Lennox Lewis championship run

WBA Regular belt? WTF are you talking about? Lennox Lewis didn't make up the WBA Regular belt. Pretty sure the WBA did.

 

I know.

 

I don’t base my views on fighters on Ring rankings—I go by what I see in the ring. And based on that, Lewis beat all the best fighters available to him.

• Holyfield was an ATG who hadn’t lost in four years and had strong wins over Moorer and Tyson before facing Lewis—and then lost twice.
  
  
• Tyson, while not in his prime, was still a dangerous fighter on a five-fight knockout streak. Comparing that to Paul fighting an old man is disingenuous.
  
  
• Rahman was a solid contender who knocked Lewis out and went on to have a respectable career.
  
  
• Vitali became a future champion and one of the best heavyweights of his era.
  
  
• Tua was a dangerous contender, and Lewis shut him down with ease.
  

I don’t see how you can call these opponents ‘exposed.’ They were all legitimate, high-level fighters, and among heavyweight champions, Lewis faced some of the strongest competition.

 

Funny how earlier you excused Lewis for not fighting Ruiz but now claim that Tyson and Holyfield avoided him.

1) Team Tyson made various offers to team Lewis throughout 1996.
At one point, Don King offered him 10 million (or 13,5 million according to some sources) to fight on the original Seldon date. It would have been at this point Lewis highest purse. Lewis refused the fight and took the step-aside money instead.
And Tyson didn't vacate his WBC title to fight Seldon : the belt was simply not a stake but Tyson was still the official WBC champion.
When an agreement couldn't yet be reached in September, Tyson vacated the belt.
A move that was seen favourably by Lewis' handlers by the way.

2) The only time Holyfield could have fought Lewis was when he regained the title against Bowe. But the IBF ordered him to face Moorer, their mandatory. Hardly Evander's fault here.

You criticize Evander (who had just lost an epic rubber match against Bowe) for fighting Czyz instead of Lewis/Mercer/Witherspoon/Gonzalez, but omitted that he beat Mercer more convincingly than Lewis, knocked him down in the process. What would have been the point of rematching him ? The irony is that Lewis never rematched someone he beat closely.

 

I had the feeling that he was implying that (he clearly said that "Tyson avoided his challenger") but I might be wrong.

 

Just letting you know I made the top 40 in 1935-1945 thread the other day if you want to see it. I made it and no one responded. I listed nearly 100 fighters most of whom have a case to be top 40.

Lennox did not beat all the top fighters of his era but he beat more than anyone else did. When Bowes 2-1,Holyfields 5-4-1, Foremans 1-1, Moorers 1-2 and Tysons 0-3 being 2-0-1 will work. Especially when he also beat most of the non top 5 top 20 and probably has more such wins then everyone listed above if we don't count Tyson and Foremans first careers.

But besides Holmes the missing top 5 names sticks out when comparing Lennox to any long tenured HW champ. If someone considers Holyfield and Tyson 2 and 3 maybe less so but I have them as the bottom 2 of the 5 names listed above. So I see Lennox as one who didn't fight any of the top 3 but almost swept the other 17/20.

 

I didn't see it tbh I'll check it out

It really should’ve been 3-0 against Holyfield, and the Vitali win deserves more credit—it was a win over a future champion and one of the best heavyweights of the next era. Plus, Lewis didn’t just beat the biggest names; he also dominated a deep roster of strong contenders. His résumé holds up as one of the best in heavyweight history.

 

Cool.

I agree with the 3-0. Doesn't change the larger point. Nor does adding Vitali because he also beat no one of that caliber though some put Byrd in that space. Vitali proved he was elite and nothing else really. Lennox also didn't fight young Wladimir who he could have fought though he had no idea how important that would have been like Tunney v Schmeling.

And yes Lennox did beat a strong roster which I acknowledged. Its kind of an inverted version of Usyks resume. I don't think Dubois, Fury and AJ are the top 3 but if they are he has the top 3 and almost nothing else while Lennox is missing the top 3(IMO) and has everything else. Out of a top 5-30 HWs of his reign guys Lennox didn't fight are young Wladimir, Byrd, Ruiz, Seldon, Ibeauchi. Savarese maybe?

As a kid I had Lennox as GOAT so I'm more inclined to view his resume negative cause I'm backing up from where I started. While people who didn't rank him that high in the 90s are going to be going forward cause he was better than their first impression.

 

I get where you're coming from, but to be honest, no other heavyweight besides Ali and Louis has a reign or résumé that stands up to Lennox.

• Holmes had a strong reign, but he fought many contenders in close fights and actively avoided several top fighters in his prime. He didn’t face the same level of competition in their primes.
  
  
• Wladimir doesn’t have the same caliber of wins. He had a long reign, but it was built on a lot of defenses against contenders who weren’t on the same level as Lennox’s competition.
  
  
• Holyfield had some great wins, but he didn’t have the same consistency over the long run. His losses and the decline in his later years hurt his standing compared to Lennox, who was still fighting at the top level at the tail end of his career.
  
  
• Tyson’s reign was impressive early on, but his longevity and reign were much shorter. His loss to Buster Douglas take away from the overall impact of his career.
  

Lennox might have missed a few names, but he fought almost every top fighter of his era and dominated. You can’t overlook the level of competition he faced, nor his ability to adapt and beat everyone who came his way.

 

Hmm, well, buddy, maybe you're a bad mix or arrogant and ignorant.

Why would you expect it to have happened during his career? Where did you get that from? Why isn't it a silly thing to assume?

If you didn't know that, maybe, just saying possibly, it's time to stfu and learn something instead of copy/pasting wiki at someone who clearly knows more about the topic.

Finally, here the old WBA website with the old WBA official statement of the creation of Super/Regular:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080222175427/http://www.wbaonline.com/wchampionships/SuperChmpnsip.htm

 

WBA SUPER CHAMPIONSHIPS

DEFINITION

The SUPER WORLD CHAMPION CATEGORY OR UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION was created for those World Champions who hold the title of two or more organizations recognized by the WBA, like the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

The creation of the category of SUPER WORLD CHAMPIONS or UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPIONS was born from a suggestion sent to us by Lennox Lewis, World Boxing Association former Heavyweight Champion, which we have considered convenient in order to give the Unified Champions a more flexible time to defend their titles as well as the challengers the chance to fight for the title.

PROPOSED REGULATION

We are still working to set the regulation that shall rule the SUPER WORLD CHAMPIONS, and we have considered it convenient to establish the following:

The SUPER CHAMPIONS will be obliged to make the mandatory defense of their titles in a period no longer than 18 months against the boxer recognized as the World Boxing Association Champion of the corresponding division.
In the intermediate period between the mandatory defenses, the UNDISPUTED SUPER CHAMPION will be able to defend his title against any recognized opponent chosen from the official ratings list of the WBA or from the organizations it recognizes and with the approval of those organizations.
The WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO will coordinate whenever necessary their respective ratings, to minimize any incompatibility in them for the Unified Titles, thus easing the optional fights of the UNIFIED SUPER CHAMPIONS.
In those cases of controversies that make difficult the selection of the mandatory contender to fight with the SUPER CHAMPION, the organizations will be able to order mandatory fights (Box-off suggested by Lennox Lewis) to determine the mandatory contender –previously agreed-. In those cases when they do not reach an agreement to make the mandatory fight as it is stated in point ‘a’ and ‘b’ previously stated in this provisional regulation, the Purse Bid Procedure will be ordered.





But how'd he do dat doe being retired doe?