Lennox Lewis vs Oleksandr Usyk primes

Based on evidence i don't see how you could choose Lewis in this fight. I'm not saying Lewis couldn't win or isn't a greater fighter both points can be made and debated. But in a fantasy h2h Lewis gets an incomplete here.
Lewis never faced a southpaw, or at least a good one, word was he hated facing them. He also didn't face many good movers in general. Guys that gave just a little bit of movement and angles against Lewis tended to last the distance, Mavrovic, Holyfield two times. Basically their just isn't much to go on here with him.
Usyk has beaten many more fighters similar to Lewis than vice versa.

 

A fighter who is technically exceptional will not lose and be knocked out twice by fighters who are not at the top, and Lennox Lewis has twice confirmed that he is not that caliber of fighter, while Usyk is absolutely dominant even at this age, Usyk wins and is better than Lewis....

 

Love Lennox but an athletic high ring IQ smaller southpaw might be a bad match up for him

 

I picked Lewis on the polls but you make some good points.

 

Lewis has become really overrated sine he retired. He was a good champion who is now talked about as a hybrid of Foreman and Ali. Both the Holyfield fights could have gone either way, and there's no way Usyk gets flattened by McCall and Rahman. A referee who allows Lewis to clinch and maul might help him, otherwise I see Usyk's variety and incessant work rate taking him to a clear win over 12 rounds.

 

This.

 

Calling Lewis “incomplete” because he didn’t face a top southpaw overlooks the bigger picture, i.e., he had all the tools to beat one... ...an elite jab, commanding reach, sharp timing, and Steward behind him. Movement didn’t beat him either - he handled Holyfield’s angles and controlled the fights. Lewis owns one of the deepest résumés in heavyweight history, and that can’t be brushed aside. It’s concrete evidence of how he handled world-class threats in real fights, not just hypotheticals.

Usyk has faced big men like Joshua, Fury, and Dubois, but none with Lewis’s blend of size, explosive power, disciplined jab, elite ring IQ, and all-round arsenal. Joshua lacked urgency, Dubois lacked polish and resilience, and Fury lacked sharpness and conditioning. Lewis brings all those missing elements together, which means Usyk hasn’t yet been tested against a heavyweight with Lewis’s level of completeness and threat. In that sense, it’s Usyk - not Lewis - who would be taking the greater risk by entering unfamiliar and far more punishing territory.

 

You sure you didn't get caught being Held by Lewis at a Coldplay Concert?

 

Quite sure. Coldplay isn't our thing.

 

The more I see of Usyk the more likely I think it is that he would've beaten Lewis. As others in this thread have stated, Usyk has fought guys that give us a decent idea of how he'd fight Lewis, but the same cannot be said for Lewis who not only never faced a southpaw as a pro, and didn't even really fight many movers, but also vacated his IBF belt rather than take on a smaller southpaw mover in Chris Byrd.

While I wouldn't say Usyk has fought anyone as good as Lewis, he has fought guys with similarities to him. Joshua has similar dimensions and is also a hard punching boxer puncher type. Fury doesn't hit as hard as a Lewis but he has a high ring iq, and is better defensively and a more quick smooth and fluid fighter, who's also a bigger man than Lewis. Usyk proved to be too skilled, fast, and coordinated for them and I think this would all hold true against Lewis aswell. He was able to consistently find the mark against a more elusive big man like Fury and took big shots from Joshua and Dubois who can't be far off from Lewis power wise.

The closest opponent to Usyk that Lewis fought was probably Holyfield, who was very much past his best and even in his prime never as defensively adept as Usyk is. Still in their second fight he struggled quite a bit. I think Lewis would be able to put up a better effort than Fury and Joshua did for sure, he'd use his reach to keep Usyk at range and his physical strength to bully him wherever possible, but even then I don't see him being able to outland Usyk who would be much faster with his hands and feet.

 

Main issue here is your argument is completely one-sided. You list Lewis's tools while completely ignoring everything Usyk would do to dismantle them. Lewis had questionable defense and was vulnerable to quicker fighters. More importantly, he never faced a southpaw with the elite footwork that would be able to take away his jab and disrupt his rhythm, which is Usyk's entire game. Add in Lewis's questionable gas tank against a fighter with a relentless pace, and it's clear you're underestimating Usyk by treating him as a passive opponent instead of the one with a unique threat.

 

I always love the pendulum swing and over-estimation of a guy coming off a big win.

A Manny-guided Lewis beats Usyk 4 times out of 5.

 

Usyk has beaten several guys similar to Lewis, Lewis has never even fought someone like Usyk. He didn't fight Moorer, Sanders, he gave the belt to Byrd, all left-handed. Wasn't Valery Abadzian, who knocked him out, left-handed? Add to this Usyk's mobility, which Lewis would hate... we know that fans look at it out of sentimentality, but Usyk would beat Lewis.

 

Lewis doesn't have the legs to deal with Usyk's movement, he'd have big troubles avoiding that left cross and he'd get frustrated with Usyk's lead hand constantly blocking his jab.