Lennox Lewis and Hugh Mcllvanney both inducted into the IBHOF on Sunday.Lewis the last great Heavyweight Champ and Scot, Mcllvanney a great sports writer get their dues .:happy
Tremendous speeches this year too, some inspiring and some touching, Mitchell particularly. I remember the times clearly in years gone by when Lewis was belittled, derided, openly insulted, lied about and just plain written off by many journalists. Some in particular couldn't seem to get through a boxing article regardless of subject without slinging an arrow his way. To see Lewis now have a seal stamped on his legacy like this makes for a very sweet and deserved outcome.
You watch him box now, and you're like - what the ****?! Why were these dipshits writing that stuff? At the time, it just seemed part of the proper patern of the HW champ, but...no! He must be the most underappreciated fighter of all time during his reign... Damon, where did you see Michell's speech? Is it on YouTube or what?
More so than Larry Holmes,he had a charisma bypass. You also tend to forget some of the truly depressing fights in the middle of his career-against Akinwande and or the second one against McCall. Even the fight,in your avatar, considering the hype was a big disappointment. Tua was never in the fight and Lewis' caution and Tua's chin,in the end determining that there would be no spectacular conclusion to the fight. I remember reading Eddie Futch was in the audience and near the end of his life was bored and dispirited by the whole bout. Some of the animus came with the fact that Lewis was not American certainly. Another reason could be that sportswriters were aware that the era of the Heavyweight Champion of the World as the king of sports had already come to an end and ,frustratingly, from then onwards Lewis was the best they were ever likely to see .
Lewis is a worthy hall of famer, glad to see him in. Hopefully Tyson will follow next year. Holyfield should quit so he can get in as well does anyone think if Bowe will make it? I think he should
Arka - how could I forget the 'depressing' fights? I own copies of them. Now show me a heavyweight in history that I couldn't pick some 'depressing' fights out of their career. Even guys like Louis, Ali and Holmes had some fights I would charitably describe as 'workmanlike'. He achieved what he achieved and very few heavyweights did the same. He's a deserved HOFer.
Wish I had seen it, I just read what he said from some news sites. Hope the videos do get uploaded somewhere, like the IBHOF site itself. Sounds like Mcllvanney gave a really long and story-filled speech, that'd be a good one. Sorry if I sounded a bit rude, not trying to be. Kind of in a rush at the mo.
A fair post. Lewis deserves the plaudits he's getting, but to be honest unless you were a fan, he wasn't setting the world alight outside of the ring, and sometimes not inside it either. There was bias from the US media, no question about it. However, one must also remember that at first, it was because Lewis came from the land of the so-called 'horizontal heavyweight'. Nine challengers from the UK had tried before and all had failed to win the biggest prize in boxing. It was a case of 'Oh yeah, Lewis, he looks good but remember he's British.' The US had been utterly dominant in heavyweight boxing up until that point, so I guess they could afford to be arrogant and somewhat dismissive regarding anyone else's chances. Few begrudge him his status these days though, to be fair. I don't recall much in the way of attacks on Lewis' character, which is something the media had no problem with in the case of fighters like Chavez, whom one writer likened to the worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle.
