Holmes vs Lewis, better competition?

Truth time, eh? OK.

The fight was pretty close. Foreman probably edged it, if we have to be honest about it. Still, I rate even Old Foreman as a good fighter and Briggs' performance is worthy of note.

 

Lewis ,and is isn't close!

 

I have to say Lewis

 

Lewis all the way. Holmes beat Norton, took the belt home, refused to come out again to even mow the lawn. Once in awhile he'd go down to the local Elks club and knock out some guy on the curb outside.

 

Lewis unequivocally fought the better competition, but Mr Holmes would probably argue that he had the scars on his resume to show for it.

 

Lewis and decisively imo.

 

Let's see closely.

Both have Mercer on their resumes so Mercer is eliminated.

Holmes - old shot Ali. Lewis - shot Tyson. Ok, about even.

Other than that, Holmes' best
wins are:
Norton
Witherspoon
Weaver
Berbick
Smith
Cooney
Shavers
Snipes
C Williams

Lewis' best wins are:
Holyfield
Vitali
Tua
Golota
Ruddock
Tucker
Bruno
Rahman
McCall
Morrison

You decide, but I think Lewis' list looks a bit more dangerous especially considering that some of listed Holmes' opponents lacked experience at the time of the fight.

On this Lewis' list there are some past prime opponents, but no novices with 15 fights.

 

I disagree. Holyfield was past it. He could no longer throw those blistering combos with any consistency which allowed him to defeat much bigger men. Golota and McCall were unstable. Golota quit and got blasted out by lesser fighters than Lewis. Rahman was mediocre. His only good win was his k.o. over a under-trained Lewis.
Ruddock was damaged goods after the 2 fights with Tyson. The 'Razor' accomplished nothing of note after that. Tucker was past it and never had that finisher instinct. He was too passive. He got blown away a few years after Lewis by smallish Herbie Hide. And prior to that suffered a t.k.o. from Bruce Seldon. Morrison was already afflicted by HIV illness and blasted out by Michael Bentt. Tua showed grossly overweight, taking away all hope of summoning anything remotely close to his Ike effort. Same when Lewis faced Lionel Butler who was grossly overweight and a recovering addict. If Butler had come into the fight in the shape he was in when he k.o'd Tony Tubbs in 1 he might have gotten to Lewis and produced the same result.

I will say this though, Lewis k.o. over Rahman was awesome, especially being 36 years old and in fantastic shape. Also, I believe Lennox best win came when he was even older and out of shape... in his final fight against a young er, future dominate champ in Vitali.

So, Holmes competition was better. They came into the ring fresh, in shape, stable mentally, many of them undefeated and produced their best efforts.

 

Agree

 

It wasn't that Lennox fought the GREATEST resume ever, but he had one of the longest list of guys who were given a big chance PRE FIGHT.
Everything here quite naturally is judged with hindsight eg, Grant didn't turn out great, but at the time pre fight he was seen as a huge threat etc, Lennox had a much bigger resume of '''live" fights , by that I mean fights where pre fight people were picking his opponent.
Gary Mason was favourite to beat him.
So was Ruddock. Bruno was given a decent chance as was Mercer .Tyson was only slight underdog with the bookmakers , as was Golota etc...

 

I respect your opinion and you've made some good points.

I don't rate highly Lewis' wins over Tyson (as he was completely shot) or McCall (who was just mental wreck in their 2nd fight), but other wins I've listed still were pretty good even with everything you mentioned. Maybe also replace Morrison with Mason.

Still, I rank Holmes higher all-time than Lennox, as he went to reign for 7 years without a single loss, having defended his title 20 times.

 

You raise a valid point here.

I would add that a lot of people picked Tua to beat him.

 

Yes Tua also and Rahman in the return.
Tucker was also a little underrated, he'd only lost to peak Tyson. I've always felt Lennox had the best resume of ' live' opponents as per my criteria above. People often forget pre fight perceptions. In Holmes case, the Ali fight is seen as a blowout yet the pre fight odds had Larry as only the slightest of favourites, same against Gerry C, most of Holmes other wins he was heavily expected to win, maybe with the exception of Norton.