Can you name Lennox Lewis' best win ?

An ATG is when you have a legacy defining fight regardless of your record and level of dominance so true

 

He needed to fight his brother but obviously that could never happen and that's why the era was pretty mehh.

I've often slated some of the Heavyweights now but in recent times the division has started to come together and it is at a very exciting time now.

Just remember how lackluster the era was with fighters like Ruiz as champion and Wladimir dominating with his boring style.

 

Yeah, I agree that his legacy kind of sucks. He has a paltry list of wins. But he looked ****ing awesome in a lot of fights. I can only say a lot of guys sucked on paper from that era, pretty much only Wlad was able to put it together--there were so many weak top 10 guys. I think for me, Vitali gets a ton of respect for coming back post prime and the division still hadn't caught up at all.

It depends on how much credit you give fighters for close losses with other great fighters. Chris Byrd is no slouch and fits right into the Conn/Tunney mold that people are fascinated with on Classic. Lennox is a top 5-er in the majority of lists. All time great to me means combining the resume, the fighter in the ring/on film, and the physical/mental specifications the fighter carried with him. In two of these three regards, Vitali is elite. If it is only the big wins, Vitali lacks a lot. But it's hard to identify a big win he is "lacking" It isn't a RJJ Dariusz type thing. I don't think Povetkin/Haye/Thompson would have beat him, nor really added much to his legacy had Vitali won.

 

He lost on a cut to Lewis while ahead, and was outpointing Byrd before he tore his rotator cuff.
Beat Corrie Sanders, Herbie Hide, Juan Carlos Gomez, Sam Peter, Derek Chisora...
He beat everyone he fought unless he had an injury, and he only can be downplayed due to his two losses with odd circumstances, and reigning over a weak era. Which again, neither of those things are his fault.

 

If you think about it his best wins were against the fighters fans thought would beat him
Ruddock, Golota, Rahman II etc He destroyed all 3 of them. Plus the King orchestrated "draw" against Holyfield 1 was criminal. He would have beaten Bowe if Newman & Papa Smurf had dared let Bowe fight him

 

This is it for me. Would add his absolute destruction of Golata just for the pure animalistic way it was done. Not the next best name but love the win

 

He still lost those fights though and a 38 year old inactive overweight Sanders, Hide, Gomez, Peter, 13 loses Chisora, are not exactly names that make you an ATG.

I'm not saying it's his fault he reigned over a weak era but again he simply doesn't have the resume to back up his credentials. And as i said his two notable losses against his best two opponents he fought also hurt his legacy somewhat.

If you want to rate him highly based on H2H ability then that's up to and i can see a case for that even if he has a weak resume. But i don't see a strong argument for him being classed as an ATG his resume is far too forgettable for that IMO.

 

I'll agree with you, then. In all fairness, if we scrap the Lewis and Byrd fights completely from his resume, then he isn't worth much. As good as he did in that era, his great performances in eventual losses show the most from him. Though this is less Vitali issue, and more of an issue of when he came in.
If I gotta make a fighter an ATG through what ifs, then it ain't fully deserved.

 

Spot on i agree with you the problem is Vitali doesn't have any stand out legacy defining fights, and that's what truly hurts him aswell as losing to his two most notable opponents even if they were due to injuries.

I will give Vitali credit i think with his durability and size he would be problematic for quite alot of Heavyweights who are rated as ATG's. But then again as you alluded to it's still a "what if" because we haven't actually got any evidence of Vitali beating a real upper echelon fighter so it's all assumptions.

 

Some here I have seen say he has the greatest résumé of any Heavyweight who ever lived, while others have him top-3 of all-time & pick him to beat prime Foreman or even Ali.

These are better victories than any in his actual career. But he’s still not as over-rated as Doctor Robotic is finding himself in this thread.

 

Vitali Klitscko imo

 

Vitali easily.

Not just because Vits was that good, but because it was the last fight of his career against a younger opponent in a fight that he was getting battered in. Lewis really dug deep and managed to turn it around.

 

Lewis might have been losing but he wasn't getting battered lol.