How is Lennox and his career reflected upon in the U.K. today. How do you rank him all time. What do you think about him as a person. Do you view him as a Brit or not ?
I would rank him as a top 8 heavyweight of all-time, based on his resume, ability and mainly H2H as I would rank him in my top 3 on that basis. As a person, seems like a great man who made me laugh when talking in third person. And yes, he is a Brit.
I think Lennox Lewis was the best British Heavyweight of all time. I see him as being 'partly' British
i believe he was born in london's east end so he is english alright, but he has canadian and jamaican blood in him too. definately best british heavy ever, and very high up on the all time heavyweights list, sometimes find it hard to compare modern day greats to champions of the past, different eras . it would be nice to go back in a time machine and watch them guys. as for a person , well he has always came accross as a nice guy on the interviews.
Top 5, any day of the week. Sugar's assesment is well off, he has him like 19-20 justifying it with him catching Tyson/Holyfield past peak, ignoring the rest of his solid resume. If thats his criteria, why the hell is Tyson above him?
That list was really weird. Sugar had Holyfield at 11, Tyson at 14 or 15 and Lennox at 19:huh. Lennox should be a lock on for the top 10 and yes I do regard him as a Brit and he seems to be a nice guy.
the infamous jean chanet. :yep all time top 7 heavy. one of the best british boxers ever. without doubt. as a person he could be a bit arrogant at times. some of the bruno pre fight banter went way over the edge. :bart and the rahman tv brawl was all a bit embarassing. atsch least he was a respectful champion at a time when tyson was plummeting the depths. :rasta
He was avoided by the 3 big names (tyson, bowe, holyfield) while there were in their primes, so we will never really know. but its very clear that they wanted no part of lewis, not the other way round, so that tells its own story.
To be fair, wehn Tyson was at his best; Lewis was a Commonwealth and Olympic amateur champion; and Holyfield I believe would of fought Lewis in 93 had he won the first Bowe bout. Riddick... well 1988 kind of played with his head, and Bowe was hardly the most stable fighter when he was in a dominant position let alone an underdog.
I think it is hard to look past Lennox as one of the great HW's of all time. His two losses were avenged, he won America but most importantly he got out at the right time. As for the nationality business, as far as I'm concerned he was an Englishman who lived in Canada for a bit. He was Canadian when he lost to McCall and Rahman.
Where a person is physicaly when they are born is what defines their nationality so Lewis is British. It is worth noting that the two greatest British heavyweights of all time (Lennox Lewis and Bob Fitzsimmons) both spent most of their lives outside the UK. From a historical standpoint Lewis is one of the small number of heavyweight champions who dominated a definable era so on that basis he makes the top 10. As a person I think that Lewis is one of the better role models that the sport of boxing has offered up for young people.