will Lennox Lewis get his proper due from the Americans at some point?

he needs to sell some grilling machines! then he'll be recgonised.

 

i think lewis spent so long defeating every fighter the americans put in front of him that i believe there was a grudge in him from the americans for doing that, it's abit like white people having a grudge at jack johnson at the time for defeating every fighter they put in front of him, but like all great fighters such as holmes that didn't get the respect when they was active, they do recieve the respect more and more after retirement. johnson, holmes and lewis are now in most people top ten heavyweight lists.

 

It's a lot better than it used to be, a lot better. There were some US journos that were openly hostile...I remember Ron Borges seemed to find any excuse to get in a Lewis-related dig on his articles for several years (much like Dan Rafael currently does with David Haye). Makes it extra amusing to see Borges these days praising Lewis, I read an article from him a couple years back after Wlad-Ibragimov bemoaning not having him around...very funny.

But it is better. I thought it'd be like Larry Holmes, where it took damn near two decades past his prime for him to get praise lavished on him, but it's come fairly soon.

Sadly, part of that has been due to the moribund state of the division since. A thriving, exciting division might not have felt his loss as much. Instead we have two very dominant but fairly dull leaders, odd wildcards like Haye and Adamek and an awful lot of the boring, the old and the incapable.

 

Will the Amercians ever rank him favourably compared to their own great not so super sized HW champions of the past , like Ali, Frazier and Foreman? Never, is the answer to that question.

This comes down to nationalistic pride, no more and no less.

Rate a fighter on his career, dont think so.

 

I think most boxing fans no matter where they are from place him top 8 HWs for greatness and op 5 H2H . Some even put him higher. When he was fighting thsi wasnt the case but to be fair it never realy is.

 

george foreman said lewis was the greatest heavyweight ever and speaking purely in a head to head basis i think only a prime tyson and younger foreman would have a chance of beating a fully fit, focused lewis. his jab controlled people and his unreal right hand took them out and coupled with his size means he should get the credit he deserved


lewis v mercer on espn classic in about 10 minutes

 

I remember reading an article around 1998 from a big american writer...think its still on Cyber Boxing...anyhow it was one before the Golota fight and one straight after.

Before this particular writer spoke of how great Golota could be, the fact that he was white could bring huge attention etc.....the way he handle R. Bowe who handled Holyfiled who in turn handled Tyson so easily made the writer drivel.

The next article i read, sums up saying Lewis was lucky he met a fighter who was past his best, clearly froze and wasnt the same fighter from the Bowe fights. I understood then that Lennox will never could his dues.


Just look at what he did to Vitali............Vitali since has never lost a round and beaten a string of decent fighters.

 

:thumbsup Exactly, this is what he had to contend with, and still does to a lesser extent.

 

I think he is getting it to be honest.

If you go on the classic forum today you will find a fair few posters who rank him among the top 3 all time heavyweights, both head to head and in terms of legacy.

The American press has always traditionaly gone into denial when a non American has held the lineal title, but since Lewis retired and the former comunist block took over the division, they have had to get used to the idea.

 

I cant believe bert sugar rated him so low in comparison to some other heavyweights.

 

It's only since the end of his career he's got any huge credit from British fans.

 

Hes had some good action fights in his time and a lot of people forget that when their calling him boring. The Briggs,Golota,Grant,Mercer and the second 2nd holyfield fight were all exciting performances

 

I think he gets a bit overrated to be honest.

 

Lewis is now starting to get the respect he deserves...

I watched the Mercer fight on Classic on Friday. What gets me is before the fight starts, one of the yanks commentating has a dig at him about his nationality saying something along the lines of 'Lennox talks about his Jamaican heritage, fought for Canada in the Olympics and now represents England as a pro' and then chuckled. Then all through the fight they were constantly talking up everything Mercer did.... even when Mercer was hitting nothing but gloves and arms with those flurries of hooks they were getting all excited even though most of the punches were clearly not scoring punches.
A lot of people who don't rate Lewis like to point at the Mercer fight and how close it was to try to discredit him.... fact is if you turn off the American commentary and watch the fight whilst it was competative it wasn't close, i scored it 8-2 rounds to Lewis