It's an amazing 20 years now, since Lennox Lewis last fought. That came to me this morning watching the Vit Klitschko fight. I miss him, I know he had his faults but I always looked forward to his fights, not felt like that for a heavyweight fight for a long time.
Respect him, appreciate his greatness, don't miss his reign. I grew to appreciate him more in retirement, but I felt the Lewis-->Klitschko era of HWs was less entertaining than the current one, even.
I've got a lot of respect for the 1990 s era, lot of good fights and characters. Not to sure about now. Apart from the Wilder v Fury fights of course.
He had a reputation for being boring but his highlight reel has some of the most savage KOs you will ever see.
Lennox gets more appreciated as each year goes by and so he should. In my humble opinion, he's locked in as a top 3 heavyweight, he fought basically everyone in a killer 90s era, beat every man he faced.... he's an absolute H2H nightmare, in fact he's arguably the "H2H GOAT" at HW. The resume speaks for itself. Holyfield Tyson Vitali Golota Morrison Razor Ruddock Mercer Tua Bruno McCall Briggs
One of the best and has to be a H2H favourite. Much as I respect his accomplishments and legacy. i still think his record should have another loss - a disqualification for the Mike Acey fight.
If he'd come out in every fight like that, he'd have been the next Mike Tyson in terms of popularity. But why would he? When you've got an 84in reach, decent hand and foot speed, and solid all around skills, why take unnecessary risks? Take his fight with Tyson. If he'd gone all out at the beginning, he might well have been iced. Instead, he was patient and methodical, learned to time Tyson. Once he learned to time Tyson, he wore him down some, then starting going for the KO.
He was underappreciated for a lot of his reign so its great to see him getting a lot of props now. I always followed him and liked him. I remember staying up to watch a ton of his fights live ... Holyfield, Tua, Rahman, Tyson, Vitali. It's insane to think now that he was often written off - in some quarters - as kind of a periphery guy to the likes of Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe etc. He was a phenomenal heavyweight. Sure he made the odd slip up. But he pretty much had it all; power, strength, tenacity, good IQ, mentally strong. Top five ATG heavy for me, comfortably
The members who posted before me said it really. He was also a very decent person outside the ring, and did a lot for charity, spending his own money to help others. Lennox Lewis also turned out to be a surprisingly good actor. See if you can find a copy of "Johhny was".
Loved the Lennox who just went out there and smashed opponents early- Ruddock, Golota, Grant. The safety-first version was the one the American magazines preferred to comment and criticize more often during his reign- such was their wont.
But what they don't say is, that Lennox most of the time won a safety first fight rather easily. Apart from Mercer really, but Lewis could out point someone if he had to or ko the daylights out of em.
Lenox was the most consistent , best super heavyweight .... Bowe at his very best was extremely dangerous but how often did we see that Bowe ? His size, strength, skill set, intellect, power were top notch .. tremendous fighter ..