fight Page and Thomas, his refusal to unify belts, etc. Holmes was a cherry picker, and anyone who takes a objective look at his record can see that it is NOT, under any circumstances, a top four record.

There were no questions after a TKO win, and he retired, so it really doesn't matter that the "promised" a rematch. He he gone on to fight T-rex Whitaker or something, you might have a point.

He was on the wrong side of 35. AND HE HAD UNIFIED BELTS TO RELINQUISH.

I can't go back to this enough. Holmes went belt-less for Frazier rather than fight Greg Page, and then CONTRIBUTED TO TITLE PROLIFERATION by accepting the IBF title.

Lewis unified belts, Holmes further split them.

Never said he was a saint, just that Lewis' record of unifying belts and fighting the best of a great era are much better than Holme's record of splitting belts and declining tough challenges in a poor one.

Why can't people just look objectively at records? They guys Lewis beat are just plain much, much better than the guys Holme's beat.

Which is why Holme's is NOT a top four guy at at.

 

All of them were clearly better than Botha whom Lewis has chosen for a voluntary defense, and it was proven in the ring. THAT version of Wlad dominated Botha from pillar to post wiing all rounds and them KO'ed him. Moorer dominated Botha losing 2 rounds at most (or 0 on Jim Watt's scorecard) and then KO'ed him. Corrie Sanders beat Botha 4 times in the amateurs, 3 of them by KO. Any of them would be much better choice than Botha, Grant or Phil "Jeremy Williams KTFO'ed me with a jab in the first round" Jackson.

And the guys who got stopped by David Jaco do, huh?

Your opinion

 

Dempsey,Marchiano,Johnson,Louis

 

Again, you are broadly missing the point.

Every champion has a few easy defenses on his record, for money, because it was the best he could negotiate at the moment, etc.

Lewis unified belts and fought the best names of his era.

Holmes split belts and did not fight the best of his era.

I am not saying, nor is it important, that Lewis did not fight the best names of his era down to the 10th-15th man.

 

i must be the odd one out, never seen was so great about Ali

 

1. Louis
2. Ali
3. Holmes
4. Lewis

But I also liked Liston, Holyfield, Foreman. Prime Bowe was a favorite of mine to watch

 

Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson