Obviously I do not need to tell you that Lewis had an extensive amateur career , and won an Olympic gold medal, so obviously a lot more amateur pedigree than Jeffries going into his pro debut. Setting that aside, let's make some comparisons between their early careers. Jeffries fought his professional debut at the age of 19, against the veteran Hank Griffin, in a fifteen round fight! Lewis fought his professional debut at the age of 24, against 11-12-1 Al Malcolm, in a six round fight. One year and six fights into his professional career, Jeffries was matched against Gus Ruhlin in a 20 round fight. Ruhlin was coming off a win over Peter Maher, who was a former title claimant. For his fourth professional fight Lewis fought 14-1-1 Steve Gabber, but by a year in he was fighting 22-9-1 Ossie Ocasio. Fourteen months and eight fights in Jeffries was thrown in with Joe Choynski. I don't care how big Choynski was, this was an absolutely merciless piece of match making. In his eight fight Lewis fought 13-4-0 Calvin Jones. Lewis was inactive fourteen months in, but he was fighting men like 11-4-1 Mike Acey and 24-10-0 Jean Maurice Chanet. Jeffries won the title after three and a half years of professional fighting, in his twelfth professional fight. Three and a half years takes us past the Ruddock fight for Lewis, but twelve fights only takes us up to the Ocasio fight. If we fast forward two and a half years from Jeffries wining the title, Lewis picks up his first loss against Oliver McCall. This takes us past Jeffries sixth title defense against Gus Ruhlin, and he is eyeing up his seventh title defense against Bob Fitzsimmons. If you want to compare them based on total number of professional fights, then Jeffries is already retired at this point. Jeffries last professional fight came eight years and eight months after his debut, and some argued that he continued to improve rightup to this point. This takes us up to Lewis winning the lineal title against Shannon Briggs, but his best work is still ahead of him. So what is my point here? My point is that to match a prime Lennox Lewis, against Jeffries opponents, is not a like for like comparison.
BULL CRAP. You spend your time trying to diminish them with outlandish statements such as Rocky lacked one-punch KO power, and give false information on them daily, never applying the same standard to anyone else. Sometimes I chime in, just to correct your numerous errors as this is a history forum. You also disdained the Klitschko's. And you created at least two known alts poster names ( Rainer and Tonto62 ) which did the same thing. Need I remind you you have been banned at least twice and started a racial thread? You're a cartoon on this topic.
Kos Fitz in 2. Stops Sharkey in 7, busts his face up. Corbett keeps in front for about 5 round till getting tagged hard.
Yeah Lewis cleans shop. I still love the old guys though and find them more compelling than the new fellas. This sport developed and progressed from the sweat and toil the old timers put in. They deserve the utmost respect for that.
I know enough about basketball history to spot the exceedingly obvious parallels in this case. The analogy between turn of the 20th century heavyweight boxing and the early years of the NBA should be too obvious to require elaboration. Two niche, talent-starved sports with practitioners whose technique and skills would seem rudimentary in a later era. If you don't see the comparison then probably either: (a) you're overthinking things, or (b) you have an unrealistic and unjustifiably romantic view of turn-of-the-twentieth-century heavyweight boxing. While the factual distinction that people were engaging in sports that resemble boxing thousands of years ago while basketball is a relatively modern invention is relevant, it's still a reasonable comparison.
Couldn't agree more! Of course the best boxers from the turn of the last century couldn't beat today's best… but so what? Shouldn't we honor them for being the best in their own time, and being trailblazers for future generations of fighters? Why isn't that enough? Why is it necessary to dream up a fantasy scenario, where we can convince ourselves, that in a more level playing field, they could "hang" with modern greats? Why should we debate how a Lewis with only a few amateur fights behind him would do against the old-timers? Or (as suggested in another thread) how about a 6'1, 210 Lewis? That wouldn't be the actual Lewis, but someone else - so who cares? It's just silly!
You have NEVER made this stipulation about any other match , and you are using it as a device to avoid giving your opinion as to who wins .
Fan boys regularly make these "adjustments"with Marciano he would be a chiselled 220lbs today ,without any loss of speed or stamina,etc,its because they cannot bring themselves to admit these men would be severely disadvantaged against talented big guys of today.They would beat the 3rd raters ,the dubs ,no matter what size they are,but 240+lbs 6foot 5/6 inch men who can both box and punch? Forget it!Just making these matches is enough to make you a hater in their eyes,and the plain fact of that is its because in their heads, if not their hearts ,they implicitly know the results!
Given your stipulation that this is prime Lewis, I would expect him to beat all of these men. I would expect him to do better than Jeffries did, precisely because he has the benefit of bring in his prime, when the fights take place. Obviously if he fought any of them twice, I would not expect them to make the same mistakes twice.
Jeffries wasn't in his prime from 25 to 28 when these fights took place.When do you say his prime was?
