Lennox Lewis; Greatest Heavyweight of all time?

If you're talking about Lewis's legacy, those 2 losses do hurt him when judging him at the very highest level. If you're talking about H2H ability and his ability to beat other ATGs then they don't matter one little bit at all. Unless of course Lewis plans to fight Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Marciano, Louis etc and a) step into another guy's delivered punch with his eyes closed whilst throwing his own or b) plan to fight them at altitude and fly in a few days before the fight.

The thing about Lewis's losses, which not too many other fighters can say, is that they were more about what Lewis didn't do rather than what the other guy did. The fact he beat both handily in the rematch speaks volumes and in the case of Rahman, didn't just beat him, dominated him and knocked him out with a perfect left-right combination.

 

Lewis is the GOAT. Lewis showed his true self in both rematches. Lewis beat the game in the end too, the game didn't beat him. Lewis was smarter than ALi, Louis, etc. He left the game on his terms, when he was still on top, with his health and wealth intact. Lewis physically was too big and too smart for anyone, when he was at his best. Lewis's style was smarter than Ali's, he was too smart to sit there and take beatings. Lewis would control range on Ali and Ali would be the one forced to take risks. Lewis at his best, would defeat any version of Ali. Lennox Lewis is the greatest of all time.

But both Klitschko's are making a case to join him on that pantheon.

 

Bruno won a few rounds against him??? He was knocking him from pillar to post. Lewis was lucky to land that leaping punch he threw with his eyes closed. What about the Mercer fight??? Loss!! Rahman, Mcall, all second tier fighters. Lewis was not a consistent fighter early on, he was clumbsy, sloppy, and he was lost on the inside.
Douglas was leagues better than any of them, and Tyson lost to one guy in his prime. Even if it was the best prepared version of Tyson that fought Douglas, it would still be acceptable in my opinion. The fact of the matter as much as you may hate Tyson, is that he wasnt prepared for that fight.
You want to call the fights with Akinwande Grant and Bruno good infighting skills? Thats just pure comedy. To me, especially in the Bruno fight, that was some of the most blatant cheating I have ever seen, and he should have been suspended for the way he held Bruno's head up with his left hand and landed the right uppercut.
Funny how Emanuel Steward trained Mcall for the Lewis fight, and knew exactly what to do to beat Lewis, because he knew he had a lot of flaws at that time. Flaws that a well trained Bowe would have easily been able to take advantage of as well. I dont want to get into the politics of boxing contracts that may have prevented fights (Lewis dumping his title to avoid Byrd), the fact is that Bowe was a much improved fighter when he became pro. Just like Lewis improved under Steward tremendously.
Lewis would have been killed by Bowe had they fought after the Dokes fight. Wait your going to tell me he crushed Ruddock right? Ruddock was brutalized by Tyson in two susequent fights, and went on to get smashed by the great Tommy Morrison.
Lewis cemented his legacy starting with a shot Razor Ruddock, and topping it off with washed up guys like Holyfield, and Tyson and didnt look all that great doing it. He dominated a slew of barely contenders, guys that in my opinion would have been outclassed overall by the contenders of the 80's.
To Lewis credit, I do believe he would have been a lot more competitive had he fought those guys after hitting his prime under Emanuel Steward, but I still would have picked a prime Bowe and prime Tyson to beat him handidly. Those two had the ability to make Lewis fight a fight he was not capable of handeling, unlike all of the contenders of the 90's. Besides Mercer in 95, who many people felt beat him, and didnt punch nearly as hard as Tyson or Bowe, no other fighter was able to put Lewis in a real fire fight to expose his biggest flaw.

 

As the other posters have said.

No G.O.A.T. loses not once, but twice to two c-list fighters at his prime or close to it while world champion by one shot.

 

He makes my top 10 ,but not top 5 ,having said that I find it hard to pick many champs to beat him h2h.I didnt particularly care for his style, but he was undeniably effective, and ducked no one.

 

Lennox is a great champ but not the greatest ever.Others have achived more.Im not a massive fan of Ali`s fights but he did fight and beat pretty much everyone around as did Louis.

 

No he is not the greatest ever or close, but he is in the top 10. He was benefitted from being the first big heavyweight champ who was good. He is good and his right is great, but not close. His foot positioning is terrible. Foreman saying he is great didn't mean anything. Anyone who heard George on HBO knew that most of the things he said as a boxing commentator were ridiculous.

 

We should value your opinion about Lewis over Foreman's??? Actually Vitali called Lewis the greatest ever also but he worded it as strongest, but meaning greatest.

Lewis was the greatest, maybe not the most colorful or charismatic or the most popular in the US but he was the greatest to ever lace em up. And he had more class, never had to call opponents classless names as Ali did to Frazier and others. Lewis brought class honor and dignity to HWT boxing, the ultimate class champion in and out of the ring.

 

Class has nothing to do with ranking him as the greatest. So if Vitali called Lewis the greatest, that should mean he is??
Again the fact that Lewis was knocked out twice, not once, twice by second tier heavyweights, got a gift win over Ray Mercer, another second tier heavyweight, shows he wasnt even close to being the greatest to ever lace them up.

 

How is Ali consdiered the greatest when he got his jaw broke by a mediocre puncher Norton, got gift wins over Doug Jones and Jimmy Young, looked like a zombie vs. Holmes, and had to have his trainer cheat to beat Henry Cooper?

You have to look at Ali and Lewis at their best, not their worst. And Lewis at his best has more than enough to outjab and control the range on Ali, forcing Ali to be the one to take risks and force his way in, take him out of his comfort zone, which we never saw Ali have to do.

Lewis was smarter, bigger, stronger, and had more class than Ali. Smarter in the sense that he knew when to get out and his fighting style was smarter in that he didn't just sit on the ropes and absorb punishment. Ali was great no doubt, but a bigger better more superior fighting machine came along.

And eventually another will naturally evolve that will outdo Lewis. Perhaps it's the Klitschkos.

It's silly to believe that ALi is the end all be all of great HWT champs, he's just a link in the chain.

 

You're super ****ing wrong about most of the things you just said.

 

That's probably what Ernie Terrell thought about himself before getting schooled and nearly shut out over 15 rounds.

Yes, but he was neither faster or tougher. Speed and endurance kills.

Neither did Ali during the 1960s.

Yeah, that bigger and better superior fighting machine was named Foreman. Oh, wait.....

 

Foreman was an arm puncher. big and strong but always susceptible to being outboxed by boxing skills.

you have 30 years of media conditioning to program the idea Ali was the greatest HWT fighter ever. through TV, film, media, print media. ALi ALi ALi. Yes he was great. Yes he was once the greatest. But he was surpassed, boxing past him by. But if you want to beleive Ali was and always will be the greatest, always your special champion and inspiration, nothing wrong with that.

 

So his uppercut was the product of an "arm puncher"?