How can 3 men of that stature be so wrong?

Akinwande was a belt holder.


Sorry you obviusly don't know much about that era of the HW division, because it is well known to be the 2nd best era and had alot of talent there.... which Lewis beat all comers

 

Actually you've got it totally wrong, it was an overhyped era because you had 3 big names in Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson .. The other guys you've named were as average as Chagaev, Ibragimov .. How you can make a point for a strong division and then name 'Akinwande, Briggs, Bruno, Tua and Grant' is beyond me .. These guys have stayed in the public consciousness because they were victims of Lennox Lewis not because they were good fighters ..
Im well aware that Foreman beat Frazier but im in no doubt that Lewis would get the same treatment from a '73 Foreman and i also believe that the flat footed Lewis would be ********* in a much more convincing way than Frazier was against Ali .. So whose better the record is there to judge Frazier. Lennox Lewis never fought anybody of the calibre of Ali and he certainly didnt have to tackle a '73 Foreman so were is your comparison ??
Just because Lewis beat average fighters like Akinwande, Briggs and Tua means nothing .. You have no historical knowledge on which to judge Lewis's career, your just spouting media driven stories .. Even the 2nd string of 70s/80s fighters would have given Lewis problems, im thinking of guys like Witherspoon, Lyle, Shavers, Norton even guys like Jimmy Young and Berbick would have been far more than anything Lewis faced ..

Tyson was shot, Holyfield had slowed .. Ruddock was always a 'confidence' fighter who was ended after the Tyson defeats and Tyson wasnt great in those fights .. Bruno was an average fighter who had Lewis in serious trouble before he got caught ..
Mercer v Lewis was close and this was 'after' Mercer had been beaten by an old Holmes, Holyfield and even been comfortably beaten by Jesse Ferguson ..
And not forgetting that Lewis, this so called 'Great Champion' was stopped by 2 very average fighters in his prime in Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman .. No other 'Great Heavyweight' in history has been stopped by 2 such limited fighters like Mccall and Rahman

 

"Bums like Golota?"

Are you serious? Golota was a good fighter!!!

I rate Joe very highly in terms of British fighters but Lewis is ahead along with a couple of others for me. Lewis' resume is underrated by some. His era of HW domination was no worse than the Larry Holmes era. Lewis is a top 5 HW of all time for me.

British #1.

 

I generally find using the prose of an adult is more conducive to productive discussion. I think pre-1940's fighters belong on a different list as they pretty much fought under different rules. Sawdust rings, throwdowns were credited as knockdowns and they fought much longer fights.

I often find people with historical knowledge of the sport tend to be romanticists who think fighters from the past were better, or at least as good as, most modern fighters. I saw a post of yours in another thread with regards to Marciano. Whilst I agree with you about Primadonna Kool's comments being disrespectful the fact is Marciano was small (a crusierweight by today's standards) and primitive.

I think a big, seasoned heavyweight like Lewis would have dished out a heavy handed and comprehensive beating to Marciano whose only stylistic advantage he had over Lewis, that I can think of, was his ability to absorb a punch.

You seem keen, also, to discredit the career of Lewis but that can be done with any fighter, even the so called greats you place on this insurmountable pedestal.

 

We can all play the discrediting game, despite it being pointless. It is unusual for a Calzaghe fan to want to get into such a debate though, I must say. I think you are very much on tenuous grounds if you're trying to raise Calzaghe's status by denigrating Lewis.

A much better angle (given that you clearly need one) would be to question why romanticists hold past fighters in such high esteem.

 

My thoughts would be that old time fighters fought more often, and hence had a greater chance to have a better resume. They fought for the one meaningful world title, you can be sure they truely were the best of their time.