Had Lennox Lewis not lost those two fights..

The Rahman fight is a classic case of 'failure to prepare is preparing to fail'.

Fought at altitude, and didn't give himself anywhere near enough time to acclimatise, and that is before considering the fact he didn't train properly.

 

Dont need to look him up, I know who is, just dont here him mentioned here in Canada EVER, so you can easiily forget. From my life time post 1950, Lewis is deffinetly the best to come out Canada.

1. Lennox Lewis
2. George Chuvalo
3. Razor Ruddock
4. Trevor Berbick
5. Kirk Johnson

 

And I guess you forgot about Jimmy McLarnin too? How in the hell do you forget about guys like McLarnin and Langford when talking about fighters from Canada?

And Yvon Durelle, Lucian Bute, Jean Pascal and Arturo Gatti were/are all better fighters than Ruddock, Berbick and Kirk Johnson were. There are probably more, can't just remember any others at the moment.

 

I think a lot of people would agree that those 2 loses do leave a somewhat negative mark on his CV but personally i think he needed both loses. The loss to McCall led to him joining up with Steward and shoring up his defense and being a bit more conservative and not so gung ho. The loss top Rahman taught him to not take any challenger lightly

 

:good:deal This

 

Sigh.....

Lewis loss to McCall was pre Manny, not prime.
Lewis trained for 2 weeks to fight Rahman at an altitude of 5000ft, again not prime.

Getting ko'd early relects lesser than a wide points loss imo, see Ali - Spinks.

 

Was reffering to heavyweights, post ww2.

 

Absolutely. Getting taken out by second-raters early like this is a MAJOR deficiency - one that, along with his facing only aging versions of the other great fighters in his era, Holyfield and Tyson, and not facing Bowe at all, should reduce his ranking considerably.

If Lewis hadn't lost, he would be rightly ranked higher. As things stand now, he should rightfully be ranked much lower than is by some, and certainly below Holyfield.

 

He is an ATG IMHO.

 

Doesn't matter, he's still the most consistent and successful heavyweight of his generation...with Evander being a very close second.

 

I hate this not facing Bowe hurts his legacy crap you Americans come out with. Lewis knocked Bowe out in the Olympics. When it was Lewis's turn to fight Bowe in the pro's Bowe through the WBC belt in the bin as to not to fight him... Bowe ducked Lewis... not Lewis's problem

 

It's clearly a HW list. Jesus.

 

Same place I rank him now, top 3 and that I would pick him to beat every heavyweight to ever fight.

 

Everyone is obsessed with an unbeaten record lately, for me it is more important how fighters come back from a loss than never having lost at all.
You have a guy like mayweather that is so afraid of losing his unbeaten record that he avoids fighting the best available competition and fights about once a year.
Lewis came back from both losses to retire as the recognized world champion, avenging both of his defeats along the way, this is an amazing accomplishment.

 

Anything that happened in the amateurs is MEANINGLESS for a pro legacy. The bottom line is Lewis didn't face Bowe in the pros. And he didn't face Holyfield until he was past it, and Tyson until he was washed up.

All the rest - Bowe "ducked" him, he wasn't prepared for Rahman (you can't prepare a chin), wasn't "prime" for McCall, etc. etc. are just EXCUSES for why Lewis is the ONLY top level HW champ taken out early by fighters on this level while he held the title. The only one.