yup, that's got to be the main answer. set against this of course, Prime Wilder [not the 34 year old version who lost to Fury, whose ability to throw lots of super-fast windmills seemed to have noticably declined] would of course pose a *risk* to Lewis, probably more than Rachman or McCall did. Lewis would need to be very careful. just in case anyone mentions it, I don't think it's super-relevant that Lewis only ever fought shorter men than Wilder, struggled vs Vitali etc, since Wilder's fundamentals/ability to utilise his height have always been so poor.
Perfect answer right here. Lewis was moulded into the fighter he was, by the originator of the style that Fury used to dominate Wilder. Lewis obviously will be more adept at that style than Fury with just one camp with that style and would be even more dominant. How does Wilder fire the right hand if he's constantly being pushed back? He needs to set his feet and load up that right hand, he couldn't do it vs Fury how does he do it vs Lewis who has a better jab and hits even harder than Fury? Sure Wilder has a punchers chance he always does but Lewis would take that right hand away from him making the chances of that happening very remote and then take him out in Brutal fashion.
Lewis crushed some guys the same height as Wilder, in Grant and Akinwande. He only struggled with Vitali later in his career and because quite frankly Vitali was a far, far better boxer and fighter than Wilder so yeah agree there that it's irrelevant in regards to Wilder.
Lennox Lewis was also of a "different level" to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman. Despite avenging his losses, he was still stopped by both. Both are nowhere near the puncher that Deontay Wilder is and they are almost both half a foot shorter and have lesser reach.
Wilder is tailor-made for Lewis. This would be a one-sided, savage beatdown similar to how he destroyed Andrew Golota who didn't even get to throw a punch. 2 rounds tops.
While neither Rahman nor McCall doesn't have Wilder's one punch power, they both are more durable than him, have much better chins and boxing ability. I don't think anyone would dispute that Wilder, if he can throw that punch he might be able to rock and probably know Lewis out. But that is a very very low probability. Even pre- Stewart Lewis had better jab than anyone Wilder has fought in his whole career except for Fury. Not to mention Lewis had one of the best ring iqs while Wilder basically has the iq of a honey badger.
They were probably not even 1 in 10. Lewis had 44 fights and in those was only KO'ed twice so more like 1 in 22 chance of happening. Not Sure Wilder even has that much of a chance vs Lewis. McCall had Steward in his corner to manufacture that win while Wilder only has Deas, don't think Deas could do what Manny did and find that weakness in Lewis even if he was facing that earlier pre peak Lewis. So maybe Wilder has a 1 in 44 chance, where Lewis ends up doing a movie prior to the fight, shows up out of shape and mentally unprepared. I could see Wilder and a lot of other hard hitting heavies beating that Lewis. But again that's a Lewis that only showed up once during his entire career, any other version of Lewis beats Wilder easily.
Is this a serious thread? Lewis to skilled, would rag doll him in the clinch and inside game far to strong. There are levels.