How good do you feel Lennox Lewis' resume is?

Great resume from a great fighter with slight blemish for not giving Vitali rematch that he promised but overall excellent record!

 

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Wrong. Ruddock was seen as one of the best heavies around because he gave Tyson two tough fights. He was the favorite. Lewis blew him out in 2 rounds.

Mercer just gave Holyfield a very close fight, no pushover either.

Golota had just hammered Bowe, who was seen as second best only to Tyson, and he did it twice. No one ever outclassed Bowe like that. Even the British reporter tipped Golota to win. The result? Golota layed out in 80 seconds.


Briggs was not that highly regarded, but he was linear champ, and it was a great fight.

Tua was touted as the next Tyson and looked great against Ibeabuchi (most had Tua winning, close though), he blew out Ruiz and basically everyone else he fought. Lewis didn't just beat him, he didn't drop a single round.

Grant was seen as the next big thing, a big athletic man who beat Golota. Lewis destroyed him in 2 rounds.

Vitali, see Grant, only Lewis struggled, but one can hardly blame him, considering he was 37 years old.

 

**** sake Lennox was old and shot and hardly trained and he still beat him didn't deserve a rematch.

 

I don't think his stock has necessarily increased drastically with time. I remember him being showered with acclaim after the Holyfield fights, and the Tyson fight, and after he retired.

I see what you're saying about the big names in his resume, but if you read my original post you will see that I do acknowledge it is to Lennox's detriment that he never fought them sooner.

Had Lennox fought Tyson after he was released (before Tyson fought Holyfield), and fought Holyfield around the same time, and fought Bowe earlier in the 1990s (after he had won the Holyfield trilogy, BEFORE the Golota double-header), and beat Vitali decisively in a rematch, then we'd be looking at one of the greatest resumes of modern times.

As it stands, his win over Tyson does not mean a lot in my eyes because Tyson was shot by then. Not merely past-prime like Holyfield was when Lewis fought him, but fully shot. However, the Holyfield win(s) were still good wins IMO. Holyfield had stopped Tyson and Moorer 1996-7, and beat John Ruiz in his next fight after Lewis. Of course this was nowhere near a prime Holyfield by 1999, but it was a good Holyfield. Evander wasn't shot til 2002-3 when he lost to Byrd and was stopped by Toney.

I give Lewis great credit for the Klitschko win, regardless of the slim deficit on the scorecards at the time of stoppage. I think that Vitali's retirement due to injury meant he didn't have the chance to build up a good resume, and that means people just now severely underrate him. Many times on this forum I've seen people say Wlad is the better fighter of the two - which I find just unbelievable! If it wasn't due to an injury v Byrd, Vitali would have gone into the Lewis fight 32-0(31). Corrie Sanders stopped Wlad in two, Vitali ****ing dominated him and stopped him in a brutal 8 rounds. Ross Purrity stopped Wlad - Vitali stopped him too. Vitali was huge, immensely strong, chin of iron - a simply stupendous heavyweight h2h. He would doubtlessly have gone on to become the undisputed heavyweight king after Lewis had he not suffered injury.

As far as I know, Lewis only knew Vitali was going to be his opponent for that fight a short time before, and thus hadn't prepared for such a threat. Lewis struggled early on, but (like so many other times in his career) made a mockery of those who criticize him for a 'Glass Jaw' by slugging it out with Vitali, and I think he was gradually turning the tide at the time of the stoppage.


So, Lewis never got the big names at the right times, but he got them in the end, and his wins over Holyfield, Klitschko, Ruddock and IMO Tua (underrated win) were highlights.

Golota must also be considered a special win. At the time he was 28-2 (the '2' being 2 DQs after he had beaten Riddick Bowe to a pulp), it was a SENSATIONAL win that has sadly depreciated with time as Golota's career nosedived after that.

All in all, very good resume.

 

What heavyweight champ ever beat your so called "elite fighters"? I'll give you Ali if you say him, I can't think of any more though. Louis had hi bums of the month, Marciano beat old men and lightweights, Holmes beat a half dead Ali, Tyson beat an old Holmes and a light heavyweight Spinks who lost twice to holmes but got the decisions, Holyfield beat Bowe 1 out of 3, Bowe beat Holy and no one else and had the **** beaten out of him by Golota twice.
"Vit" is not the best name on Lewis' record, nothing like, who did Klitschko ever beat? His best wins are Sanders and Donald, that's a crap record

 

WOW! Ha ha, the entire history and tradition of the great heavyweight division has just been DECIMATED in a couple of sentences by Mr Bassie! You cynical *******! Joking of course, but what a savage comment! I'm off to rethink my boxing, and my life...

 

what i was gonna say. apart from the nuff bit

 

I rate Lennoxs resume highly. One of the great heavyweights of our time

 

You mean the naff bit.

 

disagree with ruddock, at the time he was meant to bash lennox up. just lost controversially to a tyson people thought was invincible still.

 

true though isnt it, he beat everyone he faced and with the exception of bowe all the big names in a 10 year period.
cant say fairer than that.

 

Whether you like it or not, they were all top contenders and elite fighters at the time they fought. Were they all Ali's, Holmes' and Marciano's? No, but let's be real here, outside of Ali, heavyweights barely ever get to beat a great in his prime.

 

Lewis beat every fighter worth fighting in his era, Holyfield, Vitali Klitschko, Mercer, Tyson (altho the fight happened 5 years too late), Ruddock, Morrison, Tucker, McCall, Bruno, Golota, Briggs, Botha, Rahman, Tua... , so you can't really complain about his resume.

With the exception of Riddick Bowe of course, but that wasn't Lennox fault. He beat him in the amateurs tho.

Maybe he could've fought Michael Moorer and George Foreman too, but you can't do everything I guess...