… that Lennox Lewis is a top 10 all-time heavyweight. For years, I was reluctant to give him his dues because I held the two KO defeats against him heavily but he did enough to earn a spot in the list by the time he lost to Rahman. The way he came back and avenged that fight he should have never lost in the first place was mightily impressive as well. He’s still the most frustrating heavyweight I watched because of the hot and cold nature of some of his performances when measured against his talent. But he was also the most avoided heavyweight of his era and could have been champion for much longer if given the opportunity when he had earned it - that should count against Bowe and Tyson in their respective rankings rather than be used against Lewis. He never fought Bowe or a nearer-prime Tyson because of their unwillingness to meet him and that leaves another source of frustration about how Lewis’s career unfolded. But there are not many great heavyweights with just two career losses, both by KO, and both avenged. And by ‘not many’, I mean none.
I haven’t watched the Holyfield fights for a long time but I do remember thinking that Lennox perhaps could’ve put more out there in those fights - but I could be wrong. Anyway, all ATGs have some fights that you can negatively critique (including losses of course) but it’s the whole mosaic of their assessable careers that counts most. The avenging of the KO losses counts big for me, particularly Rahman 2 - as you’ve already referenced.
Hi Jel, Rest easy brother, you are by no means alone, his has been an almighty struggle to justify his seat at the table, in fact he stands alone in that eternal battle, in the beginning it was his ethnicity, was he a true brit, or just a Canadian hybrid, many, and I mean thousands wouldnt accept him as one of ours, we couldn't get along with his Canadian drawl, add to that he was a winner, a serial winner, who knew his own worth, he wasn't afraid to chart his course, that was the rub, we brits were a little more reserved, he was too brash, in a chilled and calm way, we had our beloved Frank, who was somewhat humble, appreciative, and lost fights in a stoic English manner ,more to our reserved likking. so the poor man had to graft for the bregrudding plaudits, which he did in a quiet professional way, come the Mcall defeat and we rubbed our chins, see he wasn't all that after all, what we didn't know then but we did soon, was that he was a very determined fighter, and despite being left out in the wilderness for 2 years, he came back to demoralize a mentally deficient, shell of a fighter in the poor, hapless Mcall, and did the same with Rachman a few years later, for me he was a great fighter, 3/4 on any unbiased boxing buffs list that knows his stuff, I am resolute in that mindset, not unlike a good wine, Lewis got better with age, he was, and remains a good ambassador for our sport, and should be respected as such, with no " buts " I liked him, liked him a lot. stay safe buddy, good to chat with you as always, long been an admirer. Mike.
Lewis definitely could've stopped Holyfield in their 1st fight had he stepped it up a bit more. The infamous 5th round Lewis had Holyfield helpless on the ropes for over a minute and he didn't go all out to finish a clearly distressed Holyfield. Holyfield said he felt like quitting in the 1st Lewis fight but he didn't because he didn't want people telling his kids that their daddy was a quitter. But yeah I'm a firm believer had Lewis stepped it up just a bit more he could've got Holyfield out of there.
Yeah, that fits my recollections - some shots landed by Lewis appeared to literally freeze Holyfield but Lennox didn’t necessarily follow up as you might’ve expected. That’s another reason why I really liked his performance in Rahman 2 - Lennox totally fought without fear or favour - and that’s really something else again when fighting a guy who previously sparked you.
Well said, Mike. I always supported Lennox , right from his early days. The only couple of times I picked against him were against Mason and Ruddock. After his impressive win over Ruddock i never picked against him again.
In the 80's being able to come back and beat someone that had stopped you was held in the highest regard. The old adage was that if someone stopped you in the first fight, the odds were they'd stop you quicker in the second.