I'm new on here and don't want to annoy people so I promise this is my last Lennox thread for now. But I think it's a difficult question to answer. As a big fan of his I'm not sure . I always think that in relation to his status at the time , his wins against Ruddock and Mason were excellent but probably wouldn't be seen as his ' best ' win. But what fight would ? The Holyfield win got him right to the top but it wasn't a great performance and the Tyson win was against a faded Mike. The Tua performance was good as was Rahman 2. If you had to pick his best night , which would it be ?
All of them were past prime including Tyson,Holyfield,Morrison,Mercer...Tua was overweight and undertrained, only good win was Klitchko and maybe Mercer.
Klitschko because it was an epic performance vs another all time great in their prime and Lewis was post prime and accounted himself excellently in one of the best fights ever. Tyson doesn't have a classic like that at all. I think it was a nice point of differentiation after all the insecure years in the late 80s and early 90s where the shadow of Tyson was looming over Lewis. I also like Briggs, who was a big puncher and Lewis just ate his shots and laughed right in his face.
Michael Grant, for me. Sure, Lennox burst his bubble, but I recommend going back and listening to the hype for Grant coming out of Larry Merchant and Wallace Matthews at the time. Second for me would be the demolition of Golota, which many were expecting to be a challenging fight for Lennox. Third would be the rematch with Rahman, fantastic knockout.
The fact he lost to two of his most notable opponents vs Byrd, Lewis, and his overall opposition was fairly forgettable. For example name Vitali's 5 best wins and theres your answer and then comeback and tell me hes an ATG.
Haha you're right. Great argument. I reckon a true scholar could name a good 50 better than him. I'm sure Jem Mace is there, and Bob Fitzsimmons, too
He rates highly in one sense that he was never behind on the scorecards in any of his fights even in his losses which is a rare feat TBH. And he also pretty much won all his fights in dominant fashion which is again is another rare feat even if his opposition wasn't the strongest. What hurts him though is as I said the two losses to his most notable opponents in Byrd, Lewis, and the fact he doesn't really have a stand out win on his resume. It's a pity he couldn't fight his brother and the era he was in was fairly forgettable so there was no real legacy defining fights for him.