Gun to your head and your asked who wins between Lennox Lewis and Larry Holmes, who would u pick

Larry all day, this is not the straight ahead types Lewis is used to, Larry moved and moved with great stamina and a stellar jab. Lewis struggled with Bruno and Mercer jabs and really pulled those fights out because both guys had poor stamina and didn't present angles to their craft. Honestly a bad matchup for Lewis. Now could Lewis win sure, he was a great HW but based on paper Larry is the favorite.

 

In sum yes. But if we look at separate body parts then

Shavers right hand >> Lewis right hand.

 

And Lewis struggled against an overweight Mercer and a Holyfield who was older than Norton.

 

Holyfield was a much better fighter than Norton ever was.

 

Better fighter yes but a H2H match up between them would be close to 50/50.

And I would argue Norton showed better form against Holmes than Holyfield did against Lewis.

 

I think Holy stops him. He had a way against that cross armed defense.

Because Norton was up against an inferior and injured opponent.

But two can play this game, no version of Lewis ever gets beat by Spinks, let alone twice. No version of Lewis gets obliterated by Tyson. No version of Lewis allows Truth Williams to last more than 5 rounds.

 

I don't think Holyfield would stop Norton I think Holyfield's power whilst underrated is at a level where Norton could tank his shots similar to Holmes, Ali.

But you can also say Holmes never lost in his physical prime like Lewis did.

And Holmes unlike Lewis had his Rahman, McCall, moments vs Shavers & Snipes and got up to win.

They both have advantages and disadvantages but I feel like Lewis would struggle with a fast technical boxer with an ATG jab over 12 rounds.

Lewis's was noticeably knackered against Mavrovic & Holyfield the 2nd time.

 

I like Holmes .. too fast and too much overall game.

 

Lennox is bigger, faster, better defensively. If he's motivated, blows him out like Tyson did.

 

Lewis pretty handily imo. He would have taken Norton and Shavers out a lot more handily, and he would not lose to a LHW. Just a bigger, stronger, and generally more talented era of heavies.

 

Lewis is a FAR better finisher than Shavers. If Lewis got Holmes as bad off as Shavers had him after that KD, he ends it.

 

Lewis would have blown out Shavers and Norton in 1-2 rounds. But, eh, they could be weak to punchers.

Both times that Lewis was KO'd, Holmes wouldn't have been. Solid chance he wouldn't have been knocked down, but if he had been, he'd have looked good enough to continue after getting up.

It's an interesting matchup. I think it's Lewis's fight to lose, but he could well lose it. Lewis is like a 9/10 puncher and a 7/10 boxer. Holmes is more like a 5/10 puncher and a 9/10 boxer. There are more paths for Lewis to win.

 

Holmes had 15 stoppages in world title fights I'd say he's better than a 5/10 puncher.

 

A 40+ year old Holmes did better than Lewis did vs Mercer & McCall not counting the 2nd fight as McCall was in not mental state to fight just being released from rehab.

Yes Lewis would probably beat Norton easier but if Lewis gets caught with Shavers right hand he's not getting up like Holmes did.

 

Holmes is a much better boxer than Lewis, and I tend to favor the boxers in hypothetical matchups. Homes by late TKO or unanimous decision.