were lennox lewis losses flukes ?

If a puncher is big enough to crack your less than iron chin, and he does, then thats not a fluke. Thays what he intended to do when throwing a full power bomb at your chin.
A fluke would be breaking your ankle on the ring walk or breaking your hand on the guys elbow and losing a decision. Or dislocating your shoulder.

But a bad day at the office? sure.
But McCall amd Rahman were the better fighters on that particular day even if they would lose 9/10 times

 

Both Lennox losses were really his own fault. He did not consider either McCall or Rahman as a danger. To him McCall was a sparring partner. WRONG!! Lennox was making the movie Oceans Eleven with Clooney & Pitt when he should have been training hard He was even late getting to S Africa & didn't have chance to really acclimatize . He paid the price for both. Oliver McCall should never have been in the ring for the rematch . As for Rahman the bad blood between him & Lennox came to a head. That KO was PERFECT!! Rahman's head was fitted in the crown of the King Logo on the canvas perfectly Rahman was out cold.
Now I'm a big Lennox fan but neither of those losses weren't kosher. Both took advantage of Lennox lack of focus & KO'd him. All credit to them. Without them Lennox would have retired undefeated.
Another plus in Lennox favour, he is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet out of the ring LOL

 

I don't believe there are flukes in boxing. If you are good enough on the day you will win.

Nor is there any such thing as a "lucky punch." No punch is lucky.

These are just excuses to make people feel better about their heroes.

 

No, not flukes. Undeveloped technically against McCall, unprepared against Rahman.

 

They really were Flukes in the sense they only landed because of defensive lapses from Lennox and were very unlikely.

 

Not flukes:
Rahman - Lewis arrived late to Africa because he was filming Ocean's 11. So, unclimatized he gassed early.
McCall - Just freakin' caught him. A bad nanosecond. And Lewis was ready to fight again a second after they called it off.
Lennox would have beat either guy 99 out of 100. Crap happens.

 

Defensive lapses are part and parcel of this game though. A perfect defensive fighter would never lose because they'd never get hit.

Therefore the other guy taking advantage of defensive lapses is not a fluke, it is literally what they are there to do.

 

No, Lewis fought in a tough era, and boxers taking losses is what happens when they fight a variety of opponents two to three times a year, especially as a champion. He put them right in the rematch. Maybe he comes in better prepared on a different day and wins those fights. Maybe he has his off night against a different opponent and loses another.

 

It's funny when people think Wilder wouldn't have a great chance of catching him. AJ perhaps even more so. Wlad obviously.
So McCall and Rahman blast him out. Briggs almost does. But Wilder and AJ have no chance!
Lewis had serious flaws!

 

Lewis's arrogance cost him vs Rahman. Idiocy. But it happens.


In Australia, the commentator was South African. His words '' I think he's out '' 3 seconds after Lewis got counted out. ****ing idiot.

 

McCall was an outright screwjob.

 

Well that depends on what you mean by great chance. He fought about 20 big punchers in his career and lost 2x. So they would have a fairly slim chance imo. Those 3 were also KOed by lesser hitters than Rahman and McCall

 

This.

 

I find it funny how people make excuses for Lewis in his first fight against McCall but fail to realize that McCall was not mentally fit to even go on with the rematch, he was a full blown drug addict at the time and should of been in rehab rather than in a boxing ring. He was arrested and caught with crack cocaine multiple times leading up to the fight and was distributing extremely odd behavior. How Lewis even gets credit for that win is an extreme mystery to me. McCall was so drugged up and mentally unfit that he even let Lewis hit him at will, he barely threw a punch and randomly started crying when Mills Lane was trying to take him back to his corner.