I certainly recall a strong sense of bias against Lewis, in the early '90s. The US boxing scribes didn't seem to like Lewis at all. I can see why some people look at the McCall loss as a catastrophe, to some an extent, but I also believe Lewis was far from being the finished article, by the time he met McCall. Add to that, I think, at that point in his career development, his complacency and cavalier tactics were being fostered, rather than discouraged by Pepe Correa. To some viewers, they were watching a kid getting by on sheer flair, which obviously needed to be honed. Him getting dumped on the canvas and getting back up was no big deal, until a hasty and inexperienced Garcia decided to not let Lewis continue. Whilst the referee's stoppage wasn't 'incorrect', Lewis should have been given the chance to fight on. It smelt a bit fishy, even though well-masked by legitimacy. All of these things considered, combined with how he improved over time, under Steward, and I think it gains him a lot of kudos and takes the shock out of the McCall defeat. Just my take.
Frazier was clearly better than the Jerry Quarry's and Jimmy Ellis' of his time, but never proved vs bigger men and harder punchers like Lyle, Shavers, Liston, Norton, or L Martin. I think his management avoided those guys and picked matches vs smaller boxer type without top end power, which his style eats up. You can see it on his resume. Frazier 1-5 vs Ali and Foreman, with 3 stoppage losses. While the Frazier wins are big one for Foreman, and the Lyle struggle a good one too, I think guys who Lewis beat such as Klitschko, Holyfield, and Tua had good resumes. Someone wrote Lewis was 15-2-1 vs top ten rated fighters. That is outstanding, and the 1 draw as we know was BS
Frazier's management may have avoided hard hitting guys (though Bonavena was pretty good). I do think Frazier beats all those guys including an aging Liston. Yes, Frazier is 1-4 vs Ali and Foreman. Foreman was a bad match up for him and Frazier was highly competitive vs Ali who is almost unanimously regarded as the best ever. Lewis certainly has more depth. Would i take the 1999 Holyfield over Frazier? No way. Ditto with 2002 Tyson. I absolutely agree that Lewis has more depth than Foreman. No arguments there.
I agree. When a 6'5 fighter is trying his hardest to stand right but falls into a little referee, you gotta say that's enough.
Lewis was done against McCall. I found it amazing how he protested seconds after falling into the ref. That said, LL not only avenged his loss but became a top ten ATG, so kudos to such a great fighter!
Foreman was beat, beat, beat. Mostly in the worse possible way: psychologically. But I think you know that. my knowledgeable friend.
Nah - The Referee didn't have to say that's enough. There was no absolute need to call it off. Garcia had the option. He chose not to take it. We'll never know whether Lewis could have survived the round or not because, unlike in the Holmes/Shavers II bout, Garcia didn't give to Lewis what Davey Pearl gave to Holmes - the chance. A more seasoned Referee would have had the confidence to let him continue and step in if needed. HOF Referee Stanley Christodoulou was of the mind that he'd have let Lewis continue and that's good enough for me to maintain my unshakeable opinion on this point.
Definitely! He was finished and even getting up and the ref allowing it to go on, we'd have seen another Kd prrety quickly imo.
The thing is, if Garcia had allowed it to carry on, and McCall bludgeoned Lewis again with the very next punch, everyone would be calling it terrible refereeing. Sure, you'd perhaps have a point if we went 100% old school mentality, where the referee's job is only to count to "10", wave it on if the fighter is up in time, and has no other duty to assess the safety of a fighter after a knockdown, in which case we might as well do away with the 8-count too. But seeing as we do expect, rightly or wrongly, for referees to make safety calls during the "8 count", there's absolutely no possible justification for a referee to judge a fighter fit to continue when that fighter is literally stumbling and leaning on him. I've never seen any footage of Holmes leaning on top of Davey Pearl, so that is a strange comparison to make. Timestamped : This content is protected
He's literally pushing his gloves in the little referee's face. That's not "fit to continue" in any language. It's a bit like dribbling and drawling with whisky breath in a police officer's face, and leaning on him in an effort to stay upright ........ claiming you're fit to drive.
The referee did a very fine job actually and has been smeared by conspiracy theorists. He'd also refereed several WBC world title fights before, and as far as I know with no complaints. For example .... This content is protected This content is protected To be fair, Ron Collins could have been allowed to continue ...... but the murderous punching Jackson might well have killed him too, so another good call, I'd say.
