How many prime fighters has Lennox lewis beaten?

I don't give credit that way, but to each their own. In the ring is all that counts for me.

 

Not sure I do either, but it's the custom.

Implicitly, it happens whenever two things happen in tandem:

1) People giving greatness credit for fighters who actually won the fancy "lineal title" achievement badge, combined with...

2) Failing to deduct greatness points from a fighter who was unfairly ducked, and thus not given a shot at gaining the "lineal title" achievement badge.

So for Wills, for example, we sometimes compare the quality of his actual wins to Dempsey's directly. This wouldn't happen if Dempsey hadn't been perceived as unfairly ducking Wills. If Wills hadn't been ducked, we would be more likely to dismiss Wills from even getting the opportunity to be compared directly in greatness terms with Dempsey, because "one's a champion, and the other isn't."

 

Well, there are exceptions that happen in the ring. Foreman getting despicably robbed of his lineal title by Briggs was about as flagrant as I can think of. Holy being able to keep his title after so obviously losing to Lewis in that first fight..

 

I added an example of how I've noticed it works with Wills/Dempsey.

Essentially, getting ducked gives a top contender a platform to directly compare win/loss record with the champ who ducked him. Boxing historians usually don't extend this privilege to fighters who weren't ducked. You don't get to compare yourself in greatness terms with the Lineal Champion Club unless you're either a lineal champ yourself, or were ducked.

So in that sense, "got ducked" status is valuable.

 

You’re funny.

 

Vitali definitely was not yet in his prime. Briggs, like Walcott and Hopkins, improved as he aged.

 

Golota was clearly washed up. He had literally been lost wandering on the streets hours before the fight. He should have never been cleared to fight.

 

Ruddock and Golota had pre-existing mental conditions from loooon before they hit the big time. If you want to attribute it to CTE, fine, but it was the product of years of cranial abuse. Again, I am sure there were underlying mental conditions, but those few fights alone didn't turn them into out-right whack jobs.

 

Okay, bums and has-beens mainly. Mainly mediocre fighters.

Guys like Lionel Butler and Shannon Briggs and Justin Fortune and Oliver McCall and old versions of Tony Tucker and Mike Weaver were NOT much good. Not were Phil Jackson, Francois Botha, Frank Bruno, or men who were Euro level at best like Zeljko Mavrovic, Henry Akinwande etc.
Mediocre heavyweights.

 

^ lol

 

I can clearly tell you avoided the several good names on his resume. Ah well

Ruddock, Mercer, Golota, Tua, Vitali, Rahman. Holyfield at that point was past it but still good as he was coming off of two wins over Mike Tyson and dominated Moorer in their rematch

Grant was somewhat of a hypejob but up until he got buchured by Lewis his record was better than Wilders with wins over Golota and Savarese and he was a top contender. Pointing that out because i believe you claimed Fury schools Lewis because Fury beat Wilder lmao

 

My original statement was "mainly bums". Since "bums" is considered offensive by some, I'd be happy to revise it to "bums, has-beens and mediocre fighters".
Mainly means mostly.
Why would I list "several good fighters"? You can go through his entire pro record, if you like.
A lot more than 50% of his opponents were bums or mediocre fighters, or old or past prime contenders. You think I'm deluded to saying so, but I think you'd have to be deluded not to think so.

 

Because he really didn't step up to world level until over 20 fights in and after than half of his opponents were "has beens" or mediocres and the other half were solid fighters. You're technically not wrong but his list of good wins are plentiful and he was the best in his era. Which is why he's an ATG.

 

So you really think Vitali looked ANYTHING like the fighter we saw after that fight? He literally improved with each subsequent fight.

actually, despite his advanced age, he was a better fighter in his comeback career.

 

Golota was washed up. You clearly never saw the fight if you think he beat the same dude that gave Bowe an absolute drubbing.

Saverse's only quality name heading into the Grant fight was Sanders - an enormous talent, but as the fight with Saverese showed, an tremendous underachiever.

Wilder would have killed those dudes. In fact, Breazeale would have killed those dudes and Grant.