Larry Holmes vs Lennox Lewis

The best Holmes beats the best Lewis via decision.

 

Lewis has more tools, outside a jab Holmes cannot win without it . Lewis has a jab and right hand also inside fighting .Cant see a non power puncher keeping lewis at bay with just a jab . Holmes tactic of jab ,feints and the occasional straight right is hard to deal with but Lewis is 6'5 and has 83 /84 inches of reach is no dummy ,under Steward he would control how this fight is fought .

If Holmes is smart enough he could last the 12 rnds but he wont win,he would need to engage and if he does he can get k.o'd here . Looking at some long jabbers both fought the edge has to go to Lewis bc Holmes didnt like punching up he liked punching down and controlling tempo Lewis jab would be good enough to work around his other skill sets .

 

Holmes could dominate with just his jab. He had the much more skilled jab than Lewis. Holmes could also move and box...lateral movement. He was the more polished boxer. Holmes was trained to fight 15 round fights so in a long fight Holmes has an advantage. It starts off as a battle of jabs which Holmes wins. As rounds go by that jab does damage and wins rounds for Holmes. Larry stays out of danger and coasts to the decision win.

 

By a whisker! The extra speed and mobility is the deciding factor here,imo.As do all fighters Lewis had problems with good jabbers,eg Bruno and Mercer,Holmes had one of the best.

 

Holmes...Holmes in his prime 77 to 81 or so was simply one of the top 3 heavyweights of all time.
Better jab than any fighter i ever saw in any weight class.
Superb ring general ..iron will ..all the heart in the world..concrete jaw and recuperating power..the sneaky rt uppercut.
Holmes outclasses Lewis to a comftorable UD or breaks his will and stops him.
Lewis is overrated.
He just lacked something in the mental and heart depeartment for me. For a big guy he just seemed to afraid to engage at times.

 

My thinking as well. Holmes might edge out a decision. But he'd also be susceptible to getting hit with a lot of hard rights.

 

Lewis never really beat a technical boxer with the speed and skill of a prime Holmes. His jab was average and he was hittable. Think Holmes would win the battle of jabs and the laser right hands like the one that dropped Cooney would do their trick. Holmes by decision.

 

Holmes by decision, especially if it's the true championship distance which is the 15-round limit and always will be.

Maybe it's just me but from a style wise perspective I think that Larry Holmes in his prime always use to have his best performances against fighters that were exactly his height(like Ken Norton, Mike Weaver, Bonecrusher Smith, Tim Witherspoon, Renaldo Snipes, & Lucien Rodriguez just to name a few) or taller(like Gerry Cooney, to say the least) while guys that were a bit shorter than him(Earnie Shavers 2, or David Bey) would give him some problems early on before he would adjust and take the fight to them and then eventually away from them. Granted his fight with the taller & young undefeated Carl "The Truth" Williams was a tough one and his fight with the shorter prime undefeated Mike Tyson was past Larry's prime but the other fights I mentioned are just some examples.

Lennox Lewis (a very tall & great fighter in his own right) no doubt is a different type of monster than all of those after mentioned fighters but I honestly believe that, even though he fought correctly for a tall fighter and knew how to impose his will on an opponent, Lennox's style would eventually play into Larry's game plan and that well polished jab & right hand combined with Larry's underrated lateral movement and his great stamina for the championship distance (12 or 15-rounds) would all but allow him to prevail over Lewis by a fairly close decision if it's 12-rounds(something like 115-112) or a fairly decisive decision if it's 15-rounds(somewhere in the area of 145-140).

 

Lewis had power in the right hand and he would catch Holmes. Unless Holmes survives and gets into the later rounds (which is a possibility) I just see the power of Lewis being an issue 12 rds or 15 could also be an issue and would benefit Holmes if they make it past 10

 

This is a great match up...I think Larry is too good and too smart to lose to Lewis prior to his hooking up with Emanuel Steward...But the older more experienced Lewis presents serious problems for Holmes...Very tough fight for me to call.

 

I got Lewis by decision, maybe with a KD the difference. Holmes is the better jabber but Lewis' sheer size and reach allied to the massive right hand threat will offset this. Larry could be hit a bit with right hands and there are few longer and harder than Lennox's. Holmes is a better boxer but Lewis size, reach and huge power balance out the ledger.

 

Larry survived Shavers bomb ,but of course Lennox has the extra height and reach to drop his in on him.I go for Larry because of his extra speed,and movement, but prime Lewis is a stylistic nightmare for any heavyweight imo

 

Holmes wins this he is too fast and skilful for Lewis and possesses an atg jab

Holmes also has good punch resistance evidenced by surviving punches from cooney and shavers

 

Cooney's best punch did not land on Larry's chin,it's resting place was somewhat lower!