@Classics. If Lennox Lewis never losted. Can he be considered top 3 ATG HW?

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Gestapo[/ame]


I have it on DVD.

It's a great film ....




(.... in the same sense that Chuck Wepner was a "great" fighter. )

 

It's probably one of the best in the Nazi-Blaxploitation genre, anyway. :yep

Not that I'm an expert particular genre.

(tbh, I don't think Nazis and Gestapo are even mentioned in the actual film. Which is a bit lame. It's about time Tarantino did a remake.)

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJEnXtHa2I[/ame]

 

I have lewis around 8-10 on my list & I don`t rank fighters with dodgy footage like Dempsey or Johnson... maybe if we had good footage of those guys Lennox might not even make my top 10, who knows.

All I know is that Ali & Louis are the set no1 & no2 HWs & Lewis doesn`t come near them on career OR skills/ability.

 

If he didn't lost to McCall and Rahman, he'd be a sure top 3. Some people would rank him over Louis, but most wouldn't in my opinion. Why ? Because there is not much to say about Lewis and as stupid as it sounds, it is an important criteria that is overlooked when ranking boxers.

Why do we put so much emphasis on boxers who won titles in many weight classes ? It's a great story similar to David vs Goliath. Guys like Tunney and Holyfield benefits from this.

Ali had a great story of a career. He won the title in a huge upset over an ATG, lost 3 years of his prime because of the draft, came back to lose against Frazier, won the title back in another upset of Foreman and manage to get his revenge over Frazier. Great career. Louis had a neverending reign and his two fights against the german Schmelling made for a great story. Would it be as meaningful if their fights didn't happened just a few years before WWII ? You can't deny that what happens outside the ring greatly influence a boxers career.

What can we say about Lewis ? I don't think I've ever woke up, wanting to watch an old Lewis fight or wanting to read some stories about him. One of the reasons to that, in my opinion, is that two of his best victories were wrongfully tarnished. He totally dominated Holyfield in their first fight... not a prime Evander, but one that was in great shape. It wasn't a draw by any means, but many people who haven't seen the fight believe because of this fight that Holyfield was on the same level as Lewis. He wasn't, in my opinion. I think that people are often giving too much credit for Holyfield, because he's a small HW. I think that Holyfield was a huge CW, because of how muscular he was, and an average sized HW. He's about as big as Joe Louis and David Haye (a guy who's building his career on looking smaller than he really is). Anyway, I believe their first fight was a dominant win who should be viewed as a great win.

Then, there is the Klitschko fight. It is stupid to talk about the fact he lost 2 or 3 rounds in a fight that lasted not so long. Lewis caught him cleanly and opened a huge cut. The stoppage was good, end of story. Lewis looked out of shape in that fight and manage to get his biggest victory over a young and great boxer in his prime. This is a great victory that is too often discredited... the fact he didn't offer Vitali a 2nd fight sure didn't help.

Sorry for the long post, but that's how I view Lewis. A fighter without much to talk about and who's biggest victories have been tarnished. If you count those two victories out, what's left ? Tyson was old, Golota was crazy and came to lose, Tua had the worst possible style for Lewis. Guys like Bruno, McCall, Rahman and Grant nicely fills his records, tough.

 

In which case I'll need to see the rest of your top ten please. Lennox faced more punchers than any champ' I can think of (bar Ali) sender both of his defeats and bar Bowe (binned his belt) Byrd (should've happened) and Ike (spastic mentalist) fought everyone for over a decade eating opponents of all shapes and sizes. Brilliant jab and brain, if we're talking about skillset.

 

Agreed.

I sometimes wake up and think 'I'll watch Golota give Bowe maximum hassle and then watch Lennox ice him inside a round'.

 

Had Lennox never losted, we'd have multiple threads devoted to the topic of "Name one fighter who could have inflicted the first lose on Lennox's record", and multiple posts along the lines of "no blueprint...none". Essentially, he would be looked upon on sites like this as an earlier, heavyweight version of Kell Brook; and undoubtedly all this talk would wind up getting on everyone's nervous.

So it's probably better that he losted after all.

 

Thanks, but a much bigger thanks for your articles on Louis.

 

In all seriousness, though...There was a thread posted in General that was very similar to this in terms of how people played on a grammatical error; and it centered on the topic of Kell Brook. One of the funnier threads that I've read on that forum, imo.

 

:rofl So true!