Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis in their primes?

He was imo, he got a gift against John Ruiz, Ruiz won that first fight clearly imo, he also had Evander on the floor in the rematch, that said, I do agree that Lewis won the rematch, close, but clear.

 

Lefty you know my feelings when it comes to Bowe-Lewis, yes I really believe Bowe wanted no part of him.

Newman wanted a deal of 90-10 in Bowes favour, when Lewis beat Ruddock he becomes the mandatory and under WBC rules was entitled to 33%, a huge shift but still a big payday for Bowe. Fact is even with King in the frame and his WBC influence he was NEVER going to get a piece of Bowe along as Lewis was in the picture.

However, if Bowe was up for it and the fight happened we would have had one of the HW great fights no doubt elevating both men in everyone's eyes. Whoever won I'm pretty sure we'd have seen II & possibly III brilliant fights.

Newman played his part but at any point had Bowe said "I want Lewis" the fight would have happened, what choice would Newman have?

 

I agree to an extent, although I can also see why Bowe took Newman's advice. There is an article on Sports illustrated detailing what Newman did for Bowe, which essentially take him and his family out of the projects, although I guess that is no excuse, what ever case maybe, it seems Lewis, at that particular time, wanted the fight more than Bowe, otherwise he might of just overruled Newman, its his career at the end of the day.

 

Yeah its kind of like what Hayes doing. He made such a ruckus about fighting the Klitschkos, but the risk reward factor turned out to be not so great. Now hes milking the title by fighting a countryman. Its all about the dollars. I really dont think a fighter who fights on this level of boxing is scared to face another fighter. Its not like Lewis embarrassed him in the olympics and Bowe always felt the fight was stopped prematurely.

 

Agree, I felt it was.

I dont think Bowe-Newman realized how quickly the Boxing landscape can change from fight to fight, one minute a fight can seem inevitable, then .....

 

The kicker is Lewis has between £100-£150 million in the bank, Bowe is bankrupt, hell he was signing autographs at a flea market....

I'm not necessarily saying the extra $30-40 million from the potential Lewis fights would have made a difference, some guys are just poor with money but damn that's no way for a former HW champ to exist, what is it with boxers and money? Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Louis, Hearns, Eubank, Armstrong.....

 

Yeah I saw that, crazy eh?

Agree.

I have this interview of Bowe with Charlie Rose and during the interview Rose asks him" what are your afraid of ?" lo and beyold, Bowe talks about losing his money and ending up broke like other champions from yester year.

 

Well to be fair, Bowe didnt take the Lewis fight because instead Newman was able to secure a 6 fight deal with HBO, which included a Lewis fight down the line.
It was said to be the richest contract in boxing history at the time. What happened after that, derailed their meeting.

 

I think I'd give a prime Evander the slight edge over a peak Lewis. In their actual meetings, Holyfield was 36-37 years of age, 10 lbs over his best fight weight, and the only man he had beaten within the previous 16 months going into the first Lewis fight, was Vaugn Bean. Despite this set of circumstances, he managed to take Lewis a combined 24 rounds without kissing the canvas, and possibly won about 8 of them. I can't imagine him doing any worse 9-10 years earlier. Of course, Holyfield would continue to fight on and win some big bouts, but I think a 1999 Holyfield was a far cry from the man who I watched tear up the division from 1988-1991.

 

Both men were past their prime,imo,when they fought in 1999. Holyfield signifigantly more so. Holyfield was in his heavyweight prime circa 1990 - 92. With Lennox it was 1997. Putting these two versions together,and I see Lennox getting a close but clear points verdict,as Lennox's strength would be the tiebreaker.

 

Lennox Only Prime in 1997??? :rofl:rofl:rofl

Lennox have one of teh longest-primes IMO 1996 to 2000 :thumbsup

 

I don't know if Lewis was what I'd call "peak" in 1999, but I think he was still reasonably close to being at his best. Sure he was around 33-34 years of age, but the concensus has always seemed to lean toward the notion that he was a " late bloomer", and in truth had improved vastly since his 1994 defeat against Oliver McCall. In 1999, Lennox was still fighting well within the 245 pound range, and was keeping fairly busy. In 2000, following the Holyfield fights, he would score 3 impressive wins over Tua, Botha, and Grant. Again, I'm not saying that 1999 provided us with the pinacle version of Lennox Lewis, but I have a hard time believing that he was past it either.

 

I personally think Lewis would win because styles make fights and when they actually fought Holyfield won about 7-8/24 rounds. Meaning the first fight was about a 9-3 round fight in lewis' favour and the second fight was a closer 8-4 or 7-5 fight in Lewis's favour. So the question is what could Holyfield do differently in his prime to change this outcome. The most obvious answer is to be busier and to move more..but that's unlikely to win him the fight..at least in my opinion. The interesting question is whether or not Holyfield could out jab Lewis, as I think that would be a key factor. Because I doubt it would be the type of war Bowe-Holyfield fought, it would be more of a boxing match. Prime for prime, I doubt it.

Anyway, I see it as being a close fight, no one goes down, so it's a decision win by either one. I'd pick Lewis but I don't think it would be a huge upset if Holyfield found a way to win.

 

I picked Holyfield by KO because he had good power and threw quick combos. Holyfield put down Douglas, Tyson, Mercer, Dokes, and Bowe and came closer than anyone to putting Big George down with one hellacious shot late in the fight that staggered him badly. Thing is, whenever Lewis was put down he could not continue. If Lennox did manage to get back up Holyfield would have thrown punches in bunches and the ref would stop it.

 

holyfield clearly. when holyfield fought lewis in 1999, he had 2 wars with qawi, 2 wars with bowe, 2 wars with michael moorer, 1.5 wars with mike tyson. these things take a lot from you as a fighter! lewis never had a war like holyfield. lewis's loss to mccall was not even as punishing as some of holy's wins! when holy beat a very good verson of mike tyson, he took dozens of shots like what mccall landed against lewis.

chronological age is not the same as a boxer's age. with a prime holyfield, lewis' best asset, his power, would be thrown out of the equation. this is a huge concession for lewis. holyfield would be busier and he was the more skilled boxer. he had better stamina. holyfield in 1999 fought in spurts. not the 1993 version. holyfield wins clearly on points in a competitive fight. for those who may think i'm discounting lewis, to be fair, he beat a similar version of holyfield that whooped mike tyson's ass twice. that was a great achievment but that does not mean he'd have beaten a prime holy. a prime holy was too busy and too skilled. he have been in lewis' face all night.