Does Lennox Lewis not fighting Bowe the second best HW from his era ruin his legacy?

Funny, I hear the same excuses from Bowe fans.

And what future options did King force onto Lewis after the second Rahman fight or going back, Holyfield? Rahman was a King fighter after all at that time, and so was Evander.

Maybe that's just an excuse, and Lewis will fight King fighters as long as they aren't named Chris Byrd or John Ruiz. Prime fighters that bring an interesting stylistic clash.

 

Lennox never ducked anyone He beat every man he faced in the pro ring Bowe Tyson & Holyfield avoided him.i doubt you were born when this happened anyway

 

Except the guys he trashed his titles to avoid.

Bowe and Lewis both deserve criticism.

 

Do you honestly think either Ruiz or Byrd could have seriously challenged Lennox?? Ruiz had his butt kicked by Kirk Johnson but his Oscar winning acting & cortez corruption got him a DQ win. Look what Ike Ibeabuchi did to Byrd? Imagine what Lennox big right hand would do
Neither had a prayer

 

Lewis is the best since Ali. thats all you need to know.

 

If an established Champion only fought contenders that would be favored over him, he wouldn't have to fight very often.

And they absolutely have a chance. Did anyone give Rahman a chance?

How many mobile southpaws did Lewis face, that we could gauge a Byrd fight. Did Lewis pressure and throw 70-100 punches around in combination like Ike did? Byrd stood up to plenty of big right hands, Ike knocked him out with a left hook set up by a body combination. Lewis had no left hook.

 

Lewis would of have ko'd byrd. For sure.

 

Bowe had much the better jab.
.....and if the fight would have happened when Bowe threw the titles in the trash can, that time was before Emmanuel Steward.
That Lennox did'nt have a jab.
It was under the tutelege of Emmanuel Steward that Lewis developed the jab.

 

How come he was stripped of every belt he held by the time he retired?

 

He wasn't. Only the WBA stripped and they only did so because King forced them to - they were happy for him to fight Grant first then Ruiz but King refused to do that and went to court to get Lewis stripped. The IBF he vacated and he retired as reigning WBC and Ring champion.

 

Bowe ducked Lewis. Not the other way around.

If anything, not rematching Vitali damaged Lewis' legacy.

I also wish that they'd given Vitali one more round in that fight, just to see what would happen. Lewis looked like he was about to get a heart attack he was so tired. On the other hand, Vitali could see jack out of his eye and was getting tagged much more than earlier in the fight.

If Lewis had been talking about retiring before the fight then not rematching Vitali would have been much less damaging than Lewis talking about (iirc) how he wanted to go on for years more.

Pity. A rematch would have been a sweet fight to watch. Just like it can't be denied that Vitali was winning easily in the early rounds, it can't be denied that Lewis was not at his best. Clearly Vitali's style (and chin) didn't suit Lewis - but Lewis had the heart to dig deep and brawl with Vitali, leading to the cut. I would have liked to have seen a sharper, fitter Lewis against the bigger Klitschko again.

Sorry for the OT derail.

 

Lewis "vacated" IBF title after Byrd took him to court to force mandatory defense. Lewis "retired" after WBC announced they are going to strip him if he does not defend his title against Vitali.

 

Still doesn't change the factually incorrect statement you made that he was "stripped of every title". The WBC and IBF never stripped Lewis of his titles - nor did the Ring.

 

The Rahman rematch was contractually agreed prior to the first fight so King had no option to make this fight and Lewis taking Rahman to court to enforce the rematch would have prevented King from forcing his usual conditions such as options in any negotiations.

The Holyfield fight came down to money. Lewis and Evander were not big PPV stars on their own and Evander's career was clearly winding down so King looked to cash out and even then we got the suspicious draw to lead to a lucrative rematch.

Fact is Lewis didn't fight Ruiz and Byrd for financial reasons he had more lucrative fights and took them over opponents who would at the time done little for his legacy or bank account.

If a fighter faces all their mandatorys like Wlad does, he get gets accused of facing weak opposition, if he drops a title to face better and more lucrative opposition he gets criticised for ducking these inferior opponents. If Lewis had fought Byrd and Ruiz you or someone else would accuse Lewis of ducking Grant and Tyson.

 

Bowe had a good offensive jab to set up the follow up punches. But as a range controller his jab was useless.

If Bowe's jab was so good how did he get out boxed by Holyfield in their 2nd fight? Can you imagine Holyfield out boxing any version of Lewis, I can't, out fight yes but out box, never.

And it wasn't just Evander that was able to out box Bowe. Hide was boxing circles around him from range. How does a fighter with Bowe advantages in height and reach get so utterly dominated from range?

Golota was another fighter who exposed Bowe's deficiencies with his ability to jab and box from range. Bowe was like Corrales a tall fighter who could fight incredibly well in close but from range was next to useless.

Steward didn't add a single punch to Lewis' a.rsenal. Lewis always had the great jab and the big right hand and uppercuts. What Steward did was alter his stance, stopped him from fighting small by bending down to his opponent, made him use his jab more and taught him to clinch.

Bowe would have had a better chance to get to Lewis prior to Steward as Lewis was easier to get to. But offensively he had all the same tools including that jab. Lewis/Bowe back then would have been a closer fight but I still favour a focused Lewis. He had more power than anyone Bowe had fought, was strong enough inside to not be manhandled like the smaller opponents Bowe fought and had a big uppercut of his own to counter Bowe's.