Which style gave Lewis the most trouble?

Somebody will come in and say slick southpaws, which is why he didn't fight Chris Byrd. Probably a Vitali fan.

 

Probably, good sized hws with a better jab than him, who can neutralize his size advantage and can fight if they have too, namely Larry Holmes, Sonny Liston.

 

Hard to say because he beat every style, yes he got clocked by right handers twice but he also beat them both, so at his best they aren't really 'the most trouble'.

 

Holmes YES, Liston NO, too slow

 

Well, there's no evidence of that, so we can disregard it.

Let's look at the boxers who gave Lewis the most trouble over the course of his career: Frank Bruno, Oliver McCall, Ray Mercer, Hasim Rahman, Vitali Klitschko.

Aside from Vitali, who fought Lewis at the end of his career, all were (a) between 6" and 6"3; (b) had good and frequently used jabs; (c) had good right hands; and (d) aside from Rahman, who did best when he counter-punched, all put sustained pressure on Lewis when they gave him trouble.

So the toughest opponent for Lewis would be someone who isn't too big and isn't too small, has a classic "bread-and-butter" style and who has the aggression to put pressure on Lewis long enough to either put him out or to outpoint him.

Based on that, I agree with bodhi that Sonny Liston would be tough for Lewis. In fact, I think Liston would be the toughest opponent of all for Lewis. Joe Louis, Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali would beat him 2/3, I think, but I would rank Liston below Lewis overall yet I would also give Liston a very, VERY good shot at Lewis.

 

Don't think Lewis was at his best against those 2, and I'm not convinced Liston is any faster than either, and Lewis did ofcourse beat them both

 

i feel you could be trying to create the illusion that lewis intentionally didnt want any part of fighting moorer and byrd because of their technical southpaw skillz. maybe your not but if you are i think that really waznt the case. lewis UNLIKE other fighterz at the time was one of the few great fighterz that waz alwayz interested in fighting whoever waz percieved as the TOP FIGHTER out there. lewis didnt like to take lotz of fightz in his career as he certainly liked to live the fun life for monthz after a fight before he got back into training but letz be honest the reason lewis never fought those two waz because at the time lewis waz champ those two werent reconized as the best fighterz to challenge him.

personally speaking i cant see lewis having any problemz with moorer. ok sure lewis had trouble with zelko whatever his name was but he still beat the crap out of him overall. i see lewis either stopping moorer via accumulation or simply by WIDE UD with moorer looking like a huge puff ball after 12. he waz way to slow to give lewis any major trouble. as far as byrd i see this as a easy fight for lewis. basically a repeat of vladdy vs byrd but more dominant. i see byrd making lewis miss quite a few timez early and i see lewis not caring changing his timing and byrd not making it anywhere near the final bell.

larry holmes ?

yes i could see holmes giving lewis a run for his money he had that 50 foot jab and waz a real pro and could manage himself expertly over 15 roundz in his time. that said if lewis came into the fight mentally prepared which waz not always the case with him i would still bet on lewis to win a MD simply because of his athletisim and mobility for his giant size the likez of witch holmes never had to deal with in his era. yes he fought some guyz bigger than him, no they werent athletic in the way lewis waz.

someone mentioned liston because of his ramrod jab. to me liston is one of the hardest fighterz to GUAGE after the fact as his fightz against ali or clay lol were bizarre. yes ali could mentally pyche out alot of fighterz better than anyone in history but there were also fighterz that ali couldnt pyche out and gave him HELL. personally i never thought frazier was all that special OTHER than his WILL. sure he waz a awesome fighter with a deadly left hook but when i say he waznt all that special im talking in size and atheltism. when he fought foreman this became so apparent poor joe looked like they got him from a tough man compitetion. regardless look at the battles that frazier gave ali they were incredable. to me this waz because frazier waz impervious to ali's mental game. so getting back to liston, i have to go out on a limb and say either liston threw those fightz for whatever many reasonz one could create, or more likely i feel that liston waz MENTALLY weak and instead of trying to adapt to ali's lighting speed and ring trickeryz he became so fearful he just gradually started to freeze up witch would make sense of the ridiculas rematch witch to me looked like liston had convinced himself he was going to get completely humiliated by ali and choose to quit before he got the crap beat out of him. so overall i feel that liston was possibly one of those guyz that is great when hez fighting someone he was confident he could bully witch were all of the fighterz that came before he fough ali but i really question how liston would of faired against the bigger guys that came along in the 70's. funny thing is alot of people alwayz said tyson waz just a bully witch i think was in truth the exact opposite. bullyz dont keep crawling to get their mouthpeice back in after they have been hammered into never never land late in a fight in my book.

ok so i see lewis beating the crap out of liston over the course of the fight if liston didnt quit first.

lastly as far as the styles that gave lewis the most trouble i dont really see anyone style that gave him problemz. the thing that gave lewis problemz was a large heavyweight that could take a great punch was tough as nails, had good to great athletism in strength and speed, great all round skillz, lots of stamina and very good one shot power.

of course thatz also a pretty fair description of lewis himself

YES u could be very wrong on all accountz but thatz alwayz the case :yep

 

:good