What if Lewis refused the step aside money?

I think Lennox would stop him. I think MT wasn’t quick enough or capable of cutting the distance / countering a guy that big the way he did in the 80s he’d lost several steps in some aspects… Holyfield was really his best hope at the time to appear to be one of the best in the world.

 

OH now that LL is champ... okay, you wanna play through a whole timeline, I'll have a think. LOVE these sorts of threads.

 

Had they faced off in 1990 or '91 it would have been competitive. Lewis beats post-prison Mike, but as we know if the right punch slips by his defense Lewis can hit the canvas, and Mike still had power at that time.

 

Lewis would always stop Tyson IMO, he was a master at using his advantages, he’d certainly be switched on against Tyson being mindful of his range and defence etc, he’d let Tyson punch himself out early on, he’d pole as Tyson attacks and then move in for the clinch, then as Tyson becomes more stationary, he starts to pick him apart, set him up, poke and prod him into moving his head into Lewis’ punches and he’d get stopped.

 

I think any version of a Steward trained Lewis beats Tyson. I agree that the 90 or 91 version of Tyson is "live"...

 

I think Lennox Lewis would have defeated Mike Tyson. I see no reason why the career of Lennox Lewis would not go almost the same as it did after that fight.

 

Tyson vs Holyfield still would happened and Lewis would have gotten nothing

 

Lennox still beats Tyson.

 

This^^

The belt was getting dumped, either way.

 

I think in 1996, Tyson was still as good as Mercer or Whitearspoon. Lewis would have fought the same fight he did against Mercer, but the judges would have favored Tyson. Then there would have been a rematch and Lewis would have won, maybe by KO.

 

Mike wouldn't fight Lewis. He was supposed to do so after the Seldon fight, but he dropped the belt instead.

If for some strange reason they fought, Lewis knocks him out.

 

That fight was too big and had been anticipated far too long to not happen.

 

1996 Lewis struggled a lot with an overweight, relatively inactive Mercer and was lucky to escape with a majority draw.
Even the British based magazine Boxing Monthly - which was hugely pro Lewis - was befuddled by how bad Lewis had looked and were questioning whether Lewis would ever be ready for Tyson.

1995-1997 Tyson while past his best, was still an elite fighter. We saw how much a washed-up Tyson had Lewis "unsettled" during the first round. And he sort of regained the mystic he had before prison.

On the other hand, I don't see Lewis surrendering as easily as Seldon and Bruno did, but his durability was clearly not rivaling Holyfield's.

I think it's a 60/40 fight for Tyson (I can see the argument for Lewis though). It would have been a far more interesting match than the one in 2002.