Has Lennox Lewis ever cherry picked a single opponent?

Not to my mind. He vacated titles when the bodies wanted him to fight John Ruiz and Chris Byrd.

But in both cases it was to take a better fight. Michael Grant was 31-0 when Lewis KOd him and instead of fighting Byrd, he fought Vitali - a top 10 ATG HW.

 

Every fighter at some point takes an easy fight, especially in the older era's when they were far more active. If you are fighting 4 times a year or more you can't expect every single opponent a fighter faces to be the best. But if you are fighting once or twice per year you expect the best opponent possible.

As for Lewis, Botha was a soft touch, Botha had drawn with Briggs and lost to a faded Tyson the previous year.

Rahman also maybe could of been seen as an easy fight against a fringe contender. Lewis had hoped to face Tyson but Tyson got a 3 month ban in early 2001 for tested positive for marijuana after the Golota fight. So Lewis took a supposedly easy fight in Rahman while he waited for Tyson to serve his suspension and become available. Of course Rahman upset Lewis' plans which delayed the Lewis/Tyson fight until 2002.

 

Well...Kirk Johnson was a bit of a cherry pick but of course he ended up fighting Vitali so deserves a pass.

 

BullFeces He kicked Vitali's ass when barely 80% on a weeks notice no point in a rematch. as for Byrd & Ruiz? If he'd fought those two you could say he'd cherry picked.
Lennox ducked no one only second best to Ali :good:hi:

 

phil jackson was considered a soft defense and he had a choice of grant or ruiz and everyone was glad before the fight he chose grant

thats it, he fought all the fighters no one else would face and avoided at the time

 

It was a voluntary defence. A cherry pick really.
Rahman wasn't ranked high by any organization or anyone at all.

The fight happened in South Africa because they like boxing there, I guess. Promoted by an associate of Cedric Kushner, who was born in South Africa and had been promoting Rahman in the USA. Basically they put up more money than Las Vegas was willing to put up, and worked out a deal with Lewis's representatives.

 

Lennox ducked Ike Ibeabuchi, Chris Byrd, Vladimir Klitschko, prime Mike Tyson, prime Evander Holyfield, prime Tony Tucker, and Corrie Sanders, just to name a few.

Lennox was hiding in England while Tyson was beating everyone in America. When Tyson went to prison and Holyfield was too old, Lennox finally decided to move to America. He also waited for David Tua to become overweight and fought a fat version of him. What a complete fraud.

Lennox Lewis is not a top 30 all-time heavyweight. His resume is garbage when you anаlyze it.

 

The word "duck" would imply that Lewis avoided fighters that were in an actual position to fight him. The only one you listed that fits the bill is Byrd, and maybe Wlad. Nobody else.

 

I also find it funny how people say Lewis avoided Sanders, yet Rahman who beat Sanders is regarded as a cherry pick.

 

Wlad was his mando for years and avoided him.

 

I don't think Lewis avoided Sanders.
Rahman was a cherry pick though, and Lewis got KTFO.

 

Wlad was the WBO champion, he wasn't ranked by any sanctioning body, aside from the Ring which is irrelevant when it comes to actual matchmaking.

 

Fair enough. Rahman was a top 10 fighter though, on a decent victory streak. Seems kinda harsh calling him a cherry pick.

 

Well, I think Lewis thought of him as such.
A "cherry pick", an "easy" defence, a "filler", whatever.
Lewis took him lightly.