Granted, But he beat Evander again in 95', and without Lewis around in the interim, more fights between Bowe and the best guys might have been made.. I don't think he stays at the top long, as his ability to maintain top conditioning was slipping by the mid 90's, but I can see a brief period where he probably would have been the best in the world.. I'd likely favor Bowe to beat a post-prison Tyson as well.
I favour the '95 Bowe (Hide, Gonzales & Holy III) to beat any version of post-prison Tyson. However, Shot '96 Bowe loses to even the most sloppy post-prison Tyson (McNeeley, Mathis Jr & Seldon) & gets beaten-up badly by Tyson from Bruno II & Holy I.
McCall wouldn't beat Bowe. Even if he managed to hurt Riddick he wouldn't finish him off. He couldn't get rid of an exhausted Bruno, and might have struggled to finish Lewis off if the ref hadn't stepped in.
Did you disagree with the referee stoppage? I'm a fan of Lennox, but he was on very wobbly legs. It's correct that McCall may have failed to finish him within that round, but he would've kept countering the young Lewis with right hands, hurting & ultimately dropping him again later in the fight.
I neither agree nor disagree with it really. It was one of those where he'd always get criticised no matter what - from the Lewis camp for stopping it.... if Lewis survived the round and subsequently won either on points or (unlikely I know) stoppage the McCall side could rightly point toward the referee failing to intervene. There's also the possibility of Lewis copping a few big shots before going again in the same round (ala Maccarinelli vs Frenkel), after which the referee would be hammered and rightly so for failing to do the right thing. What makes it look worse is that the referee walks toward Lewis instead of standing there and asking Lewis to walk forward. Lennox wobbles slightly and bingo - perfect excuse to stop it. King was there as was Sulaiman - McCall was a King fighter too...... it was the easiest way out for him in my opinion. The loss to McCall was the best thing to happen to Lewis, it gave him the excuse to bullet Correa and bring in a proper trainer that knew how to handle top fighters and build gameplans to beat top opponents. Correa just wanted Lewis to whack people with the right and put them to sleep. In the McCall fight the right hands had a postage stamp on them.... he'd have had six or seven KO losses if he hadn't made the change in my opinion, either that or fallen back to European level and eventually retired in his early 30's.
Great post. :good That was Steward's intentions all along, to train the limited yet powerful McCall to counter the young Lewis with right hands that he was vulnerable to. Then when Lewis came to him looking for a superb trainer, he could develop his great potential to it's fullest. Without Manny, Lennox would've became one-dimension, as he got more & more obssessed with his monsterous raw power & just headhunted with huge bombs.
Yeah definitely how I see the whole Lewis situation as well. He was just never properly trained to be a pro. People say Lewis was more exciting, but he was sloppy and making mistakes and that **** wasnt going to fly with any kind of longevity in the pros.
This logic is always shakey. If a ref stops a fight, he can be criticized for premature stoppage, rightfully or wrongfully. But if he lets a fighter continue, and that fighter wins, this always serves as a solid post facto justification of the ref's judgment. There's a reason for the 10-count. If an opponent can't beat the count, by the rules, he's gone. If a fighter fails to inflict a 10 second KD, the matter is solely at the discretion of the referee and his judgment. Thus, if the opponent does beat the count and the referee deems him competent to continue, and he subsequently wins (fairly), this in itself, justifies the ref's judgment in the matter. It seems a bit facile for a fighter to state: "I stunned him to the point where he was unable to continue, but despite this, he did continue, and he beat me." But this is almost moot in the Lewis-Bruno case. Lennox was too damaged to survive much longer.
I don't know if I can agree with that.. Sure, he improved greatly upon hiring Steward, and would not have gone as far as he did without him.. But he had already acheived world championship status, and a record of 25-0, with wins over Ruddock, Mason and Tucker, before the McCall upset...
And he started with Davenport. Fired him and went with Correa. I thought he was better with Davenport and he used to throw a real nice left hook in there. That punch sure disappeared from his arsenal with the following trainers when it became jab and right hands. But I confess I never did buy into Correa too much and thought he was a poor selection. And if a guy makes a poor selection for a trainer, we get to see a loss and it doesn't take all that long to occur.
Some interesting matches: Bowe/Holyfield v Rudduck/Bruno/Akiwande/McCall/Morrison/Briggs Holyfield-Tua/Grant Holyfield-Golota Bowe-Holyfield 4? Holyfield-Tyson 3?
:good I agree. I remember Lewis on the cover of (i think) KO magazine, 2 months prior to Lewis-McCall 1 with the headline "Lennox Lewis is the best Heavyweight in the world". Then the article inside went on to outline the reasons, and they were very good reasons why he was the no1. Infact one of the reasons stated was that he also had a good chin after taking bombs from Mason,Bruno and Tucker! For any of the people who questioned his chin. That was from an american magazine too. I always see Lewis' first reign 92-94 being accomplished with just his raw physical talent. Although John Davenport done some good work with him. IMO without Steward i think Lennox would still always have been a player in the division i don't think he would of ever just ended up back at euro level without him, he was clearly always gonna be world class. But definately Manny Steward was the perfect trainer for him. One thing that was for sure is that the cheerleader Pepe Correa had to be fired sooner rather than later. And Stewards strategy and McCalls right hand made Lewis' decision a lot easier. I think Lennox if i remember asked Manny to train him while they were still in the ring after the McCall defeat. Another interesting point would be what if Manny started training Lennox straight after the 88' olympics, which is when Manny claims is when he wanted him, after being so impressed with the way he turned the fight and beat Bowe. I think i will start a thread with that one!