Emanuel Steward: "Wladimir is the more talented, Lennox is the more accomplished"

Wlad is more mobile and throws a better straight right. Other than that i don't think he has anything over Lewis.
He can only fight one way, never fights with commitment due to his fear of what's coming back, he only as 3 punches in his repertoire, the others are just afterthoughts in which he looks terrible in executing.
His never come through a tough fight, (Peter 1 i don't think so), would Lennox have ever gone down and cowered from rabbit punches?
Lewis is simply the better man, he could box, slug, had an underrated inside game, he had and used every punch in the book, and could turn a fight in his favour if he needed to.
Judging by my avatar this will come as no surprise, but so what. I think it's obvious to anyone who knows boxing that the better man is LL.

 

Wlad is a bit faster of hand but Lewis was a lot more fluid.

 

To be fair, Wlad has had 13 or 14 opportunities to get off the canvas.

Lewis only had 2.

Perhaps Lewis would have got more credit if he'd collapsed in a puddle when he'd been hit, and then got up? Seems a strange concept to me. I thought the idea was to not hit the canvas in the first place.

A belligerent person could say that all it shows is Wlad is far more easily KD than Lewis. You had to virtually knock Lewis unconcious to put him off his feet. Whereas not so much with Wlad.

However, yes, Wlad did dig deep against Peter, in what I thought was a fight that could make or break him. It actually turned out to be the making of him IMO.

(and personally, I think Briggs should have been credited with a KD over Lewis in Rd 1 of their fight. Make of that what you will)

 

what steward said is a big steaming pile of bullcrap

 

Worded excellently.

 

That wasn't true. That was a myth that people used to pass around. The WBO has ALWAYS been a recognized title. Which is why Wlad was removed from the ranks in the WBC, IBF, and WBA when he held it. That is what makes it a recognized title. The other orgs are recognizing Wlad as a champ, thus removing him from challengers rankings.

BTW, I am saying in general. Lewis wasn't considered the #1 man or a true Champ until he beat Holyfield. Before that he had one title handed to him from the trash, and one the other VACANT title from Oliver McCall who had no business being anywhere near a boxing ring that night. After Lewis became the real #1 man after beating Holyfield, his title reign was honestly pretty weak. He beat Grant (We all know what Grant is worth), Botha (had just been knocked out cold by Tyson), Tua (very good win, but critized just like Wlad was against Ibragimov for a "boring performance", was knocked out by Rahman, won his titles back... beat a shell of a shell of Mike Tyson, and then was losing against Vitali and escaped with a cuts stoppage from a grazing punch. Never-the-less... it was a win. During this reign he dropped his IBF and WBA titles to avoid fighting his mandatories. All while not really being very active anyways. Then, in the end he sat on the title for 8 months after his fight with Vitali trying to sue Mike Tyson back into the ring and retired and also ended up vacating his WBC title once the WBC mandated that he either fight Vitali Klitschko again or be stripped.

Wlad has been considered the #1 man since he beat Chris Byrd who was the longest standing Champ at the time. The WBA title has been a joke for years and nobody cares about it... the WBC title had been vacated by Vitali, handed to Rahman, passed to Maskaev, and then to Peter who Wlad had already just beat. Wlad has since beat top opposition on a consistent basis. All mandatories... other champs and all of the top contenders.

Let's look at Wlad's opposition as of late.

This content is protected

- 24-0 - #1 Ranked Contender in the World at the time. Fight for mandatory status.

This content is protected

- 39-2-1 - IBF Champion, #1 ranked Heavyweight in the World (Ring Magazine). Longest standing Champ.

This content is protected

- 29-0 - Undefeated top contender.

This content is protected

- 24-3-4 - Mandatory challenger.

This content is protected

- 33-3 - Mandatory Challenger and revenge rematch.

This content is protected

- 22-0-1- Undefeated WBO Champion. Unification fight.

This content is protected

- 31-1 - Mandatory Challenger

This content is protected

- 45-6-2 - Mandatory Challenger, former undisputed Champion, a replacement for Alexander Povetkin who backed out of his fight with Wlad.

This content is protected

- 25-0-1 - Undefeated WBA Champion.

This content is protected

- 35-1 - Mandatory Challenger

This content is protected

- 34-3 - Mandatory Challenger

This content is protected

- 25-1 - WBA Champion, Unification fight


C'mon... that's impressive!

I am not saying that Lennox's career wasn't impressive because it was. However, he is being very overrated nowadays and Wladimir Klitschko is being extremely underrated and underappreciated. I can assure you that when people look back in 20 years that will change.

 

wladmir imo is more accomplished and has more decisive wins than lennox i never really liked lennox so i cant be objective.

