Here is an interesting what if. Say that Lewis got the decision in the first fight, but the second fight ended up a draw or a narrow win for Holyfield. Not impossible.
A Don King I agree on the 117-111 for Lennox. That was a Don King fix to give Vander the draw. Even Don wouldn't dare claim Holyfield ever won that fight. In fact Vander did fight better in the rematch it was a closer fight than the first .
Lewis won the first fight pretty easily, haven't seen the 2nd fight in a long time but I remember Evander doing better, I'll have to rewatch that one. I think Holyfield would win in their respective primes, probably by UD or MD. Whether or not there were shenanigans going on, no idea.
Lewis won BUT this version of Holyfield was knocking on for 6-7 years well past his prime. Make me think that a prime Holyfield would of had too much for Lennox
He might have been past his prime, but some of his best work was still very recent. It should also be noted, that some people were arguing that he was the #3 heavyweight of all time, after he beat Tyson twice. This draw, probably should have been Lewis's best win.
Lennox didn’t dominate the fight. Lennox in the early rounds had some good moments, but didn’t sustain his attacks and when he went negative Evander went to work, which was enough to steal rounds. Lennox also gave away several rounds away by backing up and not throwing punches, which doesn’t look good to judges. Lennox also didn’t finish the fight strong. Also, stats don’t mean anything. Effectiveness is what matters and Lennox going backwards and not throwing punches doesn’t show effectiveness to the judges. Many of the rounds were close or even. Lennox would look good at the beginning of a round, but would go negative midway and Evander would finish strong due to Lennox doing nothing. Even on the scorecards all three of the judges had Lennox losing or tying with Evander on rounds 8, 9, 10, and 11, which are rounds that Lennox did almost nothing in besides showboat or go backwards while Evander was throwing punches. Lennox basically put in a lazy performance in the later rounds assuming he’d cruise to a decision. Steward and Harold Knight did everything in their power to motivate Lennox to work to avoid a possible split decision or draw, but Lennox did things his way and got the decision he earned.
Lewis tactically dominated the fight with his jab, and whilst your saying Lewis was "lazy". Holyfield averaged 30 punches thrown a round. And did nothing notable outside of the 3rd round, when he tried to make his prediction of a 3rd round KO happen. And of course stats mean something just because it doesn't fit your narrative, it shows what we all see with our own eyes. Lewis controlled Holyfield with the jab and outboxed him for large periods of the fight. Whilst also badly hurting him on 2 or 3 occasions. Just look at Holyfield's face after the fight, and see if he agrees with your assessment that he deserved a draw. Even in the post fight interview Holyfield sounded like the loser, and couldn't put forward any case for deserving a draw. If you honestly think this is a close fight, then i'm honestly lost for words. I'd love to see your scorecard RBR for this fight.
Lewis never dominated anyone over the full 12 round distance. Not unless you want to count the debacle that was his pattycake display against Tua which was as mesmerising as AJ running to a points win over Ruiz. So It was no suprise to me that one of the Holyfield fights was scored a draw. I scored the second fight a draw. The fight first I give to Lewis by a round. So it was too close to complain, but that was the second time I scored it, the first time I scored that a draw too. Lennox just was not a comfortable long distance fighter at all. Great fighter with every tool, but he just always faded and got sloppy late in a fight. For all Lewis had magnificent attributes he had his flaws too. Even though he wiped out Golota, Grant and Ruddock like a great fighter he had more average moments like Mavrovic, Chanet, Billups, Butler, Phil Jackson and Dropped the ball twice when it counted against McCall and Rahman. He had it all but he was not ever a cast iron deal. That's why it took him so long to catch on, he kind of outlasted everyone else. For much of his career Lewis was often just "one of the best two" guys. You never had that with true great guys before Lewis. "He got there in the end". that’s what they say about Lewis. Nobody says Tyson or Joe Louis or Ali “got there in the end”. But it is true of Lewis.
