During his career he was bombarded by the greatest punchers of his generation and ever, often without batting an eyelid and was knocked down only twice by two punches that many, years later, consider lucky. Do you think Lewis' chin Is underestimated or not?
His chin was decent but the one-punch losses to McCall and Rahman (who were mediocre HWs) showed he was too slow to recuperate from those hard knockdowns.
No. His chin could probably wisthand the power of the likes of Holyfield, Vitali Klitschko, Muhammad Ali,Larry Holmes but not against a sledghammer puncher. The Likes of Shavers, Sonny Liston, mike tyson, Cleveland williams, Wladimir Klitschko, Frank Bruno, Riddick Bowe, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, Ron Lyle, David Tua, Donovan Razor Ruddock, Tommy Morrison, Gerry Cooney, and George Foreman would always have a puncher's chance against the lion and i'm sure They could do what McCall and Rahman did. I still favor Lewis over 97% of these guys though
Larry Merchant once said of Lennox, "there may be a lot of chinks in his armor, but look at all that armor." His size and defense has saved him from his own chin. His chin wasn't Bruce Seldon level glass but it wasn't exactly a sturdy one either. Probably a bit better than we give him credit for.
Yeah, as said it was okay. He could eat a flush shot, depending on who hit him and how. Years ago, especially immediately after his KO losses, it was considered glass. Nowadays I think people have it about right.
His chin was more than adequate. He faced some absolutely huge punchers in his career and was only stopped twice. He simply just got caught by McCall and most think he simply took Rahman lightly in their first fight. 9 times out if ten, anyone that gets caught flush by either McCall or Rahman was going down. Those guys were serious heavy hitters. With that said, McCall and Rahman also had significant flaws as well.
A little bit. Had the McCall fight happened in a different era or with a different referee, the ref may have let Lewis continue and Lewis may have recovered.
Lennox Lewis withstood Vitali Klitchko's heavy bombs until the cut on Vitali's eyebrow forced the stoppage. But as another talented poster pointed out, his chin could not stand in his bouts against mediocre fighters like Hassim Rahman and Oliver McCall.
He had a good defence, A chin is a saving grace in the weight class with the least skill something he was not blessed with Lennox was a large, strong man with a knack for on the spot changes and adjustments with a good corner. He is obviously a student of the game his KO of Rockman was clinical and was very similar to a sequence favoured by Ezzard Charles.
