Let's settle this once and for all

3rd best and 3rd greatest are entirely different things.
Ali and Louis are the top 2 greatest, but they are not the top 2 best.
To answer your question, Lewis is the 3rd greatest. And he is 2nd best, behind Tyson.

 

So if the consensus is neither, then what have we settled once and for all?

 

Yeah it'll never be settled. Votes have gone both ways multiple times.

 

Neither is my number 3. But Lewis has a far stronger claim. Holmes fought his number one contender ONE TIME, and by his own admission avoided his best opponents in the second half of his reign. I'm sorry but that doesn't constitute a top three ATG for me.

 

The field for selecting the 3rd best heavyweight of all time is wide, and it could yet get wider before teh top two are toppled.

 

I hate to say this but if he retired after Spinks his spot would be etched in granite for all eternity: that coveted #3 spot belonged to Mike Tyson.

I just feel strange placing either Holmes or Lewis at #3. However, by researching their entire careers ad nauseam, I feel Holmes deserves it more than Lewis. Going 48-0 before a loss secured that spot for me and mine.

I also see Larry beating Lewis at their best head to head more often than envisioning Lennox KOing Larry with a those overhand rights. Tough one to call.

Lennox has the bigger punchers on his resume but Holmes has the better skilled guys, in my opinion. Nothing more to add, everything has been said.

 

How many top guys did Holmes avoid, or simply never fought, compared to Lewis? I know Page, Coetzee, Thomas, the Spoon rematch for Holmes but Lewis has some big ones too: Bowe, Moorer, Wlad, Byrd, Ruiz, etc.

What do you think bud?

 

You have forgotten sone names from Holmes' resume. I'd take the guys like Carl Williams over the guys like Botha every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And you are mentioning Ali was shot (which was true of course), but not mentioning that about Tyson or Weaver

 

Absolutely nowhere near as shot as Ali, though. Not that they were prime by any means, but they at least had something left in them. Ali was a walking corpse.

 

Ali did far better against Berbick than Tyson did against Danny Williams soon after that losses. And Berbick is levels above Danny Williams

 

The Ali of the Holmes fight was clearly in far worse condition than he was against Berbick.

 

Bowe blatantly ducked Lennox he knew he couldn't beat him . Wlad went AWOL when Lennox gave Vitali his TKO-6 .as for Byrd & Ruiz ? Imagine if Lennox had fought those two you'd have called him a cherry picker. I don't remember Moorer ever challenging Lennox

 

Ali should never ever have been forced into fighting Holmes That was disgusting Ali & Joe Frazier should have retired after Ali-Frazier III neither was the same after that barn stormer

 

Foreman was champ in the 2 best eras and I don't think Ali was better than Foreman despite beating him.

 

You see something new everyday I guess.