 

What it shows is that Wlad used to be overly aggressive and put himself in a bad overextended position too much. Something that Steward clearly fixed. It really doesn't need to be discussed much further than that. The only person who has ever really hurt Wlad and stopped him on punches was Corrie Sanders. Sanders landed flush hard shots early that didn't effect Wlad... then he hurt him... followed up landing several more flush, hard shots.... and stopped Wlad who never stopped getting back to his feet.

How many times has Wlad been knocked down since reinventing himself... paying more attention to his balance and his defense? The Peter fight was a crossroads fight for Wlad where he was trying to find his way between two styles... and you are right... it was EXACTLY what he needed for his confidence at the time, as well as exactly what he needed to realize that what Steward was teaching him was working. The fact that Wlad has not been knocked down 6 years just shows that his chin wasn't the problem. He has shown himself to be able to take flush hard shots.

I understand what you are saying about Lewis shouldn't have to be knocked down to show heart. I agree... he shouldn't. I was just responding with exaggeration to the poster who made a silly post in my opinion. Wlad has clearly NEVER shown a lack of heart, and Lewis has never shown to have more heart that Wlad. If anything, Lewis was simply in a worse position than Wlad in more fights and HAD to fight his way out more times. Wlad is generally dominating all of his opposition.

 

Lewis win colummn puts Wlads to shame... Kind of funny that im backing Lewis here as i think hes a little overrated.. Good points about Lewis not getting up,and Wlad doing so against Peter...

But Wlad wanted no part of rematching with Sanders.. He had to go tell hs big brother to beat up the bully.... Lewis avenged both his losses... Its too bad theres a shortage of quality fighters.... WIns over a past it Tyson,faded Holyfield,Bruno,RUddock,Big Klitchmko,Mercer,Tua,Mccall-Rahman rematches,Morrison,Golota ,Grant,akinwande etc etc look better than Wlads best wins Haye,Peter,Chambers,THompson,Brewster,Brock,Byrd,Ibragimov,and the very average Chaquev.. Maybe not his fault but i dont see how he can come close Lewis resume wise... Unless he beats his more impressively than an old Lennox

WHat stands out is that Lewis biggest wins were all against big time feared punchers(except Holyfield).... half of Wlads best wins were against non threatning foes (style wise)... Peter,Brewster big punchers but short and limited (skill wise)... His most threatning foe was probably a prime Jameel Mcline.

 

Really? Explain that one.. its not even close.

 

I still see Lewis as more talented and accomplished than Wlad. He was more fluid and natural in the ring and had a killer instinct against overmatched fighters. Wlad lets them off the hook, and sometimes looks too cautious.

 

Wow... that was a horrible post. You lost your credibility as soon as I read the part that I highlighted in blue. The entire post fell completely to **** thereafter as well. Clearly you weren't a fan of the sport yet... or you would know that it as common knowledge that Wlad went hard after a rematch with Sanders, and Sanders OPENLY refused to fight Wlad. He went as far as vacating his WBO title because Wlad put himself in the position that Corrie would be forced to defend against Wlad after Corrie's first title defense. Wlad even went to the WBO and tried to get them to force an immediate rematch, which they refused to do. Sanders OPENLY stated that Wlad wanted a rematch badly, but that he was not going to give him one. Then... during his lead up to the Vitali fight... Sanders said that he would only give Wlad a rematch if Sanders beat Vitali first, then he would defend against Wlad. Obviously you know what happened from there... I hope.

So, you should probably do your homework before you go spouting out nonsense. Lewis was lucky enough that the fighters who beat him were actually willing to fight him again.... even if one of them was fresh out of crack rehab and had no business in the ring. Because some fighters... like Sanders.... are much like Lennox Lewis himself... and are unwilling to give opponents that they beat a rematch. Just as Lewis avoided a rematch with Mercer after that rough fight, and retired rather than give Vitali the same opportunity that Rahman and McCall gave to Lewis.

 

But Lewis refuses to fight southpaws and very mobile fighter like Chris Byrd.

In some way Lewis was better but Wlad is no h2h with Lewis. Wlad learned from his losses and with Steward in his corner Wlad becomes a very very great Champion!

 

Rahman and McCall didn't give Lewis **** Widdow. And I think you know it.

Rahman tried to back out of a rematch clause, but couldn't.

King chose to match McCall against Lewis for the belt. It wasn't at all related to the first fight. King thought Lewis would **** bricks at having to get back into the ring with McCall.

He was wrong. And McCall was put into somewhere he shouldn't have been.
Altho apparently he was all over the shop mentally before the first Lewis fight too, so make of that what you will.

Losing champs usually get rematches. Losing challengers don't. Just the way it is.

Vitali had as much right to a rematch against Lewis as Haye has against Wlad. None.

Gallant, but losing, challengers rarely get rematches.

 

Lewis doesn't hit anywhere near as hard as Wlad and Wlad is the faster hand speed. Lewis's defense was better. Chin is about equal.