How Dirty was Lewis ?

For that era, I'd probably rank Golota, Tyson, and Holyfield ahead of Lewis as far as the dirtiest fighters of that time.

Lewis' was more obvious with his fouling, but I don't recall him being guilty of it as often as the other 3 mentioned. A good example would be when he knocked Grant cold while clearly holding and hitting. Or blasting Phil Jackson well after the bell ending round 5. Or the elbow to the back of Levi Billups' head in round 1 of that fight.

Holyfield, by comparison, was far more subtle with his fouling. He was able to butt opponents in the middle of an exchange without it seeming blatant, in real time anyway, but you could see it was intentional in slo-mo. He had it down to a science.

 

Not as bad as Holy or Wlad. But yea he did use to hold and hit. You could make a case for disqualification vs Bruno. Not as bad as Wlad vs Povetkin. But bad nonetheless.

until referees have the balls to disqualify these top heavies, it will continue. Fury with the elbow vs Nganou, Lewis with holding and hitting, Holyfield with headbutts, Tyson literally trying to break peoples arms etc.

 

Wlad was a clean fighter in every regard. His defeat of Povetkin was a masters class in old school control fighting.

 

Lol. Perhaps it was appropriate using 1890’s rules. But that level of clinching was worth 10 disqualifications.

 

As dirrty as he had to be.
Like it's been said, back in the day there were worst.

 

That is at the discretion of the ref. Much like Alis various shenanigans, keep doing it until the ref makes you stop.

Let's not overlook that Wlad knocked down a guy twice who has never been off his feet in the pros or a long amateur career.

 

As much as the judges allow.

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Yes, a lot of blatant fouls get overlooked it seems. Lewis probably should have been DQ'd vs. Grant.

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Hadn't seen this one before. That's just outrageous.

 

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Let's just say, if you fought Lewis, you had to be prepared to retaliate.

 

If Vladimir Klitschko was 9 for dirtiness , Lewis was around 6.5.

The David Tua fight proves you'd never see Lewis fight Sam Peter like this. Peter would get Botha'd by Lewis - a 2 round wipeout

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I'd say he was moderately dirty, but not flagrantly or frequently. Maybe a 5-6/10. The pawing, holding and hitting, or just plain holding did get annoying and played a significant role in some fights, but they weren't always his go-to methods and he usually did try to honestly outbox opponents.

 

Look, just because a man has dreads...