Then again, Lewis is signing to fight a tough guy in his backyard. Being the road warrior and then choosing a slugging style against a slugger. Is there any doubt that if Lewis choose to jab and move he could box his way to a decision win? lennox was not an HBO favorite and was not signed with King so he had a tough path to get back to the top > the loss to McCall. And he tried to outslug the slugger to get an impressive win in a non-title bout to pressure champions to sign a contract with him. He also fought Morrison in a non-title affair and just what other top heavy at the time was bothering to fight tough opposition? The title holders were all looking for soft touches and Lewis was the only guy out there fighting competitve fights instead of taking that path of least resistance. I'm sure Lewis looks a lot better fighting a Hide or Gonzalez or Stewart or Neilsen or guys of that caliber instead of Mercer in his backyard. You could also say the path of least resistance guys would've made Mercer be the road warrior guy instead and make him take his act on the road.
Lewis didnt fight Mercer like that because he was trying to show he was tough and look good. He fought Mercer like that because Mercer forced him to.
I disagree wholeheartedly with that. Mercer doesn't have the legs to pull that kind of fight off. He never did. Nor the sustained energy level to pull it off. He's going to do a lot better with guys standing right in front of him. Then, they slow down to his pace. Ray follows everyone around the ring and always did. He never cut off the ring and typically stood upright on the outside with knees locked and bent at the knees only when throwing a hard hook or big right hand when he dipped. Lewis choose to stand there and slug and I guess the fight I went to sure didn't see Mercer cutting off the ring or walking him down even. Lewis fought him at his game and stood his ground in there and didn't force Mercer to use a high volume of legwork to accomplish anything. It could've gone like the Tua fight or Holyfield 1 fight and Lennox could've jabbed his way to the easy victory. Lewis was not a single dimension guy and employed different tactics against different guys--not always to his benefit. What Lennox did not do was to fight a Larry Donald fight and demand a 24 foot ring and spend every minute of every round moving away and jabbing. He could have. He went toe to toe and did it right off the bat. As for the benefit of boxing fans we got to see a much more entertaining fight because of it. To me, I appreciate the guys that do that and it's rare and especially with heavyweights and especially in more recent times where things have evolved into path of least resistence time.
The point your not getting is that Lewis simply wasnt that good at that time. Again, he was completely frustrated and complaining a lot to Steward between rounds. No he would not have fought Mercer the same way in 97 or 98 because his balance and punching was corrected. A fighter like Morrison wasnt good enough or didnt have the chin to get past Lewis jab and make it a rough fight, thats why he fought Morrison first and then Mercer.
He followed the Mercer fight with wins over Oliver McCall (who was never as good as the '96 version of Mercer, and who quit crying). Henry Akinwande (who put on a cowardly display of holding), and Golota (who, as you say about Ruddock, never gave Lewis a test, never forced any sort of fight). Shannon Briggs ? I dont think Lewis looked better there than against Mercer. Nor against Mavrovic. It's arguable, I suppose, that Lewis was better against Holyfield. But I dont really think so.
Lewis didnt lose, nor was even fighting guys close. Briggs was a far more dangerous puncher than Mercer, so it was conceiveable he would get nailed with Briggs fast starting style. The old Lewis wouldnt have approached fights with David Tua, Oliver Mcall and Briggs in the same way. Mcall broke down after the first two rounds in the second fight because he quickly found out it wasnt the same reckless Lewis he was fighting. Akinwande held the entire fight, Mavrovic ran for his life, hardly comparable fighters, but still one sided wins for Lewis. The Holyfield safety first fights were certainly testament to his improvement. Were talking about technical improvment, not excitement factor. Lewis certainly became a more boring fighter post Mercer but his 14 fight win streak was proof he improved.
I think the Mercer fight was the improved version, not the "old Lewis". Looking at his stance, the way he punched, his balance, he's a far cry from the earlier Lewis (pre-Steward, eg. against Tucker, T.Biggs, Bruno, Billups etc.) and I think he looks tight and polished and more "American" in his style. He looked good against Mercer. I just dont see improvement afterwards. and he didn't need it. It was a 14 fight win streak after the McCall loss, not Mercer. And it proves nothing more than he was better than those 14 men. That's why we have to look at the fights to assess. He had a 25 win streak before the loss to McCall.
Mercer was part of the improvement Unforgiven. He hired Lewis after the Mcall loss. Lewis had improved leading up to the Mercer fight, but got a good lesson in how to handle a rough sustained physical fight. He became the complete package after the Mercer fight.
. This is a ridiculous statement, hardly a comparison to championship and top contender level opposition, and all those fighters post Mcall fit in nicely on a skil level with Mercer, Bruno and Mcall, fighters he was struggling with.
I haven't even contested the claim that he improved after the McCALL loss, so I agree that the later Lewis would likely do better against McCall (which he did) and Bruno. Not a ridiculous statement though. Also, I thought you were objecting to the use of the same reasoning earlier in replying to choklab .... ... as you yourself are using now : I wasn't claiming his first 25 fights were on a par, opposition-wise, with his 14 fight streak. I was just pointing out the obvious ie. the statistics never tell us much about matters of style and overall performance. Nothing ridiculous about that. We both agree that Lewis improved with Steward. I just dont think he improved much beyond the Morrison and Mercer fights.
the thing with bowe is he never surpassed expectation. when lewis wiped out ruddock, golota and grant (remember how crazy evryone was on grant? holyfeild had him as a best man for one of his weddings since it was accepted that grant was the future of HW boxing) nobody had done that to those guys. lewis might not have been prety but did surpass expectation. Bowe did not surpass expectaton against tubbs, coetzer or even by beating holyfeild. At that time people were saying if evander had that much of a hard time against two grandfathers and a cruiser weight the first big youngster would take him. In the rematch Bowe was fancyd to win again. he disapointed by comparison. Tucker was on a good run when he fought lewis, a more serious threat than anyone bowe ever defended against. only tyson had beat Tucker and tony even had a win over the guy who beat tyson. Tony had his moments against lennox who beacame the first guy to deck Tucker. By 93 lewis had the beter resume, thats why bowe would not fight him.