Holmes has survived many nasty fights throughout his career (Shavers (2x), Norton, Weaver, Berbick, Snipes, Cooney, Witherspoon, Smith, Williams, Spinks, M., Mercer, McCall) and won most of them. Lewis cannot lay claim to winning to many wars. For me, the wins over Bruno, Mercer, Briggs, and Klitschko are the only ones that come to mind. Another way to look at it is, what's the best punch Larry took in his life? The Shavers right hand. But Larry got up and won that fight, and in blistering fashion. What's the best punch Lewis ever took? Either the McCall right, or more likely you believe it to be the Rahman right. Lewis lost both those fights. Now, do you think Shavers hit harder than Rahman and McCall, or not?
Holmes was able to come off the deck and knock the guy out who put him there. His ability to endure and recover is legendary.
Ok, but there is no way to compare the power of the punch that put Holmes down with the power of the punches that took out Lewis.
I'm not trying to be a hard ass or anything, but if what you say is true, it sounds to me like you don't think anyone can judge or not if anyone has a good chin or not.
Fair. But Lewis still didn't get up from it. Surely you believe that that specific right hand of Shavers and the right hand of Rahman were on the same level?
Really depends on the time frame and Lewis' mindset. Really easy to think of the complete package/best version of Lewis who put on clinics against guys like Tua or effortlessly demolished guys like Golota in shocking 1 sided blowouts. However, every champion has shaky moments or even losses to less than elite competition. Ali was nearly take out by Cooper, Frazier had two scary knockdowns against Bonavena, or more recently Joshua losing a shocking upset to Ruiz lard ass. The guys who took Lennox out weren't exactly elite cream of the crop either. McCall ended up becoming a punching bag journeyman and never reproduced another win remotely that good. Rahman was strong and game, but not exactly anything to write home about in skill or talent. Having said that, Lennox wins at least 90% of the time for most versions. Even the younger version of Lennox survived an intense war with a prime Mercer and showed a lot of heart and toughness. He is a gold medalist and an elite super heavy. I'm just saying it's easy to get caught up watching the best cherry picked highlights of a fighter and thinking that's how they looked all the time h2h. He could be reckless when younger, and way too lackadaisical at times when he was older, which could give Shavers many opportunities to pull off an upset. I wouldn't be too worried about Lennox as long as he takes Shavers seriously and doesn't get overly confident. But the idea that he just effortlessly outboxes Shavers winning every second of every round and Shavers has no chance of landing on him is comedy when you consider Holmes was way more mobile and elusive than Lewis and still got caught by an incredibly nasty shot. Again, if Lennox takes Shavers seriously he should be the heavy favorite, but Shavers presents some stylistic dangers for him that cannot be written off.
Quite possible, there's no way to know for sure, but I think the difference in the outcome is the point where both punches landed. Rahman's punch hit Lewis right on the chin, which made Lewis's head snap and move more, also causing the brain to move, hitting the walls of skull. This is what actually causes dizziness and the KOs. Shavers also hit Holmes clean, but his glove landed on Holmes's entire face, more towards the cheekbone, and thus his head did not snap as much.
