Crazy pick time: Frazier beats Lewis!

I feel bad, lately it seems i pick against Joe as a matter of habit but it just happens that 3 guys i favor over him have come up in a row. Liston, Lewis and Tyson i have always thought would beat him nicely. Guys like Holmes, Marciano, Dempsey, Holyfield i will sit back and accept numerous scenarios.

You can climb on board an agenda and harp on about Lewis getting stopped twice and being chinny but it's just not true.

The Rahman fight is actually one where you can take the excuses given to the bank. He completely overlooked Rahman, had a poor preparation, neglected the conditions (altitude) and paid for it. He came in the heaviest he'd ever been, was filming Ocean's 11 during his preparation (With Klit who is on record saying he learnt a valuable lesson from Lewis' idiocy) and more. He was gassed out in no time. He showed in the immediate rematch it was a fluke and the intangibles were valid. He put on an absolute clinic.

He was still developing when McCall dropped him and indeed hired the training who exploited his weaknesses. He became a much more rounded and complete fighter after this. Incidently tho the stoppage was fair i would have liked to have seen him allowed to box on. There are literally 100 examples of fighters as bad and worse fighting on. Larry Holmes was just as bad against Snipes imo and showed his great powers of recuperation to take back control of the bout quite quickly.

Lewis' Win column reads like a who's who's of the divisions best punchers across a decade. There is a plethora of massive punchers in there. You don't beat this many punchers and beat every man you faced across a decade + while being "chinny".

Frazier's power all comes from one side and he has to be close to deliver it. Lewis was a huge man and would tie Frazier up when need be while pushing him off at other times. He has an excellent jab that comes from miles away and backs it up with an immense uppercut. This would be a constant danger to Joe. Lewis is a noticably bigger man than even Foreman and hits just as hard imo.

It's interesting that there is scrutiny of Joe's chin in here as well. I don't think he is chinny at all but can he take the power of a Lewis for all that long? Remember a Ken Norton took Ali and Holmes power forever and a day but when it went up from good to great he was glass. Part of it may have been mental but it is noteworthy that he could fight all day long with Ali and Holmes but barely a round vs others.

The only puncher Frazier has fought at Lewis' level is Foreman, both are immense. I rate Lewis slightly above Foreman as a fighter. I like Lewis to stop Joe inside 6, possibly even 3.

 

I'd favor Lewis. The hook was not the punch to catch him with. It was the right hand as Lewis tended to drop his left with his chin up. Fraziers right was not a weapon to in any way fear in his prime.

 

Lennox had a huge body, and Joe's generally proclaimed as the most proficient body puncher of all heavyweights. Smoke may not need to catch his chin to win a decision with work rate downstairs.

 

Lewis uppercut would catch Frazier. Frazier didn't have that dreadful right hand.

 

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