I hate to admit it but a prime Lennox Lewis...

Lewis' Jab is overrated. Bruno's and Mercer's jab gave Lewis problems. I doubt Louis would have sufficient reach to trouble Lennox but Ali and Liston both had the reach and the jab to give Lewis difficulties.

And this is coming from a huge Lewis fan. In fact he's my favourite heavyweight of all time. Lewis at his best could beat anyone but I wouldn't favour him over Ali, Holmes, Liston or Foreman.

 

barely beat mercer ...........tyson in his prime would have been harder too hit than mercer.......would not loose steam down the stretch......like mercer..........TYSON WOULD KNOCK LEWIS OUT......BOWE OF 1ST HOLY FIGHT WOULD KNOCK LEWIS OUT...........RAHMAN WOULD KNOCK LEWIS OUT.......OLIVER MCCALL WOULD KNOCK LEWIS OUT........UMMMMMM.........FOREMAN WOULD KNOCK LEWIS OUT........SHANNON BRIGGS ALMOST KNOCKED LEWIS OUT........UMMMMMMM YAAAAAA........LEWIS BEAT A 35 YR OLD COKED OUT TYSON WHO WEIGHED 15 LBS TOO MUCH AND BEAT A 37 YR OLD HOLY................BIG FUKIN DEAL:rasta

 

Lewis is being looked upon now, in retirement more fondly by many than when he was active.. Lennox in 20 years time will be looked back on as a god.. Look properly at what he acheived and how he did it, look at who he ducked.. or didn't duck for that matter. Lennox was just a sheer pro who was a monster to try to beat.. I never saw any heavyweight since the moving along of Ali and Holmes that dominated so heavily (apart from a young Tyson) and so consisively, beating every heavyweight that he ever faced in the ring. If you don't value him, just take a proper honest look back at what he did and how he did it.. He was remarkable... AND.. Retired exactly when he realised he was starting to fade a little and never changed his mind... What a Champion.. When he realised he may be at the end he wanted the younger guys to come through and try to flourish rather than steal thier thunder by bumbling along while past his best.....

 

Not convincingly though. Vitali might be the non - ATG wiht the best H2H chances against ATG's in boxing history. Nobody ever outboxed him or knocked him down. A prime Lewis at 234 pounds would have been faster, but perhaps not able to bang toe to toe with Vitali. Speed never worked well against Vitali.

 

That pretty much sums it up. Lewis is about the most OVERRATED HW champ of all time, but that's about it. He's borderline top ten, at best. Holyfield AND Tyson were both greater champs - you never saw those guys starched in the early rounds by second-raters once. Let along TWICE!! atsch

 

I am sorry but you guys are waaaay overrating Lewis IMO.

 

It is VERY common on this forum for people to greatly overrate Lewis. Shoot, Lewis wasn't even the best HW of his era - that's Holyfield. It's more debatable between him and Tyson, but I still put Mike higher because of his dominance, and the way he DESTROYED his opponents. I have Holyfield at 7, Tyson at 11, and Lewis at 13.

 

Mc Call has been a career sparring partner, and aside from Lewis win has not been a top heavy. Rahman is a half-bum. Lewis got ko'd by both, while champ. A top 10 champ does not lose title twice, and definatley not to those two. His chin was too damn weak, and his defense obviosly was not so great that those two could not get to him.

 

Prime Lewis has V Klitschko and Riddick Bowe out of there in 5.

 

Ali I think favourite v Lewis. Agreed. However, the one thing usually ignored when analysing any Ali 'mythical' fight is that Ali was usually the BIGGER man in his fights. Not in this one. Still think he'd find a way to win, but it would be a tough fight.

Holmes? Probably very very slight favourite, either man could win.
Tyson? 50/50. If they fought 10 times, you'd probably get 10 different results... Can't see it ending in 3 though.

Old George? Don't think so. At the time Big George said straight out that there was no way in the world he'd even consider getting in the ring with Lewis. Foreman openly admitted he wanted nothing to do with that fight.

Holy? Don't see how Holy would ever be a favourite in any mythical prime v prime fight. Lewis is better at everything than Bowe, and woudln't get drawn into a brawl.

Holy could always make a fight close due to his stamina and chin, but has very few advantages going into this fight. Chin and workrate.

Lewis was stopped twice, and badly. That's a bad stain. What's never, ever mentioned by the 'shaky chin' brigade is that apart from that, he was never off his feet.

You can say "if you had him off his feet, you won" - but just as easily the counter argument is "you couldn't knock him off his feet unless you had him virtually out cold".

If the ref had counted to about 27 like Holy had the benefit of at least twice in his career, then he wouldn't even have been stopped twice.....



IMO the real problem with these kinds of threads is you're really talking about the best of the best, and most of these guys can beat absolutely anyone on their day.

 

So Holy is not a top champ then?
Nor Tyson?

I agree. Lost far too many times, and was underwhelming on others. Far too many free passes for poor displays due to 'injuries' or 'illness'.

In terms of Pound for pound tho, including cruiser - Holy is an absolute legend of the game. Eclipsing Lewis and Tyson by some distance.

 

That Tua fight was terrific, but I heard that Ike was on steroids.
Anyone hear that?

 

tyson prime would be any heavyweight that has ever lived. his upper body movement was brilliant.

 

I also believe Lewis is overated. Ali, a young Foreman, Holmes, Tyson. If you would have thrown him in the Ali era, Lewis would have much more losses. I thought he was a boring HW. Yes, he got knocked out by two fighters, but he also was rocked and almost out by Bruno!!! I remember that watching it with my brother. I told my brother that Bruno better not get cocky and put his left hand down and whammo, it happened. Bruno the man that looked scared to death prior to Tyson getting in the ring the second time around. People got so use to seeing Lewis on tv that most see him as a HW great which I don't acknowledge. To his defense, he would beat Vlad or Vitali.

 

A lot of people picking prime Tyson here.

Tucker and Smith both proved a big guy could completely nulify prime Tyson on the inside and I can't see even prime Tyson beating Lewis at range.

Ali may well have out pointed Lewis though.