Who Should the #3 Consensus Heavyweight of All Time Be?

In a few years, as they slip further into the past, I could see Lennox Lewis being rated above Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis at #1.

He certainly has the boxing credentials to be rated #1.

* Unlike Ali and Louis, Lennox beat every man he faced as a pro.

* Unlike Ali and Louis, Lennox retired as the World Heavyweight Champion and never fought again.

* Lewis won the Olympic Heavyweight Gold medal by stopping a future Hall of Fame World Heavyweight Champion (Bowe). (Joe Louis didn't go to the Olympics. Ali's opponent at light heavyweight wasn't a future World Heavyweight Champion or a Hall of Famer.)

* In his last fight, Lennox stopped the man who would succeed him as World Heavyweight Champion, Hall of Famer Vitali Klitschko. (Ali and Louis didn't score TKO wins in their last fights. They didn't even win them.)

Lennox beat 16 men (Tyson, Vitali, Holyfield, Bruno, Weaver, Morrison, Mercer, Tucker, Rahman, McCall, Botha, Briggs, Akinwande, Tucker, McCrory, Ocasio) who were reigning, former or future heavyweight or cruiserweight champions.

Lewis made 14 successful defenses of the WBC Heavyweight title over three reigns.

He had about as close to a perfect career as one could have.

Ali and Louis were more 'historic' figures than Lewis. Lennox wasn't that. But if you could have Lennox's career, Joe's career or Muhammad's career, most would take Lennox's career in a heartbeat.

(In some respects, I wouldn't wish Ali and Joe's middle-age and later years on my worst enemy. When they were Lennox's age, Ali couldn't speak and Joe was broke and in a psych ward.)

Lennox Lewis won Olympic Gold, beat every fighter he ever faced as a pro, retired as the World Heavyweight Champion a multi-millionaire, with all his marbles in tact, and he never had to come back.

Lennox Lewis is underrated. He could arguably be #1.

 

I have Lewis and Marciano basically interchangeable at #3 and $4. A majority, or at least a plurality, are going to say Holmes, and I will point out in advance, yet again, that despite the "20" defenses, the record just isn't there.

 

Foreman or Marciano. Flip a coin.

 

I did....it fell down the drain.

 

This comes up every six months or so. The last half a dozen times it's always been Lewis or Holmes usually by a decent margin over anyone else.

 

Hi Buddy.
Your right , might be a slightly more interesting topic if it were the 3rd best from LHW down to FL , I think the pick's will be rather more contentious, thoughts.......
stay safe amigo.

 

I guess there's a bit of an allure in the heavyweight division given Ali and Louis are such a strong consensus number one and two while three is pretty open comparatively tho that seems to have mostly closed off at two names.

 

Caught between Lewis, Tyson, Holmes and I feel arguments for Holyfield and Wlad Klitschko could be made, despite not being on the poll.

Even though I had Holmes as number 7 in a previous list I made I ended up picking him, so much for consistency!

 

In my view the top 5 heavyweights are often arguable in place depending on what you are looking for and how you weight their resumes. I have Lewis at #3 with the caveat that I reckon that the best version of him probably polishes off Ali and Louis H2H

 

i'd say holmes and lewis are so close that a consensus won't be reached.

i voted lewis.

 

Ali
Louis
HOLMES

 

Btw, why is it that Lewis gets ranked so much higher over the main contemporaries of his own era (Tyson, Bowe and Holyfield) but couldn’t actually make much impact when they were all doing well throughout the 90s.

He narrowly beat a 37 year old Holyfield, hid in the amateurs whilst his prophesied rival ruled the division and certainly shares some culpability for not fighting Bowe, but gets lumped 10 places above guys like Holyfield/Tyson. Laughable.

 

I don’t think it’s clear cut at all. I think you could feasibly put your favourite in there and justify it well.

I think ‘greatness’ is completely subjective. What I’ve noticed is guys with good stats seem to be popular for #3, namely Lewis and Holmes.

I don’t even consider Lewis an ATG for a start.

Also, it desperately bothers me that Holmes didn’t hold all the belts and missed out on fighting some really good fighters of his era. I’m sure there are some great stories as to why he didn’t unify and maybe there’s some truth to it. I still rank Holmes highly that being said.

Holyfield is my absolute favourite and I feel very comfortable putting him at #3.

 

i think matchups are a big part of it.

i think being smart is a good thing. i learned from mathematicians that luck is not time dependent, i think lewis was a smart guy with long term luck.