were lennox lewis losses flukes ?

No, he was complacent in both fights, especially vs Rahman and paid the price. If he had one serious weakness it was he could be overly confident, arrogant even and it resulted in those two losses.

But fortunately for him he had the ring IQ to learn from those mistakes, he was much more cautious in the McCall rematch even when it was clear McCall was no threat he still wouldn't go all out to finish him and in the Rahman rematch he perhaps put on his best performance and was faultless which greatly contrasted the first fight where he gave the worst performance of his career.

 

Nope. And if Manny Steward remained McCall’s trainer he would’ve stopped Lewis twice imo. Rahman just fought a good fight and caught Lewis. Simple as that.

 

yes in the sense that he was better than the two guys who beat him but, well, both were decent and as we know the best fighter doesn't *always* win, especially at HW.

 

I give him a lot of credit for how he bounced back from those losses. It could have easily made him gunshy or destroy his confidence but he came back and won both fights and continues to have a great career.

 

You can't have two flukes in a career the reality is Lewis didn't have the strongest of chins and had a tendency to switch off and on both occasions paid for it very dearly.

 

They threw punches in a boxing match and the punches landed....................so no. Sometimes you get clipped in boxing, that's the whole point, to land a 1 hitter quitter that the opponent doesn't see.

 

Love Lewis but he got complacent and was rightly punished. Both McCall and Rahman were very solid top 10 contenders and if you weren’t at your best they would beat you.

 

Neither loss was a fluke. Lewis fell victim to well timed, excellently executed shock punches which could have caught any heavyweight off guard if unprepared. Both McCall and Rahman deserve full credit for their wins.

 

Even though Lennox smashed both up in the rematch those two losses really hurt his legacy and standing if he never lost those two fights I imagine more people would push for him being the best Heavyweight in history head to head

 

Exactly this!

 

For me a fluke is a one off and an event unlikely to repeat. I think Rahman was a fluke as shown in the rematch. McCall is hard to say.

I don't believe in lucky punches and hate making excuses for guys who lose fairly. That said I think Lennox crushed rahman 9 times out 10

 

No

He was complacent & didn't take them seriously first time round & paid the price but redeemed himself in the rematches

 

The Rahman loss was definitely a bit of a freak fight. Lewis fights Rahman and beats him 19 times out of 20. That night of the first fight was the 1 in 20 fight that Rahman wins, and it was purely because Lewis didnt take Rahman seriously and was overly complacent.