I think you're still very harsh. He made Foreman look like a fool and won nearly every round. Foreman looked bad, but maybe his opponent had something to do with it? Certainly, he had always carried a pletoria of flaws with him, only no one (except Ali, who destroyed him) to take advantage of it. The way Young overcame a gigantic disparity in punching power, physical strength and size by guile and skill is very impressive to me. The Ali fight wasn't pretty, but he should've won it nevertheless. A lot of people don't like to see their heroes lose to someone like Young.
I have to agree with you here. Young's non-aggressive style and tendency to spend more of the evening "illuding" his opponents rather than actually facing them, would make it very hard for him to score points. He was also no favorite of most judges, and wouldn't have anything that would be particularly damaging to Lewis in the way of power.
Lewis could do it all. Jab and move(Tua, Holyfield), break opponents down slowly(Tyson, Morrision), destroy them quickly(Ruddock, Grant, Golota) or have a battle of will's(Ray Mercer). No one could outbox him or control the pace of a fight like Lennox could, and he took little punishment. Young was slick, cute and crafty. He would duck, slip, move, weave, to avoid punchers, and even put his head through the ropes. I just can't see how Young could cause Lennox any serious trouble, when he didnt have much power. Youngs strengths wouldn't cause Lewis any trouble. I see a Lewis KO here or Young being crafty enough to survive the distance and get beat on a UD.
If Jimmy Young sucks, than Ron Lyle's name should be erased from the record books considering that Young schooled him not once, but twice. This fight has the potential to be horrible. Lennox would most likely be passive and Young would do his usual thing and it'd be a stinker. Lennox wins it on workrate and aggression but it is an ugly fight to score and relatively close.
OK, so now its Formen fought horribly against Young, Ali was in terrible shape, all that ****. EVERYONE lookes like they fought a bad fight with Young when he was on, cause he was great. Both in their peak, I don't see Young having much trouble with Lewis. You think Lewis could take Ali, Norton, Lyle, Shavers, or even come out of those fights with poeple grguing he got robbed? Lewis isn't in that league, I thought he was good, nothing speacial. Lewis would be missing all night, getting countered, and Young DOES have some power.
Young was good no doubt but if Lennox decides to open up and bring out the heavy artillery then it's all over for Young. Lennox could box as well as bang and wouldn't be as one dimensional as Foreman. I could see Young being somewhat troublesome for a few rounds but that's about it.
Ali was in horrible shape. Absolutely awful. I dont blame Young for that, but I dont really rate that version of Ali. I dont see Leon Spinks being given the same credit for his performance against Ali, but Leon was more impressive than Young. Foreman fought so bad against Young he saw Jesus and stayed retired for 10 years. Then again, I reckon Foreman sucked a bit too. Yeah, compared to his rating on this site, Lewis sucks too. Him and Young are grossly overrated here, methinks.
Occassio was a real good fighter as well, accomplished a lot, but hasen't been in with the caliber of opponents Young was. Spinks wasn't given much credit for his win same reasen as noone else was, Ali was old, Ali was outta shape, Ali , what, just came out of retirement when Frazier kicked his ass. What about when Norton whipped him? Did Ali have some excuse for that loss too?
You said Jimmy Young was a great fighter ,since Ocasio twice beat a 29 year old Young , surely he must be great rather than" real good" ?
Lewis beats Lyle,Shavers and Norton ,probably all of them by stoppage. You want to talk excuses ? The Jimmy Young fan club has one for every one of his defeats. Fact is the guy beat ONE GREAT FIGHTER whose phyche was severely damaged at the time ,and Young, by his own admission was out on his feet at one point in that fight. JIMMY YOUNG WAS A DEFENSIVE MINDED SPOILER,who often stunk the joint out he was NOT a great fighter, whatever way you slice it.
Spinks beat a 36 year old Ali ,and Ali won the rematch. Ocasio beat a 29 year old Young , and won the rematch. See the difference ? Three of Young's opponents when he was 4 and 3 years YOUNGER than Ali. Chuck Gardner 16-10-0 Young was 32 and lost Eddie Richards 11-6-0 Young was 33 and lost Mike Jameson 14-15-0 young was 33 and lost Enough with the word Great in connection with Young.They are as well suited together as cheesecake and gravy,