Lennox Lewis' best win...

Ability and dominance in his weight.

Who he fought.

When he fought them.

How he would do in other eras.

That's the criteria i use when ranking fighters and LL ranks pretty high in all areas.

 

Whereas Marciano........;O)

 

marciano is a difficult one for sure...but...he was an incredibly conditioned fighter...and he always found a way, incredible will to win...for sure he was, as larry holmes memorably said, a young guy beating old guys, but i think his attributes make him a hard nights work for many....

as for putting dempsey in my top ten..well, again, a tiny heavyweight by todays standards, and yup, he drew the infamous 'colour line' and he was even relativey innactive.....but for me the jorrendous beating he put on the giant jess willard, and his incredible performance against luis firpo and the fact he competed so well against tunney in the second fight puts him up there..he was a ferocious, stalking fighter who, as tyson quoted, fought like he hadnt eaten in a week....of his time he was percieved as unbeatable

for me lewis resume is one of the finest around, but as someone said about holyfield's being based on a victory over a past prime tyson..( i think holyfield would have beaten ANY version of tyson, but thats another argument for another day...), so its hard to judge lewis...there may even be an argument that the most dangerous 'peak' heavyweight he beat was in fact bruno!!!!

that said, he fought, and beat a tremendous list of competitors, his reume is very consistent as in he wasnt beating up old men and exhumed cadavers as some hw's pack their records with....he fought live if occasionslly outgunned opponents and i dont buy this 'bad chin' nonsense....for a guy with a bad chin he fought, and beat some big bangers...ruddock, mercer, bruno, morrison, briggs, grant, vitali, mason to name a few....

my problem with listing lewis over holyfield is that i always felt holyfield was the greater FIGHTER..because he had been in so many wars...he alwasy overcame his physical disadvantages, his lack of firepower, he always seemed to be able to gut it out, inspire himself to victory...and although ll only has those to blemishes on his record, he did have a tendency to go to sleep in fights..in short, my ratings are, bound to be, jaundiced by my tastes in fighters....and i could watch holy fight all day every day....whereas lewis sometinmes bored me....

 

Holyfield had an amazing chin and will to win but dont overlook the fact he came off 2nd best against both Bowe and Lewis.

0-2 vs Lewis (in most ppls eyes)
1-2 vs Bowe
1-1 vs Moorer
2-0 vs Tyson (weight trained) I think if they had met in 1990 Tyson would hav slipped more punches and had the gas tank to win a UD.

Holyfield wasnt dominant enough for me to rank him above Lewis.

 

as i said earlier, tyson, holy and lewis all swap places in my list occasionally depending on how kindly disposed im feeling towards them at the time, so you wont get much argument from me with regards your points mate....

lewis certainly was a much more dominant type of fighter, its just that one career defining victory that is lacking...yet, that isnt lewis fault, is it??....i think the three bowe fights are possible holys career defining fights more so than the tyson contests.

as for tyson beating him had they met earlier...i dunno...i just think holys heart, chin and workrate would always have troubled tyson..that and his defiant refusal to be intimidated....its a shame because had tyson and holy fought earlier it would have been one of THE greatest fights of our time i reckon....

as for bowe, on his night he was incredible..im a big bowe fan..yet you cant rank bowe as highly as the other three ninites icons because of his glaring inconsistencys and indiscipline outside the ring...his light shone incredibly brightly for me but for way to short a time....and i think he would have beaten lewis in the pros.....cat..pigeons???

 

dealgood

Nice ref' to Darcy as well Got me on side there :good

 

I was pissed last night and watching some old clips, Darcy was one of them. I also laid into the Chincheckers over Marvin Johnson in The Lounge...

 

He could take an absolute shellacking. Also fought in arguably the greatest era for light heavyweight ever, featuring some very, very dangerous customers.

I mean, Pascal, Dawson and this B-Hop would do well to last a combined 12 rounds with that Saad Muhammad IMO.

What footage of Les is there Gaz?

 

Johnson has a "glass jaw" apparently because of the number of times he was KO'd...atsch

I have clips of Darcy-McGortey and Darcy-Chip but I've no idea how much more (if any!) stuff is out there. I can put them on YouTube later tonight if you are interested?

 

If you can do so without getting into trouble it'd be very much appreciated, as I'm sure you can imagine :good

Seeing some Chip, who Greb fought (actually suffered his first loss to Chips lesser Brother!) would help me out a lot as well.

Cheers mush :good

 

Its not Lewis's fault that Bowe refused to fight him but his loss to McCall in 94 dashed his hopes of facing Holyfield or Tyson in the mid 90s.

Yeah its a shame Tyson Holyfield didnt happen in 1990 it would hav been awesome back and forth fight.

The early 90s Lewis could very well have lost to Bowe..who knows. Too bad Bowe was a fat slob outside the ring...amazing how a fighter can look so incredible winning the title in 1992 and be shot to pieces 4 years later.

 

Why? That was a great win that is better than people appreciated at the time. Vitali must be around 10-20 on the ATG heavyweight ranks, he was in his prime, and an ageing Lewis stopped him inside the distance in his last fight. Seeing how the K brothers have dominated the heavyweights since then, it's a very rare case of a champion bowing out by beating the next in line to the throne.

 

Vitali hasn't dominated anyone good, ever.

He's just living off his brother's name beating bums..... whereas Wlad is fighting all the best guys.

He's probably between 30-50 on my list, he's nothing compared to Lewis, Tyson, Holyfield or Bowe - who would absolutely wreck him btw.

 

Bowe is an awful, awful matchup for both Klits, worse than Lewis IMO because of the fact that Bowe was the superior inside fighter.

If the Klits tried to grab hold of him to keep it at their pace, his strength and uppercuts on the inside would probably see him score genuine K.Os of both of them.

Biggest waste of talent ever was Bowe. When he was really on it (Holyfield 1) he was a specimen, and looked to have all the attributes required to be a great.

Binging, concentration and odd spur of the moment choices saw him decline badly. The Bowe of the first fight with Evander would tear Golota a new arsehole :yep Although I do think Golotas mental problems hampered him, Bowe is not a complete shell in both of their fights, but Golita jab, combos and toughness ruined him.

Golota looked a World beater against arguably the best Heavy of the last few years, and Lennox wiped him out. As I said earlier, Lennoxs best win IMO, amongst a wide range of quality victories against top opposition.

He is my number 3 :happy

 

Yeah Vitali just deals with the bums that knock out Wlad. Remember Puritty and Sanders lol.