Greater Resume: Lewis or Holmes?

Given the advancements occurring in sports and the fact that athletes continue breaking records all the time I would suspect Holmes rating on a head to head basis would be going downhill as the years pass.

 

Hauser's book is not a contemporary source, actually. He met with Ali and his wife in October 1988 to discuss the possibility of writing that book, so some of those opinions about Norton were said in 1988-1991 (the book was first published in 1991) and still none of them thought highly of Norton. While you have presented nothing at all to back your bare words up, and it's been how long? But I expected that, as it's hard to find much respect for Norton in the contemporary sources, it only started to change many years after where people were trying to raise Ali's status as truly the greatest heavyweight there was, and thus instead of admitting that Ali lost to a virtually nobody, they started calling Norton great, and it has gone so far that he was accepted into IBHOF, which is BS to say the least.

The 3rd fight meant nothing at all. Everyone figured Ali was done by that time, was completely past it.

Except that Norton doesn't have anything significant other than 1 single win over aged undertrained Ali. He has 2 losses in rematches and a loss to Holmes, if you are not aware of that. He blew his chances, and him being awarded the title was a joke. He has never truly won a world champion title, he was a journeyman (who entered the ratings only because the system or ranking fighter was very bad, he didn't have a single win over ranked fighter prior to meeting with Ali) who accidentally became a mediocre contender once, blew his chances in rematches, and got handed a gift in a fight vs another former journeyman.

 

Lewis is better

 

If Norton was a journeyman, what was McCall?

 

i bet it was the holyfield fight that you scored against larry right.seriously if you had larry winning the first spinks fight then you have ZERO credibility as far as i'm concerned.

 

Zero credibility? That's a compliment to Bill. He's been hanging around in the minus section for the past few years.

 

Lewis may slightly edge Holmes.

 

lewis resume looks better on paper, but when viewed in depth it is no where near what it seems

 

Lewis, Don King ****ed up Larry's resume.

 

:deal

 

Horse**** comparison. Doestovsky used Mercer AND Weaver for Lewis yet forgot to place better versions of them on Holmes' resume? That's out.

This is close. I lean towards Holmes since he didn't lose twice, by one punch KO, against B level comp in the heart of his prime. Holmes also beat an overall better skilled opposition than Lewis did with the power guys. Still it's close. Holmes edges it.

 

i would have to say Lewis. Holmes fought tons of bums and guys who were well past their primes.

 

Lewis:
Mercer
Tyson
Holyfield
Ruddock
Weaver
Biggs
Tucker
Bruno
McCall
Tua
Morrison
Golota
Klitschko
Briggs
Mavrovic

Holmes:
Ali
Norton
Shavers (x2)
Cooney
Berbick
Witherspoon
Smith
Weaver
Mercer
Ocasio
Snipes
C. Williams
Frazier
Eric Esch


Fixed to even the playing field a bit.