Lennox Lewis is overrated

^100% This^

OP, you can close this thread now, you were massively wrong, please done post dumb threads like this ever again.

 

Yeah Lennox would have given Bowe the heavy bag treatment. Many people have a very selective memory of Bowes prime. He had a lot more tough nights than many choose to point out.

 

Great post. I will never understand why people are so determined to downplay Lewis' excellence in the ring.

 

Lennox is the best name on Vitali's resume by a huge distance. The second best is arguably Byrd.
He lost both.

 

Mayweather said he would have beaten Ali.

 

Who cares about the WBC belt when you have all the other ones, The Ring belt + you are universally recognized champion? Alphabet belts are only important when you're not the real champ and you need to convince the public that you have a title claim. Wlad was the real champ and he didn't need it. He would have beaten Stiverne and Wilder if they didn't duck him, so it's irrelevant. And you can dominate your era without avenging the losses that came before that era. Also, you said that it was Vitali who dominated the era, but he didn't avenge any of his losses, so you're just grasping for straws.

 

Three time champ, committed ugly, consummate revenge against the men who stopped him. So he was past it against Vitali, he still landed some unbelievable shots.

 

Indeed, the rematch with McCall was downright outstanding and precise. A fantastic fight, unlike Riddick's rematch with that little-known boxer whom no one seems to remember, but who was the only one to defeat him.

 

Well we'll never know because Bowe was a *****

My money would have always been on Lewis

 

I don't think any fighter can truly claim they have dominated an era without winning the WBC belt, regardless of weight, but the WBC HW title has been so coveted since Sonny Liston became WBC champion over 60 years ago. It was Wlad and Vitali who dominated the era, not Wlad alone. Yeah, he definitely would have beaten Stiverne; he might not have beaten Wilder by that point, given he was on the slide and how chinny he was. But he never, so it's hard to claim dominance when he didn't fight them and didn't hold the belt.

Vitali cleaned up Wlad's messy loss to Sanders, and they both sat at the top of the division, but to claim Wlad dominated the division when Vitali had the WBC belt, defended it 12 times, and defeated tricky fighters who Wlad didn't face, and in some cases, got absolutely flattened by, such as Sanders, Chisora, Briggs, Adamek, and essentially forcing Lennox Lewis into retirement, I don't see it personally. I also think, in the H2H scheme of things, VK beats Wlad. Iron chin, high volume, and underrated power.

Vitali forced Lennox into retirement and would have had his number in the rematch, so he has a strong claim to era dominance as the generational champion and as the WBC belt holder who defended the strap 12 times. Wlad was more consistent, though, so I can see the argument both ways.

 

We are literally creating threads in order to trash legends, are we? Is that what we’re doing here?

Lennox Lewis is a legend. An ATG. You’d have to be a basic sort of idiot to be tearing a guy like that down.

 

Plainly the forum disagree with you. 68% of them anyway.

 

You just noticed that?

Welcome to ESB.

 

Like I said - it doesn't matter. He was the universally recognized champion, viewed as undisputed for a short stretch, winning the WBC belt wouldn't change anything - Stiverne and Wilder weren't better than guys Wlad beat. Just because they held a belt doesn't change that. It'a actually more on the WBC side that they didn't recognize Wlad as the champion and crowning Stiverne of all people after he beat Arreola. You give Wlad a chance to fight for the vacant belt - he takes it easily.

Vitali defended the WBC belt 9 times, not 12. He also only faced 5 Top 10 guys during that stretch. Chisora and Briggs (who was washed up at the time and got 12-0'd by a guy who was 12-0'd by Wlad in his next fight) weren't even Top 10 guys, Adamek was top 3 at some point, but he wasn't better than guys Wlad beat and with his pillow fists would pose no danger to Wlad who feasted on guys like him. Your H2H matchup doesn't matter, it's just a hypotethical. I'd say Wlad beats Vitali, but would he? We'll never know. We only know that Wlad beat better guys and much more top contenders than Vitali. His resume is from a diffferent planet than Vitali's.

Lennox stopped Vitali in his last fight turning his face into mince meat. All you have is "wouldas". I'd say Lennox beats Vitali in the rematch. But would he? We never know. Vitali caught Lewis in the worst shape of his career and still didn't capitalize like Rahamn 2 years earlier. Vitali played second fiddle to Wlad beating second and third tier heavyweights. He has no claim for dominance. He's the undisputed number 2 of the era. And that's it.