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

Way too high. I'd favour Ali, Uysk, Holmes H2H against Lewis. Foreman, Prime Tyson I'd likely favour as well but too a lesser degree. Holyfield a few years earlier would have undoubtebly been a closer fight, but I think Lennox still slightly edges it.

 

All of those guys might well beat Lennox on a given night, but I would only pick Ali to win more often than lose over ten fights.

Prime George might also manage the feat.


But H@H aside, I still rank Lennox as third greatest all time.

 

Assuming your number 1 and 2 are Ali and Louis respectively, I'd struggle to rank Lewis ahead of Foreman in terms of greatness. Foremans demolitions jobs of Frazier and Norton are better than any of Lennox's wins, past prime holyfield, washed tyson, controversial cut stoppage of klitschko. His historic victory against Moorer is also an incredible achievement and very inspiritational to those later in life showing its never too late. Lewis has more contender level wins but George also has his fare share of B-Tier wins, granted probably slightly lower average quality than Lewis: Lyle, Peralta*2, Chuvalo, Qawi, Cooney etc. H2H I think George would perform better in a hypothetical round robin of the great heavyweights through history. Oh, and George wasn't KO'd by 2 much lesser fighters.

 

I used to rank them jointly at number three.

From 2007...

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Lennox Lewis or George Foreman
4.
5. Larry Holmes or Rocky Marciano
6.
7. Sonny Liston
8. Mike Tyson
9. Joe Frazier
10. Floyd Patterson
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...d-heavyweights-of-all-time.20151/#post-537261


Eventually, I came to give Lennox the tiniest of edges.

From 2020...

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/survey-closed.651034/page-30#post-20573890

HEAVY
1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Lennox Lewis
4. George Foreman
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Larry Holmes
7. Joe Frazier
8. Mike Tyson
9. Sonny Liston
10. Wladimir Klitschko
11. Jack Dempsey
12. Jack Johnson
13. Evander Holyfield
14. Ezzard Charles
15. Harry Wills

 

Vitali should be in your top 15.

 

I had him at 19.

He will probably move down to 20 whenever I add Usyk to my list.

 

Daniel Dubois top 2 wins maybe even top 3 , are better than Vitalis top 2/3.

 

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Ali
3. Wlad
4. Holmes
5. Foreman
6. Louis
7. Tyson
8. Holyfield
9. Dempsey
10. Liston

 

Ruddock didn't "get destroyed" by Tyson.

The first fight was famously hard hitting and controversial where the referee ruled a knockdown that was actually a trip and called the fight off in round 7 while Ruddock was still able to fight on - which almost caused a riot.

The second fight went to the final bell with Tyson getting a UD. Yes, Ruddock's jaw was broken, but Tyson's eardrum was perforated, and with Tyson going to jail shortly there after, Ruddock was considered the most dangerous active fighter in the division because of how tough a time he'd given Tyson.

Before getting blasted out of the ring by Lewis, Ruddock had never been cleanly stopped - the 7th round lost to Tyson was controversial and his RTD loss to Jaco early in his career was partially caused by a respiratory illness.

Tyson went through two hard hitting wars with Ruddock and outlasted him - Lewis blew Ruddock apart in less than two round.

 

This is a topic that always gives me difficulty in coming up with a conclusive answer.

Ultimately, I believe Lewis was an excellent fighter with a lot of talent and skill but I agree 100% with those who claim a "Marciano" element to his career resume.

PS--Furthermore, I'll always maintain peak Tyson would beat peak Lewis.

 

Ruddock himself sees it a bit differently. Of course, it's his subjective opinion, but he's definitely the most qualified to assess it. And objectively, if you can read boxing, you know Ruddock had excellent tools against a shorter guy like Tyson. Even if he's exaggerating when he says he was out of shape against Lewis. In my opinion, he made the mistake of sidestepping under Lewis's right. It's a bit like McCall-Lewis 1, but the other way around, except that with Lewis, even a weak jaw is always a coincidence.
https://www.givemesport.com/i-have-fought-mike-tyson-lennox-lewis-heres-who-wins-primes-boxing/

 

Yes, Ruddock was considered that. But the thing you must understand is that the damage was not appearent right away.

If you think Ali vs Frazier messed up both fighters then Ruddock and Tyson messed eachother up. Tyson more messed Ruddock up as Ruddock wasn't punching as much. But usually getting broken jaws as **** wears you down.

It is like how Evander and Bowe fought. it wears you down having fights like this

 

Lennox took on all comers and beat every man he faced in arguably the best era of all time. He's probably the best head to head of all time.

As for Holyfield and Tyson, they avoided him earlier in their careers. Lennox was older than Tyson. There was 3 years difference between Lennox and Holyfield. And Bowe ran like a little girl from him. We saw what Lennox did to Golota after Golota ended Bowe's career.

 

Yes he is overrated. He beat some good fighters but also got knocked on his can twice by guys who should have never beaten him. He also dodged a Klitchko rematch he knew he would lose by retiring. I cannot fathom why so many put him so high on their heavyweight lists.

 

Some the criticisms on recent threads of Lewis resume are far fetched IMO.