If he landed his right hand before McCall landed his. If he then got the Bowe fight and won. If he then fought and beat the Tyson who lost to Holyfield. If he then beat Holyfield ( that would be at least 2 years sooner than he actually did) If he didnt get careless against Rahman. It's quite a list of IFS , but could have happened ( and in several cases , should). How much higher would his stock have been. Almost the G.O.A.T ?
I rank Lewis very highly. I think that if he'd fought and beaten Bowe, and rematched and beaten Vitali, I'd be confident in making the #1 HW case for him. The only thing that takes a bit of the luster off his reign is that a lot of the guys he beat were past prime and getting on a bit.
Lewis resume is not on Louis level in my opinion. Louis lost in his prime only once and he avenged this loss in the most spectacular fashion possible. His career after second war is also really good given that he wasn't close to his best at this point. Louis also didn't have a hole in his resume close to Bowe. I know that it's not Lewis fault that Bowe didn't want to fight against him but it still matters at such a high level. Louis beat everyone he could in his era. I also think that Ali has better resume, but at least you can say that Ali has more past-prime loses than brings him down. I don't agree with that argument, but at least you can use it against Ali.
Lennox Lewis is to heavyweights what Pernell Whitaker is to lightweights...not the best competition...but a H2H monster
I agree, his loses don't limit his legacy. He avenged them both. The reason why I can't see him at number one is because he doesn't have many signature wins. Holyfield is great, but Evander wasn't at his best. Vitali is his best win overall, but that's only one. Tyson win is not ATG either. Bowe win would definitely help his legacy and I'm almost certain he would beat Riddick.
For me it's mostly his having been knocked out by two relative losers. I agree a decisive win over Bowe might have wiped that clear. But Bowe would have murdered pre-Steward Lewis and by the time Steward got on board with Lennox Bowe was in decline. I mean to say that Lennox's star shone brightest during Bowe's decline, Bowe's shone while Lennox was still a one-armed fighter. Had Lewis take the Bowe fight pre-Steward and gotten knocked out early (which, judging by the level of McCall and Hasim would have been quite conceivable at the time) his rep might have been even more tarnished. I also have a problem with just how much trouble Lewis had with Holyfield, especially considering Holy's age at the time. Those fights happened significantly after Holy got badly beaten up by Bowe and just basically beat by Moorer. I thought Lewis would have him out in eight, latest.
He lacked a defining match up with somebody at their peak ( Bowe) would've been perfect. Tyson and Lewis could never have really met peak v peak. I sew no reason why Lennox needed to rematch Vitali, why should he ? I think peak Holyfield could've been the toughest matchup for peak Lewis. My original point though , is that if a few things had fallen in place he could've almost been the GOAT. The timing of events never really favoured him.
Ehm, because Vitali was giving him a shellacking before his vision went, and he agreed to a rematch? The GOAT at HW, that is. I feel he was a little lucky with his timing. He met both Holyfield and Tyson past-prime and retired early enough to avoid the Vitali rematch and a coming-into-his - prime Wlad. On the other hand ... I guess you could say the Bowe fight falling through was a bummer. I feel Lewis fought everybody he could and avenged his losses like he should. A champion can do no more.
He couldnt , you are correct In the OP I was just hypothesizing that had timings fallen differently he would look even better .