EDIT: to clarify its a different scenario for each fighter Tyson beats Holyfield in 1991 before retiring or going to prison and never fighting again? Holyfields gets past Moorer and Bowe 3 victorious without or despite his "health complications" and retires after 2 wins over post prison Tyson Lewis never loses to Rahman and McCall, possibly allowing him to get a win over Bowe? I think Tyson would have a real claim to top 5 Holyfield has a claim to top 3 HW and top 10 P4P while lewis is probably Top 3 if not higher at HW if he retired undefeated.
Ali, Tyson, Holyfied and Louis would be ranked 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D with most people having them in any order. What screws Lewis up in current all time rankings is his loss to Rahman and if that didn't happen many people can argue that Lewis head to head can beat any heavyweight in history, the McCall fight doesn't do much damage really.
I would still argue he can beat any heavyweight in history, but unfortunately i can also rightfully argue any decent size heavyweight with good power has a chance to land on him and spark him out
Well the issue is it would affect where they rank h2h. So if Lewis went undefeated but didn't have the Holy victory(s) people would say he didn't face the top fighters and it would be tough to rank him over Mike and Holy. As it is I think Mike would get the biggest bump up in this hypothetical as a win over a prime atg would solidify him in the top 5 imo. I already have Lewis at top 3/4 and I don't think this changes that. If Holy lost to a 91 Tyson it probably lowers his stock a bit.
- Douglas loss would still hurt Mike's legacy - can't see that scenario since Holyfield's loss to Bowe was very conclusive. Assuming he still has that loss to Bowe and retires after beating Tyson twice. I think people would always question why he retired without fighting Lewis - I don't think McCall loss hurt Lewis' legacy that much since it made him much better boxer than he was before. But Rahman loss - yes, it hurts his legacy a lot. However, had he beaten Rahman that night and never lost again, I don't think he would be considered #1 HW ever. He would probably be the strongest candidate at #3 spot (after Ali and Louis) but people will always remember the two biggest names he beat were either past prime (Holyfield) or totally shot (Tyson) plus both were much, much smaller than him. Bowe win would change a lot though, if we are talking about 1993-1995 version of Bowe
Personally I feel the Holy's loss to Bowe and Tysons losses are worse than Lewis's. Lewis was one shotted, whereas Holyfiel and Tyson were beat. Also, Lewis stopped the guys that stopped him.
