What Is The Oldest That Lennox Lewis Could Have Come Back?

He might have had a two or three year window following the Klitschko fight where he could have returned and captured a belt. Especially given how weak the division was around that time. I don think he would have beaten Wladimir but he might have beaten guys like Maskaev and chagaev.

 

He’d probably rest a couple of years before taking a look at the landscape. Over yonder he sees the giant Valuev and fancies his chances. 40 plus Lewis wouldn’t want to hang around too long with warm ups, maybe one against someone like Clifford Ettiene before testing Valuev’s chin.

If he won…as I suspect he would… it would open the door for a third clash with Holyfield in a battle of the old timers. If Lewis wins, he finally calls it a day.

Or does he…

 

He wouldn't come back. Lennox was smart and didn't lose to anyone he didn't beat.

It's hard to get up and go for a run when you sleep in silk pyjamas - the Klit fight was a rude awakening, even with the likes of Valuev and other titlists, I don't see that Lennox would feel the pull to make a comeback campaign, as he would be compelled to rematch Klit. He didn't want any parts of that.

 

This is about it. His decline may or not have ended up steep and he huffed and puffed a bit that last fight after not training with much motivation despite that exact thing getting him hammered against Rahman. He was in good shape for Tyson and Rahman II at 249 1/4 and 246 1/2 but was a whopping 256 1/2 against Vitali. He obviously wasn't training hard at that point so if he did come back he would have needed to regain a helluva lot of enthusiasm because he would have struggled if he didn't. It was a brilliant retirement really.

 

Basically after beating Tyson he had cemented his legacy, he had no motivation to train hard, he was rich, healthy and living the good life and he retired and has stayed that way.

 

About a year after he has retired Vitally is out of the way, and Wlad is struggling to get his career back on track.

In hindsight he could probably have picked up a belt at this point, if his level of motivation was high.

In practice it wasn't, and he made the right call to walk away, and stay away.

 

Lennox was NEVER coming back. He weighed up his options carefully & decided it was time , which pleased his lovely wife Violet immensely. There was no one worth staying for, he'd beaten Vitali when not 100% in shape, Wlad had gone AWOL & Ike was otherwise unavailable. He retired at EXACTLY the right time. Now he is living the good life he earned. He is a Happily married man with a great family he is Healthy & Wealthy too Its a shame all fighters don't retire this way. Enjoy your retirement Lennox you certainly earned it

 

To be honest he beats everyone except the klits up to 2008-2010 in theory.
In oractice theres no way he stays motivated and hungry enough like many others here have said.

 

Do you think Lennox really sleeps in silk pajamas?

 

It's a bad rendition of a famous Marvin Hagler quote, "It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you've been wearing silk pyjamas" or something like that.

Basically, the same thing as what we learnt in Rocky 3 - success, civilisation and comfort can kill the drive and animalistic hunger of a fighter who has come from nothing and indulges in the eye of the bovine.

 

I think he can comeback now. No he would not be a top guy.

 

He could have taken another year off, but not much more.

I remember that before the Vitali fight, Steward was saying that he was fighting better than ever. I think the reason that he retired was that he had his second child, and his heart was just in another direction, but age catches up with everyone.