I wrote my extensive reasoning for why he has a very very good resume a page back. I agree Smiffy, he beat everyone around except Bowe, and that was Bowe's fault not his. Golota effectively beat Bowe twice and Lennox blew him away in a round straight after that anyway.
Next to Ali, Lennox has the best resume. He fought everyone you could possibly fight except for Bowe and Foreman, who both publicly said no thanks. I used to have an article where Moorer said no thanks, but I can no longer find that one. The other two are well documented. One point that does hurt Lennox's resume is a few who would have had much more successful careers but for a variety of reasons were not able to accomplish more (Mavrovic, Mason, etc..). Holmes and Marciano have many more stiffs during their prime on their resume than Lennox does.
Lewis is grossly overrated by many boxing fans. He did not face ANY of the greatest fighter of his era until they were past their best, and one of them, Riddick Bowe, he didn't face at all. Holyfield, and particularly Tyson, were clearly past their best by the time Lewis faced them. Tyson was basically washed up. The rest of his opposition is rather ordinary - and two of these ordinary figthers knocked him out early. Lewis is the ONLY top level HW champion to be blasted out early by second-rate opposition twice when he held the title. The only one. Ultimately, Lewis has a decent resume, but hardly one that justifies the ridiculously high all-time rating some give him.
I agree with this. He didn't have to, but he should have. Especially since it seems likely (to me at least) that Lewis would have won the second fight more convincingly. Of course that's assuming he got in proper shape. It pissed me off when Lewis went around badmouthing Vitali after retiring without giving him a rematch. Seemed kind of ****y to me. Diminished my respect for him.
What a load of old tampax. Whose HW resume is stronger then, other than Ali's? I'm not saying there aren't any, but as you have such strong feelings on this, I'd like to hear who it is you're placing above him resume-wise.
its very good BUT...................................???????? he fought tony tucker 6 yrs past his prime he fought mike tyson 11 years past his best he fought evander holyfield 4 years past his best he fought tyrell biggs 4 years past his best he never gave vitali klischko a rematch but he beat a prime golota/bruno/grant/botha/tua/ all in all he should be in the hall of fame.........its not his fault tyson went too jail.........
I think this may be partly my problem in that I unconsciously view his resume against those at lower weights. The heavies simply do not have the advantage of shifting around to find elite fighters. Having said that it would have been nice to have seen him fight a prime Tyson, Holyfield, or even a prime Bowe - not really Lewis fault that he didn't though. Just to state again - I rate Lewis highly - but just asking questions here.
I agree with most of your sentiments about Vitali. At the time he was seen as the much better of the two (out of him and Wlad) as well.