2003 Lewis vs 2003 Wlad

It's absurd to think that an older, more worn, possibly complacent version of a guy who got destroyed by Hasim Rahman would not run a high risk of being KO'd by a Wladimir Klitschko.

Perhaps you know better than Emmanuel Steward and it's an easy fight with minimal risk for the iron-chinned Lewis, whose disadvantages in speed, power, intelligence and elite SHW experience relative to Wlad were irrelevant.

It's easy to say "early KO" and "no chance of x happening" on a forum but in the real world Wlad would have been given a 30%-40% chance. Maybe it's higher or lower but a prime Lewis who had to defend against Wlad clones one after another would not rack up many (and possibly not any) defences before being starched.

 

2001 Lewis had Emmanuel Steward as his longtime trainer and his glass chin got smashed by a 20/1 underdog fringe contender with a fraction of Wlad's talent.

Voting is largely a popularity contest, people aren't penalised for giving stupid answers. Prior to the Arreola fight Ruiz was massively favoured to beat Wilder for example, which is not the case at all now. Pretty much every Wlad contender of note was favoured to beat Wilder by this forum. And it's not even stupid to favour Lewis in this matchup because he was more experienced in big fights, more versatile and also carried big power. Everyone who thinks it's a 51-49 fight for Lewis (for example) would vote Lewis, so the all or nothing voting system doesn't accurately represent the probability that voters have in their own minds.

 

"who would be very switched on for this fight"

Yet you assume that the Wlad who fought Sanders would show up, rather than the Wlad who fought Mercer (out to get one over on Lewis, not looking past the opponent).

20% is not realistic, casinos would have been mad to give away 4/1 odds on a 16 win streak, 93% KO ratio heir apparent who was significantly more athletic, powerful, offensively skilled and more experienced against SHW's than his brother, as well as more athletic, more powerful, smarter and vastly more experienced vs elite SHW's than Lewis, who was susceptible to being one-punch KO'd by smaller, less athletic, lesser punchers. It would have been a massive step into the unknown for both men and had Lewis been hit with the shots he took from Vitali in the first 2 rounds, he'd have been out.

 

"Did Tyson have a glass chin?"

Tyson didn't get one-shotted early by Douglas, as Lewis did vs McCall and Rahman. He was battered him pillar to post in his first four losses.

"These things happen in big heavyweight fights."

To my knowledge no reigning champion in any weight class has been one-punch KO'd twice, except Lewis. Correct me if I'm wrong.