how much credit do you give lewis for his rematch win over mccall?

An excellent victory.

 

FFS do you actually think about engaging your brain before running off your big mouth? It is well known how the subhuman scum King froze Lewis out for as long as possible, until court proceedings forced his hand. :roll::roll:

Btw, it was that same piece of sh!t that dragged McCall out of rehab to stage the " fight " so if you want to p!ss and moan about it, do so with him.

 

I don't really ever credit fighters for "avenging" a defeat. It doesn't wipe the slate clean. It improves the record but the result of the first fight still stands just as legitimately.

Someone has already mentioned that Lewis only stands at 1-1 with McCall and Rahman anyway.
So, at best, he "evens the score". If you want to consider the two seperate fights as a series, a combined score.

And even then, you should acknowledge that the fighter who wins the first match perhaps holds the more important and meaningful result.
I mean, in modern times fighters usually just face their opponents once and there's never been any rule that says you have to win two fights against an opponent to prove a point.

Lennox Lewis knocked a lot of men out as well, and he didn't have to prove it was no "fluke" by taking them on again.


I DO CREDIT Lewis for beating McCall in 1997 though. It's a win. The opponent wasn't great but a win is a win.

 

I give a lot of credit to certain rematched and they have often helped a fighters reputation no end, deservedly so.

Lewis' win over Rahman immediately after the initial loss verified the fact that Lewis had come in under prepared in various facets. He had given the bout no-where near the emphasis he should have and did not factor in/respect the altitude (Rahman did) and was filming in Las Vegas when he should have been over there preparing.

This conclusive win validated what had gone on before the first fight and showed the result to be an aberration. If not for the immediate redemption there would forever be people thinking Rahman could have turned the trick again or disregarding the talk as the usual old excuses after a loss. Having the rematch so quickly after the first fight and fighting so dominantly helped Lewis' legacy without a doubt. He is still accountable for the first loss, it was his own fault and he paid the price however the rematch saved quite a bit of face.

Another very important rematch of a similar ilk was Duran's with Dejesus and for good measure they did it a third time. Important wins for Duran, and if not for them his legacy would have taken a (much bigger) hit and we'd have detractors running around ESB claiming Esteban (lets say he stopped fighting immediately after the first match or died or whatever) would have always beat him abd the bout was a sure sign of his weaknesses and so and so therefor ewould have beaten him etc etc etc.

Lewis' win over McCall is no-where near as compelling due to time passed and McCall's condition but i give him credit for getting back in there and dealing with what was in front of him. I have seen many posts in here talking about how he "beat every man he ever fought" or words to that effect and it's easy to see the cumulative two wins have helped him in the eyes of many posters. Not many greats can claim such an honour.

 

I disagree with most of that John, for one simple reason. There are some circumstances in which a fighter comes into a fight underprepared that are beyond his control but he has to honour the contract, and they are both legitimate and too numerous to mention.

As far as I am concerned acting like a star struck kid hanging around with pretentious actors in Las Vegas isn't one of them. If nothing else it shows a complete lack of respect for the title / titles being fought for. That is a far blacker stain on Lewis than the original loss or the rematch for me.

That said the McCall debacle is a different story. Lewis was prepared, got dropped was up at 6 and trying to tell the ref he was ok. King then took over control of the WBC title and this happened.

I believe given the opportunity Lewis would have rematched McCall earlier, and as stated no one with any common sense can lay the blame at Lennox's door for King dragging Oliver out of rehab to fight.

 

His defensive abilities were poor in the McCall fight allowing him to be timed with a winged shot.

By Rahman he was a complete fighter but poorly focused and if he can be like that in his prime he can be like that any time.

Every fantasy fight will always have the caveat "however, if Lewis loses focus..."

 

Whether or not he was in his prime at 36 is debatable. However what is beyond any doubt is the fact Lewis was NOT in prime condition for the Rahman fight in South Africa. Too busy filming sh!t in Las Vegas with a bunch of " celebridies "

 

He's not the first one to come into a bout underprepared tho. He was near the tail of his career and may have had his eyes the post boxing prize. I did say it was his own fault and he was accountable.

Everyone will place their own degree of importance on various aspects of the sport of course.

Fine stuff, once you fell out with King it could be a damn tough road. I remember Witherspoon spending ages out in the wilderness because of it among others. McCall could have been seriously hurt, Lewis is one of the biggest punchers ever and McCall was just plain eerie.

 

Lewis was always focused for the big fights and not focused for what, one bout in his entire career that we know of. He's going to be on song for every fantasy fight going. He was fighting at a very high level for a decade and let himself down just one time.

 

Very little credit.

The same as I would have given any other fighter beating a totally washed up version of a fighter.

Otherwise, Leon Spinks, TBE!

 

Exactly and he only has himself to blame.

 

He came in unfocused and there's always a danger of it happening any time in his career. After all it happened in real life so can easily happen I'm fantasy fight word.

 

Not against top opposition, not a chance. He was unfocused in a smaller bout once in a decade and a bit unprepared in his last ever when he was over the hill. In all his big fights he was bang on ready to rumble, every time.

 

Full credit. Lewis fought much smarter, clearly controlled the fight, had McCall confused and frustrated, and unable to do anything effective. Folks forget that McCall was making the same weird faces before their first fight too. He tried, but when Lewis was blasting him with shots and not getting countered like the first time, McCall started playing games, trying to lure Lewis into a trap. But it wasn't working. Lewis fought a smart, disciplined fight and showed the respect he should have showed the first time around.

 

You say not a chance, but the real results show it already happened.

Would Lewis have beaten Sanders? If prepared, yes. That's the caveat he has to endure now.