Is Lennox Lewis overrated? He was good though,but was he that good?

I just look at his resume and look at his fights. And without much effort. So much of his resume reminds me of Marcianos.

He beat the corpse of Mike Tyson, He beat Evander after he got his brains bashed in. He beat Vitali on a cut (I still think he would have won,but he didn't rematch), He got knocked out by 2 C-Level fighters and very easily, He beat Ruddock after Ruddocks war with Tyson.

He almost got knocked out in so many fights like with Shannon Briggs,Frank Bruno and Vitali and got real hurt in the first fight with holyfield. This is not a detriment just an observation.

He did beat some good names like Tua,Mercer,Morrison, Briggs.

He beat a lot of fighters but his best were old and he nearly got ko'ed in fights he won

It is why we don't really count why Mike beat Holmes as that told us nothing.

 

He was pretty good arguably has the second best resume at HW. Beat all the best fighters he could during his era. Avenged all his loses. And proved himself as the best fighter of the 90s which is probably best or second best HW era ever. Not to mention beating a future great in Vitali when he was getting up there in age. There are always things you can nitpick but I think his accomplishments speak for themselves. Def top 5 strong argument for 3 at best.

 

Holyfield was past his prime granted but he was considered the number 1 Heavyweight at that time with wins over Tyson x2, Moorer.

Lewis fought the best available Heavyweight at that time in an undisputed title fights to determine the best Heavyweight at that time.

So you can't really fault Lewis for that it's still a very good win even if Holyfield was past his prime.

Lewis wanted to fight Tyson in 1996 but Tyson's team paid him money to step aside. Yes when the fight actually happened Tyson was a long way from his best, but again not Lewis's fault he wanted to fight him earlier but was denied.

Also Lewis almost got knocked out in alot of his fights ? I disagree.

There's a difference from being rocked and actually being out on your feet ready to go.

I don't think Lewis was ever in serious trouble vs Bruno but he got rocked a few times.

I also don't remember Lewis being seriously hurt by Holyfield in their 1st fight ? The only one who was badly hurt in that fight was Holyfield when he took a beating on the ropes for over a minute in the 5th round.

I think you also find pretty much every ATG Heavyweight has been seriously hurt in a fight at one point or another.

Ali was almost stopped by Henry Cooper.

Holyfield was almost stopped by Bert Cooper.

Louis got dropped quite a few times and hurt.

Holmes was badly hurt by Earnie Shavers and Renaldo Snipes.

I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Lewis but with his size and skills and a good resume to back it up you have to rate him highly.

Although I'm not quite the believer that Lewis is unbeatable on his best night like quite a few people claim.

 

Overrated

 

He's the opposite of Marciano's resume. He fought live bodies, real-sized athletes who almost unanimously packed power. I have long contended he fought the most dangerous line-up of opponents of any heavyweight on record.

We can nitpick the resumes of Louis or Ali or Holmes all day long and find similar "faults" and less depth. Do we really want to talk about Ali v Cooper, or how many fights he really won against Norton, or Ali v Young? In the end, quantity has a quality all its own. Lewis barely ever took an easy bout, and EVERYONE could punch, such was his era. Hell, I know of two guys who faced Lionel Butler that said he packed pure dynamite, one of them being Lamon Brewster.

 

A tad overrated possibly but he did beat everyone he fought.
But he was stopped brutally twice when he shouldn’t have been. That tends not to happen to the very best heavies, Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Foreman, no Mccall is stopping them. I’m not quite sure the order except for Ali at no 1 but those four along with Louis are top 5.
Can’t see any other top 5 apart from those.
Lewis has a good case for no 6 though

 

No absolutely not overrated.
He had the ability to beat everyone he faced.
If he could have stopped in his prime and never aged he'd still be champion now.
McCall and Rahman were mistakes, the rematch were no contest at all.
He's one of the best ever,a true ATG.

 

I agree he’d still be champion now in that scenario, but don’t believe he would have beat Ali, Holmes, possibly Frazier. Still great though, it’s between him and Tyson for the number 6 for me which is still pretty damn great

 

McCall was legit. He got outhought a la Louis vs. Schmeling. Rahman was what happens if your idea of altitude training is inhabiting the penthouse suite at the MGM Grand.

 

2nd best? Yes but in names only. Once you really look at it it isn't really that impressive.
And it isn't nitpicking. People nitpick Tyson to hell for beating an old Larry Holmes, me included, so I am keeping it 100%. I would keep lennox at the lower end of top 10 if I were top ut him anywhere

 

It is not nitpicking hwen it is true. Do you give Mike Tyson 100% credit for beating Larry Hlmes? even though Holmes was old as hell. Hell do you give Holyfield Credit for beating an older Larry Holmes?

It is not nitpicky at all to say Holyfield and Tyson were past their primes / Shot. And Lewis did not wanna fight Ruiz for whatever reason and was stripped and didn't rematch Vitali when he knew he should have.

It is not nitpicking. Nitpicking would say Liston was old Fighting Ali when he only lost once, avenged that Loss and Liston came of of 8 career defining wins and still that he somehow was old when he was at his strongest and most dangerous. THat is nitpicking.

To say Holyfield who had a heart attack, Been to war with Bowe and Tyson and Moorer and saying that he was past his prime is not nitpicking. Saying Tyson spent 3 years in jail, got 1 and half year of suspension and fought nobodies and was past his prime fighitng Lewis is not nitpicking. These are facts

 

Yes but those losses di'nt happen once, which is fine, they happened twice in his prime

 

I know what McGrain is trying to say, so let me try and say it in a more responsive and attentive way. If you rate Lewis with Eddie Chambers, all of us will understand your feelings and if not completely agree, as most would, we would still have reasonable and empathetic discourse and display genuine and kind empathy toward you and possibly ask that you stay with us in your hour of need. My sympathies. Thank you for your attention in this matter, sympathetically yours, Boxed J. Ears, professor emeritus of Warology at Caxap University.

 

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