How many prime fighters has Lennox lewis beaten?

When I first found out about Lewis, I always thought he's the HW goat becuz of the amount of names stacked in his resume but when I became a hardcore fan, I couldn't help but notice that mostly weren't at their best such as:

Tyrell Biggs - Over the hill
Mike Weaver - Over the hill
Evander Holyfield - 1999 should be WAY past his prime, but he seems has to have longevity and was very capable at the time so I'll credit Lewis for that.
Mercer - Might not be over the hill, but wasn't at his best either. Plus with the controversial decision, I might discredit Lewis a lot for that.
Morrison - Young or old, he was fading and already at the tail end of his career
Bruno - Way past his prime.
Ocasio - Also way past his prime.
Tyson - No need for explanation

 

Wilder beats Grant because Grant is chinny but how was Golota washed up when he imo was unfortunate to win the decision against Chris Byrd and John Ruiz ???? That makes no sense

And Wilders best win is Luis Ortiz. the reality is no matter how you want to slice it, Grant had a better resume. And Breazeale beat WHO ?

 

He didn't beat many good prime fighters.

Okay, let's say Grant and Tua and Vitali. Maybe a couple more.

The answer to the thread question is that he didn't face many prime fighters worth talking about. Honestly, if Michael Grant is notable on his record, it's not particularly strong.

 

Wasn't answering the thread, was replying to you. You're right that he didn't face "many" prime fighters but i included Grant as a reference to you claiming Fury "schools" Lewis even though Wilder's resume is abysmal and worse than Grants.

You don't have to include him. Not really a good win

 

Have you seen those fights!?
Golota of the Bowe fight would've put Grant away early.

Breazeale is a monster. The dude can actually pick himself up off the canvas to win fights. And he has a gas tank that sees him still throwing after 5 rounds.

In the VADA era of the 90's training was taking a needle in the ass, and laying off cocaine for the month leading up to the fight.

Other than being big, that's all Grant has in common with Breazeale. Grant wasn't even athletic. And in that era, his size was more of an anomaly. Breazeale isn't unusually huge against modern Heavyweights.

If you want to argue that today's Heavyweights run thin on big names, we could say the same of 90's era fighters compared to the 50's. Rocky Marciano's opponents were some of the best fighters ever POUND FOR POUND. But no one in his right mind would call for Moore or Charles to fight 90's Heavyweights, right? Because size matters.

This is going off-topic, so if it gets deleted fine. It has nothing to do with the thread. I would just point out that criticizing Wilder's opponents is calling the kettle black, when people in the 90's were complaining about the lack of talent at Hw, too.

I think we can both agree, even if Lewis didn't fight a lot of legends in their prime, he was a tremendous fighter with an ATG record. Gotta respect what he achieved.

 

He looked better because he fought c and d levellers.
None of them were as good a sluggish past prime Lewis, that's how poor they were.

 

People who followed his career at the time know this to be true.
But revisionism has occurred since his retirement.
Beating old versions of Holyfield and Tyson allowed his promoters to call him "best of the era" and it's all neat and tidy in the minds of his fans. Truth is, both those guys were already in decline when Lewis was still a novice pro, nevermind when they actually fought him.
Of course, Holyfield and Tyson could be said to be overrated too, they fought their fair share of bums too, but Lewis gets a huge pass from some, for some reason.
The 1990s heavyweights generally get overrated, and Lewis seems to get the most benefit.
Guy like Ray Mercer was a gatekeeper type after Holmes exposed him, and Morrison was a blatant hype job, but these guys are cited as top quality heavyweights? It's crazy.

 

He's 6'7" 250+ pounds. What term would you prefer be applied to him?

 

I think Fury MIGHT school Lewis.
That has nothing to do with beating Wilder though.
Fury is just a very good, versatile and big boxer.

 

LMAO, Kirk Johnson, Corrie Sanders (who actually showed up to fight) and Danny Williams are "C and D Levellers"!?!?!?!?!?

Ummmm.... ok..... I have seen all I need to see here.

 

Yet he faced one good (not very good) prime Boxer in Wilder 3 times, beat a past it but still good Klitschko and now he might school Lewis. But Lewis is overrated ? Okay

There isn't much revisionism. The way you pick apart Lewis's record you could pick apart any ATGs record and make it seem a lot worse than it is. You just didn't change your view. Overrated resume and H2H status ? Thats a totally fair criticism, but i feel you just dislike him, the way you always talk about him

 

Vitali vs Sanders the same as Cooney vs Jimmy Young

 

A bum ? Because he's beaten nobody of note ?