How big is Lennox Lewis' "run"?

Very good, perhaps excellent, but not as great as it often described today.
The Mercer win is the symbol of that.

 

Exactly. Holy is the only great opponent on the list, but obviously past his prime. Overall the list is pretty good but certainly isn't something unseen previously or later

 

Any way I look at it, I think Lennox Lewis was an all time Great Heavyweight. I usually rank him third on my all-time list: 1. Joe louis. 2. Muhammad Ali. 3. Lennox Lewis.

 

Agreed.

 

It's a really good run, possibly a great run, but it's not a 3rd best HW of all time run as some believe he deserves to be credited as on here. In that regard he's slightly overrated.
Context is also needed, Morrison was HIV positive in his final real fight and Golota was coming off two brutal fights with Bowe and won a seven figure settlement for taking Lidocaine before the match with Lewis for a bad knee which caused him seizures. I hate to take away from Lewis in that bout but Golota didn't look right all night entering that ring and the meds caused a seizure.
Question why was Vitali and Rahman left off your list?

 

Gotcha i should of figured that out. Thanks

 

The 'run' is very impressive and just one aspect of Lewis's career.
Mention Ruddock, Bruno, Rahman II, Tyson and Vitali K either side of it and Lewis's place in the top-5 becomes a no-brainer.

 

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It's an high quality run and how he dispatched some of those guys was very impressive.
Lennox was around for a long time and did a bloody great job.
He's right up there in the top five,every time for me.

 

One of the best runs in HW history. Similar to Tyson's run in the 80's.

Here's my assesment from my thread I once started:

Looking at Lennox Lewis' proper championship run from 1996 to 2003 (with a short interruption in 2001) he beat almost everybody he should. From the 15 heavyweights rated in the Top 10 by The Ring and who spent at least 2 years in the Top 10 and 1 year in the top 5 during this time he beat 9: Evander Holyfield, David Tua, Mike Tyson, Michael Grant, Hasim Rahman, Andrew Golota, Vitali Klitschko, Ray Mercer (a year before winning the tile) and Shannon Briggs.

But what are his biggest misses? Number 1 is definitely Chris Byrd. Lewis vacated the belt instead of fighting him as the mandatory, because he was eyeing the rematch with Mike Tyson at the time. Lewis was solidified as the best of that period by then and went into Larry Holmes post 1982 mode trying to have the fights he can earn the biggest buck for. Byrd wasn't an attraction but he was the best available contender and Lewis straight out refused to fight him.

It was different to the situation with John Ruiz where Lewis lost the belt due to Don King "strong arming" the WBA into breaking the agreement with their champion and John Ruiz preferring to fight for the vacant belt instead of facing Lewis, basically ducking him.

The other boxers on that list are: Michael Moorer, Wladimir Klitschko, Ike Ibeabuchi, Kirk Johnson and Tim Witherspoon.

We all know what happened with Ike. Wlad had his ups and downs and if he didn't lose to Sanders, Lewis would probably fight him instead of his brother. The fight with Kirk Johnson was signed, but Kirk pulled out. Moorer was focused on his IBF trail and had basically retired for 3 years after losing a rematch to Holyfield. Witherspoon was surprisingly highly rated, but wasn't considered a worthy opponent.

So did Lewis really missed anyone besides Byrd? You can say Ruiz, but it wasn't really his fault.

Taking all of that into consideration, I think we can rate his reign around 9/10.

 

Lennox could basically beat every heavyweight there has ever been on a good night…

 

To be fair, you could say this about almost every ATG heavyweight.