Lennox Lewis faces George Foreman in 1983-1994. How does it unfold?

Yes that's all i was saying aswell TBH people think because Ruiz is horrible to watch. That it would be a mismatch vs Lewis, and maybe they could be right. But i agree with you that Ruiz's style may present more of a challenge than people believe. And like you said the sparring stories and the fact Lewis was stripped for not fighting Ruiz does pose a few questions.

But i don't want to derail this thread so back to the topic on hand, yes i do think Foreman's jab would be more of problem for Lewis than his right hand. Foreman had a very strong stiff jab and was very active with it, Lewis would have to time his right hand over Foreman's jab and get respect from Big George. To stop him coming forward and ram rodding that jab out.

 

No Lewis was supposed to defend his title against Ruiz, after he beat Holyfield the 2nd time. Lewis decided to vacate the WBA title ? rather than fight Ruiz. That's why Holyfield/Ruiz fought for the vacated WBA belt. The Roy Jones fight wasn't until 2003 a whole 3 years after.

Again i'm not suggesting Lewis was a coward or ducked anyone, he fought pretty much everyone during 90s. I just think Ruiz may of posed more problems than people think.

 

I appreciate you weren't picking Ruiz to beat Lewis, just speculating he may have had a style advantage based on what you've heard about their sparring.

I don't know anything about their sparring, but having watched every minute of Lewis's career and a bit of Ruiz, I think the style match up favoured Lennox. Fighters broadly as good as Ruiz could have given Lewis trouble & some would have a punchers chance, but I think Lewis vs Ruiz would have been a very 1-sided fight.

To trouble Lewis you either - 1) Needed an excellent jab, to offset arguably his biggest asset. e.g. Bruno & Mercer; 2) Needed be really fast, e.g. Briggs; or 3) Needed to have 1-punch power. e.g. McCall & Rahman.

None of those things applied to Ruiz. His jab wouldn't have troubled Lewis from the outside, he wasn't fast enough to consistently slip Lennox's jab and on the odd occasion he did get into range, he'd - 1) Have paid a heavy price for getting there; and 2) Not be a 1-punch KO threat. A prime Lewis is about as bad a style match up for Ruiz as exists.

Ruiz had slower hands & was more durable than Botha, but aside from that, Botha is the Lewis opponent who I think most resembles Ruiz in terms of physical attributes & general level.

 

Foreman's reach us all over the place. Sometimes it's listed as 80' or even 82. Lewis had longer arms but he tended to paw with his jab and kept it low. Foreman fired his like a straight battering ram.

 

This fight is before Steward trained him.

Old Foreman definitely had the better jab than young Foreman. Young Foreman might have had more raw power and aggression but Foreman himself said he hadn't masters the jab and threw it more consistently until he got older. Young Foreman neglected it sometimes.

As for reach, as I said his reach has been listed differently in different fights. Going off the eye test is foolish because of camera angles and lighting.

 

A younger Lewis gets creamed