Lennox Lewis chin: is it bad as advertised?

It was more against McCall he was ultra cautious though, Tyson and Tua too to a degree. But just before McCall he goes toe-toe with Mercer. And then there's the Briggs, Golota and Grant fights where he shows the opponent little respect. He wasn't duly cautious against Holyfield either. Against Vitali he looked like he was taking 2 punches to land 1 too. Although hardly his best moment

I think growing up through the Lennox Lewis era, I never really understood how special he was at the time

 

Fair points. Personally i think Mercer improved a bit post Holmes, he himself said Holmes gave him a crash course on the value of the jab, etc. Mercer and Moorer, yeah they could be a tad unreliable lol

 

For me he ended up having to slug with Mercer due to the small ring and other such things. It's a top little stoush. But yeah, true, he does front up with the guys you pointed out.

Lewis aged like fine wine. It took him ages to get respect but he got there.

 

I honestly didn't notice this improvement during the 2 fights with Ferguson. The old Tim Whitearspoon didn't look good either and he was probably closer to real success with Lennox than with Tim

 

No it isnt, and the shots that dropped him would drop almost anyone.

 

Gonzalez and Hide were good punchers,imo.

 

I'm not surprised. He had 8 fights between Holmes and Lewis. He was always hot and cold but he had some good fights post Holmes. Mercer said he learnt to jab off Holmes, but what would he know.

 

So it looks like Jesse Ferguson was very unlucky to have met Mercer after Holmes and not before.

 

Hot......cold.........styles..........boxing...........

 

They were hard punchers but not great fighters, so less dangerous than someone like Holyfield who is the best puncher Bowe fought.

I think Bowes chin is perfectly fine, I'm just not sure he'd get through Lewis's opposition without getting stopped.

 

so who else was Mercer hot with besides Lewis? style? Lewis's style was made for Mercer? Wlad was lucky Ray was already 41, almost like Holmes in 1992

 

When did i say Mercer was "hot"? Never. I said he was an improved fighter post Holmes. There's been threads over the years where multiple people made just that point. I was talking about Ferguson, per styles, which should have been blatantly obvious given the importance you were giving him. It's well documented that Lewis fought him in an undersized ring and had to duke it out more. Mercer loves a guy duking it out in ring center. Your personal feelings toward Lewis change none of it.

 

Ali was dropped by Cooper and others in the 60s - a good shot puts you down if you don’t see it, less combative guys who aren’t really putting the bull on opponents don’t really get hurt near as much as your Marciano’s, Armstrong’, Fullmers, Bassilio’s and such.