Lennox undisputed Title resume - your thoughts

Not in the Ring rankings true.

Byrd was #1 in IBF rankings.

Ruiz was #1 in WBA rankings.

 

So in your opinion every fighter who's a pro should have the right to fight for the title. Ruiz's own promoter paid Lewis not to fight him.

You are a terrible obvious troll 'Quarry'

You asked if they had earned the right to fight the champion, the answer is 'not above Tyson, Grant, Vitali and even Rahman'.

The only reason they were mandatories was because of blatant corruption, you don't even bother to argue against this

What did Ruiz do to do to become mandatory? HE didn't even fight an eliminator, 4 years prior and he arguably lost to Jimmy Thunder His best win was a Shot Tucker who'd just been blown out in 2 by Herbie Hide, was Lennox ducking Herbie Hide too I'd actually pick Hide to beat Ruiz and Byrd at his best. You then actually have the interlectual dishonesty to clain, Ruiz performed better against Tucker than Lennox, when Lennox dominated a Tcker who was 5years younger

 

during Lewis's rein (I start after beating Briggs) the number 1 contenders were as follows: Holyfield 97-99, Tyson 2000, Wladimir 2001-2002, Vitali 2003.

Lewis defeated 3 men who were number 1 contenders during his rein. He never faced Wlad which is a huge shame, even more so with hindsight.

In 2002 both byrd and ruiz were top 5 contenders so at this point would have been credible defences. but he had only 1 fight that year and it was his showdown with tyson.

In an ideal world we'd have seen him fight 3 times in 2002 vs Tyson, Wlad and Byrd. but ruiz never really enters the picture IMO. the only time he was top 5 ranked he was rated behind Tyson, Tua and Holyfield 3 guys who Lewis had already defeated and 2 of who would defeat Ruiz.

Now during Vitali's rein (after Lewis retired Vitali was the default number 1 guy) he definitely should have faced Ruiz and Bryd since these were ranked immediately beneath him plus Byrd held a victory over Vitali.

I'm not going to say vitali ducked ruiz nor byrd but I will say they had a much stronger case for facing him then they did for facing Lewis.

 

In an ideal world i would've liked to see Tyson replace Botha on July among Lennox's world title defenses in 2000. Since getting sparked cold by Tyson in 1999, Botha drew with Briggs & beat the unknown Pannell. Tyson deserved the title shot much more, even just by beating Botha, (Norris NC due to accidently sparking him at 3:00 of round 1), Francis & Savarese before Lewis defended against Botha.

 

well in an ideal world lewis never loses to McCall and he mixes it up with peak versions of holyfield and bowe as well as the still considered baddest man on the planet.

 

Yes but Botha wasn't a real defense, it was a homecoming fight in between 2 real fights in Grant and Tua. A Tyson fight would take building up, they would have had to dump Tua

 

If Lewis beat McCall he might not have hooked-up with Manny Steward.

Anyway, you consider Holyfield & Bowe to be "Peak" in 1994?

I would say Peak Holy is '90 Buster to '93 Bowe II.

Peak Bowe is '92 Holy I to '93 Holy II.

 

It really sucks in my opinion that the Ring Mag advertised Tua as a bigger threat than Tyson, despite the fat Tua coming in at 237, 238, 253 & 243½lbs in his last 4 fights before facing Lewis at a disapointing 245lbs. In reality David Tua hadn't been in-shape since he got a gift premature stoppage over a Rahman who was comfortably beating him in 1998!

 

The whole sport is corrupt dummy. Razor Ruddock being a mandatory was based on corruption too. The guy lost two straight to Tyson.

 

i consider them peak enough. i don't think lewis was peak until 97, but in 94 it's probably the closest to best average we could get across the big 4 names.

 

David Tua more than earned his shot at the title though. He fought every tough up and coming challenger on his way up, and guys he dusted like Ruiz were getting shots at the title before him. It was because he wasnt promoted by King and was promoted by Goosen at the time. I think Tua earned a shot at the title, but he should have gotten his shot when he was in shape. By the time he became the IBF #1 contender, Main Events was out of business and his contract was bought by Dan Goosen and America Presents. Goosen protected that ranking by feeding him a bunch of bums and allowing him to get out of shape. By the time he finally did face Lewis he was no longer the same fighter. Had Tua faced Lewis instead of Ibeabuchi for example, that could have been a very interesting fight.

 

Holyfield was very far from him Peak when he faced Moorer, with a collapsed left ventricle of the heart & a badly injured left shoulder. He was visibly an ill & injured fighter, who should've delayed the fight to recover. Although he still scraped the win in my eyes. I was say Holyfield was Past-Prime from 1994 onwards. The sheer punishment of his second brutal war with Bowe contributed to this.

Bowe was Past-Prime from 1994 onwards too, he proved nothing in '94, then Hide & Holyfield were hurting him so easily & often in 1995 bouts it was clear his punch resistance had dropped drastically. Clearly his ever-worsening diet & ring punishment caught up to him. With training camps becoming fat farms, where he would enter at around 300lbs & spend the whole time trying to lose weight with lots of dehyradration & crash-dieting involved.

 

Rudduck wasn't mandatory, he was fighting an eliminator to be so. Still Rudduck was a valid contender because he and Tyson had earned the right to be 1 and 2. Tyson went to prison, Rudduck won a couple of fights and maintained his ranking in the absense of other legitimate contenders outside of Lewis and maybe Bowe

Yes the sport is corrupt but obviously the answer to your question 'did Ruiz deserve his opportunity to fight the champion' is an emphatic no

 

I agree that Tua deserved the a title shot, but it was shameful that he lazily came in at 245lbs, instead of below 230 like he should have. I would've loved to have seen Tua fight Lewis instead of Ibeabuchi in '97, it certainly would've been more competitive that their '00 snoozefest.