Then there is the fight against out of shape Mercer where he quite possibly could have lost... To some not a belief of mine but the fact he has a disputed win against Rays caliber is why i don't herald him as the H2H GOAT like so many.
No Wlad at age 39 did not have more prime left when he lost to Fury, who was likely on PED's when the match happen. Dino, after all these years you still can't get it right.
Trouces? Vitali was up 4-2 on all cards and Lewis was getting gassed. Lewis said he'd re-match, the money was there. More like old man who fought dirty was saved by a cut that wasn't bleeding much at the time of stoppage. He tried to make other matches ( Jones and Johnson ), and had to retired when the WBC ordered a re-match to avoid the man you seem to think he trounced. I do think it was Lewis' best win.
Prime isn't determined by age. Povetkin has more prime in him at 39 than Mike Tyson at 36. The Wlad against Fury was way more prime than a 30 year old Bowe. Legs are the first to go when a fighter is past it.. Lewis walked Vitali down like Mummy. His legs were gone. Wlad had strong legs and used good movement for all 12 rounds against Fury.. He had more prime in him than Lewis had. No doubt about that.
Depends what criteria you use. The Vitali win on paper is probably his best 'result', but I think the generally unsatisfactory nature of it and the underwhelming performance prevent it from being his best win. I'd probably go with the Holyfield win(s), with Ruddock, Bruno, Rahman and Vitali in the chasing pack.
For me, it will always be Razor Ruddock. He ended a very good heavyweight contender's career in one night.
The fight which did the most for him was probably the win over Tyson, which it shouldn't have but I think it did. And Holyfield.
Spot on. When Lewis was in the zone he was a scary proposition. Head to head I wouldn’t take many to beat him.
You always knew the guy was talented, but THIS win put him on the map BIGTIME! There are not too many people with a bigger win than this to announce their presence on the main stage LOL!
It's funny, this is the fight that made him big, but I never thought he lived up to that kind of victory again, although Bruno, Mercer, Morrison, McCall, Briggs, Holyfield, Rahman, Tua, and Vitali were probably a step up in opposition. It was just so brilliant of him to hit Ruddock while he was ducking.
Ruddock went all those rounds with Tyson...then got knocked cross-eyed by Lewis in two rounds. Though imo this was far from prime Lewis, it was devastatingly impressive to me when it happened. Not impressive to me to convince he could have beaten Bowe at the time...any time after 91 he would have, though.