Lennox Lewis - Biggest Shift When It Comes To Public Perception?

Lennox Lewis wasn't viewed as the one of the GOATs when he was fighting. In 1998 Ring's article “The 50 Greatest Heavyweights Of All-Time”, after he won the lineal title from Briggs, he was listed as number 32 between Cleveland Williams and Earnie Shavers.

When he retired, Brian Doogan from The Ring ended the article about him like this:

"And now it is over. Lewis is not the kind of man to go back on a decision like this. Just as he calculated his moves in the ring, he took his time to calculate this move. He does not stand among the great world heavyweight champions like Ali and Louis, Dempsey, Johnson, and Marciano, Larry Holmes, Foreman, Joe Frazier, and Sonny Liston. Even in his own era he did not dominate. Tyson and Evander Holyfield were past their best when he fought and beat them. He never met Bowe as a professional. But, as Marcus said, he walks away from the table on top. In 15 years of fist fighting, Lennox Lewis, who leaves an overall pro record of 41-2-1 (32), never faced a man he did not beat—which certainly says something."

In the poll conducted in 2017 among boxing historians, promoters and trainers, he was listed as 11th greatest HW of all time.

Now, in 2026, he is widely viewed as one of the best ever, Top 5 HW of all time at worst and a H2H nightmare.

Has there ever been a bigger shift in the public perception due to the passage of time in boxing history?

 

TBH you could argue the way Holyfield has been put down the lists after his career petered out, rivals it. When Holy bounced Tyson around twice and battered Moorer he was being spoken about as top 4/5 of all time. Rarely is he listed as such.

I agree with your post by the way. I don't rate Lewis as highly as others, but still a tremendous fighter obviously.

 

Holyfield is a curious case, as he was heavily critisized during his first reign as a HW, but his stock rose tremendously after he beat Tyson in 1996. Then, his stock dropped, probably because he went on with fighting for too damn long. Got a good piece of writing about it too, from 1992, Steve Farhood defending Holyfield:

"When Holyfield was winning wars against Michael Dokes and Alex Stewart, he was labeled the easiest target since Dan Quayle. When he boxed smartly against the still-dangerous George Foreman, he was criticized for failing to knock a grandfather into unconsciousness. And when he signed to fight Larry Holmes, he was blasted for promoting the nostalgia craze. Even Lou Duva, the champion’s co-trainer, couldn’t help but take a nip at the fists that feed him. Upon spotting a Caesars Pal ace marquee advertising George Bums, Capt. Lou quipped, “Look at that. They got the name of Evander’s next opponent up already.”
In November, Holyfield will defend against Riddick Bowe. It would seem that a victory would at least temporarily quiet the critics. But Kathy Duva, part of Team Holyfield, knows better. “They’ll say Bowe was never that good,” she said."

 

Agree completely. The first reign of Holyfield was slammed by many publications such as KO and The Ring as well as fans. Obviously it was because he wasn't Tyson and then Mike went to jail before the fight took place. Very curious case indeed.

 

Sometimes we just need a bit of distance to appreciate what we had.

 

Holmes was seen as a moribund placeholder champ during his reign, criticized for close calls, and supposedly poor opponents, toiling in the shadow of his predecessor.

Now, he's a top 3 or 4 ATG.

 

This is the answer. Lewis may have been ranked #32 by somebody, but the fans already thought he was a great fighter...or at least those who weren't Klit-tards, did. Holmes was universally regarded as someone who paled compared to Ali, his predecessor, ducked other fighters and bragged, put on dull fights, gave the IBF legitimacey by accepting a belt from the gutter, and tried to cherry-pick his way to breaking Marciano's record in a move that went spectacularly wrong.

Now many regard him as #3, or even #2. Some will even bizarrely say things like, head to head, he might be the best ever.

 

Great post and dead on. Holyfield was so revered after beating Tyson twice and Moorer, at the time, Lewis was seen as the other guy. I think a lot had to do with Holyfield coming back after the heart issues and loss to Bowe in their third fight, plus Leesi was seen as somewhat lesser because of the KO losses to McCall. Once Lewis beat Evander and Tyson, his status was solidified. Uysk more or less did the same thing with two wins over both Joshua and Fury.

 

Due to his career decisions, he became a man without a true country behind him. He won Olympic gold for Canada but chose to fight pro for the UK and even adopted an affected accent. The British still loved Bruno, though, and likely didn’t view Lewis as a true son of Britain.

Despite training in America, he was coming out under the UK flag, so Americans were never going to fully embrace him either.

 

I don't see how Holyfield could be that high given his inconsistency and failure to dominate his own era

 

In regards to Lewis most of it was American media bias against him i believe. They felt they had their homegrown Superstar in Riddick Bowe. A New Yorker no less. He must be the best. They were still mentioning the horizontal British heavyweights of the past
Bowe was talented and charismatic. Lewis played chess literally and kind of in the ring as well. Lennox wasn't the Americans cup of tea, hell they like coffee.
Lennox Lewis outlived his enemies I guess. Good for him.

 

Many heavyweight reputations slide up and down after careers end. Dempsey has now gone down, and someone like Lewis has gone markedly up. I watched Lennox’s career unfold and my views initially aligned with the report on the original post. However since time has elapsed I do believe he deserves an upward readjustment. He tends now to be slightly overrated however, it’s true he didn’t face his big rival Bowe as a pro and he got to Holyfield and Tyson way too late. His career just peaked later than many of his contemporaries. Still he has a nice set of wins and cleared up the ends of the late 90s heavyweight scene. He’s top 10 on resume but outside the top 3 for me. Anywhere from 4-10 is arguable. Head to head he’s also top 10 when he was on form he was dangerous.
His career is sandwiched between the tail end of American dominance and the rise of the Eastern European dominance of the first quarter of the 21st century.

 

Not everyone tho. After his fight with Briggs in 1998, Rob from Pensylvania in his letter to The Ring wrote:

I was really surprised Shannon Briggs fought so well against Lennox Lewis. I hate to admit it, but Briggs earned my respect in defeat. I didn’t think Briggs had the heart to stay with Lewis, and I admire him even more for getting up after Lewis knocked him down. The Briggs-Lewis fight also showed me that Lewis cannot beat Evander Holyfield.
Lewis was actually in trouble against Briggs. Against a stronger fighter like Holyfield, Lewis gets knocked out. Lewis showed he had problems with boxers that move, and he proved he is vulnerable to being tagged. If Briggs scared Lewis for two rounds, Lewis will need the world’s largest diaper when he faces “The Real Deal.”

BTW, he wasn't ranked #32 by "somebody" but the whole ranking panel.

 

There was and still is a huge group of people who think Tyson is the greatest and Holyfield is the greatest because he beat Tyson. Whatever faults there are in that logic theres millions and millions of people who thought that and still think that. When Lennox beat Holyfield and Tyson in front of record breaking PPV audiences he won that whole class of people.

Naturally this group would have been some of Lennox's harshest crtics beforehand because they were trying to advance the idea that Tyson or Holyfield/Tyson were better then Lennox. When a champion beats a rival their legacys become intertwined and what helps one helps the other. So that group got flipped.

 

Ali and Frazier were rated below Willard and Tunney in the 70s. Recency bias works against active fighters. Modern forum criticism tends to work against fighters in the last 20 years or so.