I'd take Louis, got hit by the bigger bombers (Baer, other Baer, Walcott, etc). Seemed to be able to get up from any 1 punch, no matter how devastating and clean a shot. Lewis' KOs were from 1 shot hits, and Rahman and McCall, while good fighters, are no Marciano and Baer Lewis had height and reach to stay away from pretty much everyone he was fighting. Louis had to put himself in (what non swarmers call) the danger zone against the big boys he fought.
I believe this thread has already been done. That being said, I would pick Louis. He certainly had the better recuperative powers once hurt.
Hard to say. Joe Louis defiantly had better recuperation powers to get up. Lennox Leiws was harder to knock down when hit. There is zero doubt Lennox Lewis fought more dangerous and skilled punchers.
Lennox Lewis by far. Lewis got hit with THOUSANDS of punches in his career, but Lennox was only dropped twice, both times by one perfect punch. (And he even got up from one of them.) If you landed the one perfect shot, you could drop Lewis. Only two people did. If you didn't land it, fighters could hit him with thousands of punches, and he didn't go down. And McCall and Rahman couldn't land the perfect single punch in their return bouts, and both lost. Joe Louis got knocked down a dozen times or so. Joe's chin was fine. But Lennox Lewis' chin was much better.
Lennox Lewis had a better chin for me. Note that in the 1940s, Lewis would have been allowed to continue against McCall. Might not have survived, but we'll never know.
I would definitely have to say Louis. Lewis is the only top ten all time heavyweight to be taken out by a single punch, anywhere close to his prime. I don't buy the idea that Rahman was some sort ow wrecking ball either.
It's not like Joe Louis was knocked out by Schmeling with a flurry of punches. The shot that finished him was a single blow. And it's not like Lewis was also floored a dozen times in his career. And Vitali Klitschko, Mike Tyson, David Tua, Tommy Morrison, Gary Mason, Frank Bruno, Razor Ruddock, etc., were all kind of considered "wrecking balls" when they were fighting, and not a single one floored Lewis. Lennox Lewis won the Olympic Gold medal. He beat every man he faced as a pro. He retired the world heavyweight champion. And he was only on the floor two times. I think most boxers in history would take that kind of career AND chin. I think Joe Louis would've preferred to have only gone down twice and retired on top. I don't know if Lennox Lewis would change places with Joe Louis, and in addition to getting stopped twice, also get floored a dozen times by lesser guys.
Watch the Rahman KO in detail. This content is protected Do you see the way Lewis head spins? He got caught absolutely horrible on the chin, causing a lateral and dorsal spin at the same time (lateral most of the times causes highest brain acc. due to no resistance). Someone had to argue this would depend on Lewis neck (and so his chin), but I´m not sure here. He got hit very very unlucky by a full leverage swing of 240 pounds of muscle. Lewis might have made it vs McCall.
I´d say the Rahman bomb could knock out a rhino. I´d also think both Lewis and Louis would (and did) get up from the McCall punch. Louis might have the better recovery, but Lewis indeed took some good punches against that bunch of punchers he fought, while Louis got down from lesser punchers. Louis got dropped by lesser punches, but recovers better. Lewis seems to daze a little longer.