Can you name Lennox Lewis' best win ?

His best win, disregarding performance, has to be either of the Holyfield wins (he clearly won their first contest) or Vitali.

His best performance was either Ruddock, Morrison, Golota or Tua, depending on what you prefer.

Botha wasn't quite on their level, but Lewis looked so superior that night. It looked a completely unfair mismatch against a borderline top 10 opponent.

 

Prime Holmes would smoke Lewis in 12 rounds, but if that went 15 rnds, it would be very sad beating.

 

You have to be kidding yourself if you can actively watch the early 90s fights from Mercer and say that he's the same fighter there as he was against Lewis and Holyfield, let alone better when he got outworked by Francesco ****ing Damiani.

 

Likely not as in dominant a fashion but he'd probably take the decision. McCall worked better than '92 Mercer.

 

Yes he was better, because age caught him.
You mentioned Francesco but what about knocking out Morrison and beating Bert Cooper?

 

Hey, his five best are:

Sanders
Peter
Briggs
Hide
Gomez


and that adds up to...oh yeah. Right. I'll just shut up now.

 

Pretty much it. He really showed up against big, dangerous punchers like Ruddock, Golota, Morrison, Grant. Under Manny, he knew how to leverage his relative advantage over his opponent. In that regard, he was more multi-dimensional Wlad. Truly a head to head nightmare for the history of the division.

 

Right..although in hindsight, people can say Ruddock's prime was beaten by Tyson before he fought Lewis and they would be right about it because I mean Ruddock sustained several injuries during these two fights.

Like when they say Wilfredo Gomez's prime was beaten away by Salvador Sanchez and they are right but he still went and beat Lupe Pintor and Juan Laporte and, controversially, Rocky Lockridge. It was a bit harder for sure to win all those fights (and in Pintor and Lockridge's a lot harder-the controversial nature of the decision against Lockridge notwithstanding) Had Salvador Sanchez not beaten Gomez like that, he'd beaten Pintor between 6 to 8 rounds, Laporte still by decision but much easier, and Lockridge in 14.

Still, the Ruddock win opened my eyes up. Whats funny is I later read on Ring Magazine and the like how Lewis style was horrible and how he was a bad champion and I remember thinking is this because he a non-American heavyweight champion maybe? Like are the staff of these magazines discriminating?

he then lost to Oliver McCall of curse, which proved he had an opening in his style, a way to be beaten. But he later learned from that and became a monster of a champion. Top ten Heavyweight champion, easily. Maybe not in Ali, Louis, Marciano and Holmes' category but then again neither are most of the 110 or so other champs who come after those two lol...

Lewis to me is more in the secondary division that includes him, Joe Frazier, James Jeffries, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Sonny,Floyd, Bob Fitzsimmons, et al.

Under Ali, Marciano, Holmes and Louis but above Tommy Burns and Gene Tunney. the issue with Tunney is mostly his lack of longetivity as champion in the division.

Lewis is definitely over Anthony Joshua, Sam Peter, Michael Dokes, Charles Martin and those others.

 

Tua for me. Tua was the most dangerous contender in the world with an iron jaw and a dynamite left hook. And he was in his physical prime. Not Lewis's fault that Tua weighed 240 lbs in that fight. I thought Lewis's footwork, jab and right hand were at their best. He showed he could box for 12 rounds vs a prime opponent and still maintain a decent work rate.

I will take Tua to beat Ruddock, 93 Tucker, Morrison, Bruno and yes, 99 Holyfield. I will put him 50-50 vs 1996 Mercer. I also favour Tua to blast out Golota, Briggs, and most of Lewis's other opponents except Vitali.

 

Mercer always had the power of a bull, but him knocking out Morrison once he started to gas out is more evidence that he just wasn't truly up to par early on in the 90s, he won many a fight off of pure strength alone. And as for Cooper, it was probably his best early 90s performance, but it still isn't quite the feat you may think it to be.
Had him down in the first off of a great right hand, and was able to bully him for most of the rest of the fight, but you gotta take into consideration that most dudes who could stand up to Cooper or outwork him would win quite easily. An old Mike Weaver was able to win a decision over him in 93.
As notable as Cooper was, he was quite technically limited, and for him to be decisioned by an old ex champion who frequently got knocked out says a lot about how he was.

 

Probably the Rahman rematch.