what were Lennox Lewis weaknesses?

He doesn't have any late knock outs. The closest i have seen is the Bruno KO and Bruno was up on his feet. Lewis whenever he realized he couldn't blast someone out of there early, decided to play it safe and box to a decision. Wilder should have taken note of this approach from Lewis's career.

Lewis always comments "There is no point in outboxing someone for 11 rounds of the fight if you have a loss of concentration in round 12 and get knocked out and if you can't knock out that one opponent then you better be able to box properly to win a decision".

 

Great post. I agree with this even though Lennox is 3rd or 4th on my atg heavyweight list. No fighter is perfect.

 

I think stamina, and, as a Hybrid Style Fighter, he sometimes showed up for a fight with the wrong style for who he was fighting. (That wasn't just Lennox, though. Many Hybrid style fighters have done the same, at times.)

 

I love Frazier too

 

A right hand, remember what happened against Hassim Rahman and Oliver McCall.

 

Wow do I disagree ... if you can say one thing about Lewis it's that he fought everybody that would fight him as soon as they would fight him ... Weaver, Mason, McCall ,Bruno, Ruddock, Briggs, Tubbs, Tucker, Holyfield, Tyson, Tua, Mercer, Vitali, Rachman, Grant, Briggs, Golota, Morrison .. Lew is fought everyone .. he tried for years to fight Bowe but we all know Team Bowe wanted no part of Lewis .. I'll go as far as to say no other heavyweight fought as many top heavyweights as Lewis .. weaknesses, when on top of his game, few .. a very , very tough man H2H for anyone ..

 

Ali did

 

Lewis at his peak was a H2H monster ... Under Steward he became a complete boxer and was able to adapt to most styles and fighters ... He would give any boxer in history hell

But if you connected on his jaw there was a good chance you could put him away ... Anyone with a good right hand and good durability would be a challenge to Lewis ... He would sometimes get lazy in the ring or become overly cautious but his chin was his main issue ....

 

Honestly, maybe his chin.

There really isn't much with Lennox Lewis that I personally can critique. He was a sound boxer, big, strong jab, can brawl when needed. He got caught twice, but honestly that isn't that all bad. The reason I mention that is the spectacular fashion that these KOs occurred.

Maybe the time in which he reigned, Post-Holyfield Prime, Post-Tyson Prime, there were a lot of contenders that were out of their prime for Lewis, and some that just started at the end, it gets a weird time span. It was not a weak division, but one that had seen better days? Idk, maybe that was the real casual way of putting it but it is what it is.

 

Why has nobody mentioned his record as a commentator?

 

Lennox trying to pronounce the word “athleticism”

 

I know that's the rubber stamp answer but I don't see it .. Foreman, Frazier, then a gigantic drop ... Patterson, Willams, Chuvalo, Terrell, Foley, Cooper, Lyle, Shavers, Norton , Young ? I don;'t even think it's close ..

 

Or when he appeared on The Apprentice, Lol.

 

Lewis fought Holyfield when Hollyfield was 37 and a year away from struggling vs John Ruiz. Tyson was done at this stage. Neither fighter at that stage is comparable to Foreman, Frazier or Liston.

Norton was an excellent fighter and an all time top 25 heavyweight, if not top 20. In fact, Norton was better than most of Lewis's opposition except Vitali. I would pick Norton to defeat the same version of Holyfield Lewis did.

Who were Lewis's best opponents outside of his Vitali, past it Holy and Tyson? Ruddock was no better than Shavers; in fact, i would say he was worse. Lyle is just as good as Tua. Williams was done when Ali fought him, so he doesn't really count.

McCall and Rahman were hardly top fighters. McCall struggled vs an ancient Holmes. Morrison likely had HIV at this stage and was pretty much done.

I don't see how anyone can argue Lewis fought more top heavies than Ali.

 

You mean that David Tua was as good as Ron Lyle? Ha Hs, what are the other posters going to say? Just kidding as he is strongly admired by many on this site.