Devon, I always respect your views. But, though I agree LL wasn't in his prime against McCall that first time, he had not too much before that beat the crap out of a still-legitimate Frank Bruno and wiped out Razor Ruddock (something pre-prison Tyson couldn't do in two fights).
Yeah I agree he was definitely world class before that, but he did learn small things after that and as we all know at that level and even in terms of status as a world class fighter to ATG fighter, it can be them fine margins that differ that, and in the ring the fine margins that can lead you to get KO'd, or that punch to miss, Lewis pre McCall was not an ATG fighter, but when it was all said and done, he turned out to be an ATG, he didn't set up that right, he just kept throwing the one two and McCall read that and timed him, he learned to disguise the right hand and not keep rushing in, very similar to Fury after the Cunningham fight, Fury came rushing in when Cunningham was loading a huge right hand with everything he had on it, they both learned body language and movements better and what they meant after them fights, and stayed at arms length and always measured and made sure the right hand was the right thing to throw
Simple. Larry failed to fight most of the best guys of his era and was losing to Michael Spinks and getting laid out by Tyson around the same age as Lewis when he beat Vitali Klitschko.
Great question, great thread! Alot of it is mixed up with Lewis beeing a puncher, so resume and H2H abilities get mixed up. Well, cause there are some, especially the Rocky gang, who treat his resume like ****.....
For Holmes and Lewis its pretty simple: Lewis got knocked out two times inside of 44 fights, like 15 title fights won. Larry went 48-0 until the age Lewis retired, no stoppage losses, won like 20 title fights. (On a fair card, he is 48-1-1 with a Spinks rematch win until the retirement, came out of it to fight a young terrror). AND got a resume wide into his 40s afterwards!! A Lewis point is, he might have met a tad better opponents. But not that much.
wrong earn wasnt the biggest puncher outdated person and he wasnt a good finisher and the people Lennox was beat by was him not being in shape seems like you the one trolling and lennox took mutiple hard shots from big dudes and stood standing never was dropped early by those types so that goes over overrated earnie match thats only 1 big puncher with bad finish skills over mutiple that lennox fought only a dummy would think 1 person is more impressive then mutiple why dont you ask legend magoo why he keeps not giving proof of louis moving like razor and why he didnt debunk the breakdown cause he couldnt so he had to talk on who won instead you got nothing over the mutiple people lennox fought thats why you said 1 person u thought it was impressive
you said that to me why do I have to answer did you forget you trolled said that last night thought it was funny like that one guy who says how I should talk like others I told him we dont have to talk he still tries to talk to me another guy 70s crazy troll get truth told to him but always denies it other who are legends for trolling use these weird insults like you did no I dont have to respond when your sayin weird stuff to me I reather talk to somebody else or just people who can see good like me
As usual with many debates there's very few sitting in the middle ground. They are very close and both are great great fighters. You can twist it this way, that way, and various other ways via an assortment of criteria, opinion and bias but having either ahead is totally fine. The most well read and credible list maker on the forum has Lewis ahead by three or so places and that's totally fine. He also could have had Holmes ahead by three or so places and that would have been totally fine as well. We had a poll here a few years ago about the third best heavyweight and Lewis came in a handful of votes above Holmes. We had a very recent one and Holmes finished up a handful of votes ahead of Lewis. No-one else was close to this pair and it's obvious The Classic Forum considers both extremely close and well ahead of everyone else. You can take apart anyone's record if you want to and damned if we don't see it everyday here in Classic again and again and again.
Well, no, Holyfield wasn't completely washed up but he had been through the ringer having intense wars with Bowe, Dokes, Tyson, Cooper, Moorer etc. Had a very long career and was pushing 40 and it was his 2nd weight class. Hoylfield didn't have much left in the tank after the Lewis fights. He proceeded to get outfoxed by Byrd, looked like absolute crap against Toney, and struggled with the B level mediocre Ruiz going 1-1-1. Technically yes, Holyfield was the clear #2 guy in the division when Lewis fought him but the division had been cleared out due to the two of them beating up everyone else. The era was getting weak and it was soon time for a new generation of heavies.
I don't. I think Larry was more solid all around, but Lennox had that right hand which made things solid for him.
Larry Holmes gets overrated nowadays. He went life and death with 38 year old pseudo great Ken Norton and with guys that both Lewis and Tyson easily and savagely destroyed. Lewis had a better resume, more skills and size advantage. People hate Lewis mostly because he's British.
