Suffering not one but two one-punch KO's to the likes of McCall and Rahman is pretty damning evidence against you if you're trying to tout your greatness. Like I said, once is easily enough called an aberration, or in Louis' case, a learning experience one can build on. At what point though does one stop calling it an aberration and understand there's something more at play? Lewis was quite good, I'm not calling him a bum. But in terms of legacy getting starched that way in two title fights is a huge black mark. One you must admit Louis never suffered. Nor Ali, nor Marciano, or Holmes, etc.
I like and respect both boxers and they were ATGs within their respective divisions. To me it's a tough call. If I had to choose without giving it careful thought I'd lean toward Monzon.
Lewis, that klitschko win is better than any win of monzon, Monzon struggled with Bennie briscoe and got dropped by Rodrigo Valdes and struggled in both fights, Monzon’s 3 losses are worse opponents than Rahman and McCall by a long shot
At HW 90s onwards it's way more likely to happen because steroid fueled HWs have way, way more power with 1 punch. In fact 3 of the greatest HWs of the past 30 years were knocked out, ie Lewis, Wlad, AJ Monzon fought smaller middleweights. If Briscoe was a HW, Monzon probably has a KO loss on his resume.
You think AJ is great compared to Bowe, Holyfield, Povetkin, Fury or Vitali? Why? Also, if Briscoe was a heavyweight, everyone he fought would have a KO loss.
There’s not much in it for me, I’d just give it to Monzon. He totally dominated his era, Lennox although he avenged his 2 knockout losses the ko’s work against him, although I think his resume is slightly better than Monzon’s
That is a good case. I rate the Vitali win very highly because Lewis was clearly sliding and beat a guy that many consider a H2H monster. On the other hand, you sometimes got the feeling that the right punch could crack that chin or the right guy on the right day could maybe nick it on points like Mercer very nearly did. With Monzon you pretty much knew the other guy was going to need a herculean effort as well as the stars aligning to beat him in his heyday. And it never happened. That's why I have to tip my hat to Monzon's dominance.
Whoa, whoa, just a second. Griffith is greater than Vitali, sure, but Vitali was prime, or close to it, whereas Griffith was a hundred fights into his career and had been through the wringer. Monzon was the young man beating the old man, whereas Lewis was the old man beating the young man. In THAT context, I'd weight the Vitali win as somewhat better.
AJ is certainly within that elite group yes, with wins over 2 of them. Those men combined with AJ would be the greats of the last 30 years. H2H I'd rank them Lennox, Fury, Wlad as a top 3. But AJ is up there and who knows I might be wrong on AJ v Fury
Griffith is also past prime, past his best weight, a small middleweight and was 33 was it? He also got bossed against Napoles. Griffith on Monzon's ledger is comparable to Tyson in terms of prime, age, size advantages.
