Lennox Lewis was a hell of a fighter .. at his best and most focused he is one of the toughest H2H match ups of all time ..
Watch the first round of Lewis-McCall 1. McCall was a good counter-puncher and Lewis was a flawed fighter at the time. McCall was trying to punch with Lewis in the first round. Lewis didn't always set up his right hand and he telegraphed it at times. Idk what kind of footage you have access to but I can't even see McCall's eyes in the film I watched. Maybe his eyes were completely shut, I highly doubt it though. But you should look at Lewis' mistakes instead of looking at McCall's eyes. Lewis threw a 3-2 in the beginning of the second round. He should've known McCall was trying to time him. That's all he was doing for the first 3 minutes. Lewis didn't set up the right hand at all. He threw a wide, telegraphed right hand and McCall beat him to the punch. That's actually on tape. McCall was no amateur and he certainly wasn't a fighter who'd throw a punch with his eyes shut. He was confident enough to stand his ground against Lewis and make him pay for his mistakes. If it wasn't McCall, it would've been someone else. Lewis actually benefitted from losing that fight. Rahman set Lewis up by going to the body. Lewis didn't know how to deal with his body jab. Rahman kept jabbing to the body and he'd follow up with an overhand right every now and again. When he KO'd Lennox in the 5th round, watch that sequence in slow-mo. Lennox might be smiling but it's not because he's cocky, he was gassing out and trying to play it cool. Rahman had the momentum at the time, why would Lennox get cocky now? He wasn't smiling and leaning on the ropes in the first round. How are you gonna get cocky once you start getting tagged and outboxed? When Rahman landed the final right hand, it wasn't a looping punch, it was a right cross. Lennox expected an overhand right and you can see him extending his left arm out to block Rahman's right. But he ended up leaving his chin open. Rahman worked off a body jab and he set Lewis up. It wasn't an accident.
Your disamine is very detailed and sharable for a long part. Besides I dont wanna take credits from McCall and Rahman but sometimes life is made of instants, and Lewis for me lost these bouts for a lucky combo of McCall and for having made fun of Rahman in a particular period of the match.
Yes. Ali Louis Lewis Foreman Marciano Holmes Tyson Frazier Liston Wlad Johnson Dempsey 1 and 2 are firm. 3 to 6 have little to separate them. Same for 7-9 and 11-12.
My second dozen... Evander Holyfield Harry Wills Ezzard Charles Floyd Patterson Jersey Joe Walcott Jim Corbett Ken Norton Vitali Klitschko Riddick Bowe James Jeffries Max Schmeling Max Baer. And to make it 25... Sam Langford. I have not considered active HWs. The lists are obviously subjective and could be switched around a bit depending on preferences and criteria. But I think most top twenty lists would be contained within the foregoing 25, all of whom I consider ATGs.
