If Lennox Lewis fought the guys Ali fought

Many of them would have been KO'd.

 

That is wrong logic. You bring an absolutely best verison of Lennox against every Ali's opponent. It's only possible in imaginable world whereas in the real life Lennox had his ups and downs, good and bad fights.

More than that, Lewis' career lasted far less than Ali's.
14 years to 21, 44 fights to 61. That's a BIG difference.

Lewis was clearly starting to decline in his 44th fight at his 14th year as a pro.

Imagine Lennox after 21 years of pro career in his 60th fight facing PEAK Larry Holmes (and Lennox nearing 40)

Larry Holmes would definitely dominate and knock him out (once more - 40 y.o. Lennox in his 60th fight won't be even slightly competitive against Holmes).

In imaginable world you take Lewis from Rahman II fight against any Ali opponent and suppose he ends up undefeated or with one loss.

In the real world, Lennox was defeated twice in a 7-year timespan and less than 20 fights (McCall 1 to Rahman 2)

In imaginable world, you can also take peak version of Vitali Klitschko (at his absolute best), put him against all Lewis' opponents and Vitali goes undefeated against them. It doesn't work in real life though.

 

Lewis improved drastically after Steward started training him, he was still green when he fought Mercer, only a few fights in having Steward training him.

 

Lewis would have lost to Holmes the only other threat would have been Foreman, who was a master at setting up knock outs, Frazier landed a lot of fast counter hooks but was too short to beat Lewis, Norton was a good boxer ut not good enough.

 

You are so very right. I am old, but I realize, that time changes. Most, if not all, of Ali's opponents could have made the cruiser limit. The only true superheavyweigth Ali fought was really Foremanand maybe Blue Lewis.

 

Lewis beats all of them, that includes the de-powered Superman Ali fought in 1978.

 

While I always respect your posts and your common sense way of looking at things, I do have a couple of points to make.

You're right in that I also don't see many of Ali's opponents scoring a one punch KO over Lewis. However, I also don't see any of Lewis opponents one punch kayoing him, yet two of them did. Things happen.

In your scenario of Lewis going 60-1 or 61-0, is he always in his prime or is he starting young and aging like Ali did. I ask because Ali was 22-0 and a world champion at the age Lewis turned pro. It is unlikely Lennox beats all the guys Ali fought including Sonny Liston while he was still an amateur. The flip side of that is that Ali was completely shot and losing to Holmes at the age when Lewis was beating Klitschko.

 

Extremely well.
Many of Ali's wins, including name wins, were vs. Cruisers (e.g. Patterson, Quarry) or beefed up Lt. HWs (e.g. Cooper). By 2000s standards, even his life & death trilogy w/ Frazier was vs. a beefed up CW; Norton would be a smallish, chinny HW (ffs, he was chinny in the era he actually fought in).

Lewis might lose once vs. Ali's best opponents on an off night. Who? Maybe Foreman? Who lost to feather fisted Young & rope a doped by a past prime Ali. Frazier? Too small, LL could win in so many ways. Shavers, who was KO1 by Quarry & even worse KO5 by crude Ron Stander? All LL has to do is survive the early attack and he stops Earnie mid rounds or sooner. Lyle, who was out boxed by Quarry? Just stop with the syrupy nostalgia of the TWO generations ago HWs.

Bottom line: Lewis record vs. Ali's opponents would be much better than Ali's record vs. Lewis opponents.

 

Who exactly of Lewis' opponents would you favor to beat Ali? Washed up Holyfield? Or beyond shot Tyson? Or grossly overweight one-dimensional Tua? Or Donovan Ruddock who never beat a single good (let alone great) prime opponent? Or probably glass cannons Tommy Morrison and Frank Bruno? Or as average as they come Hasim Rahman (KO'ed twice by Maskaev) and Oliver McCall (schooled by small cruiserweight Orlin Norris and dozen of other guys)? Or maybe Golota, who found the way to lose every meaningful fight of his career? Or Ray Mercer, who was outboxed by 42-years-old Larry Holmes, journeyman Jesse Ferguson and another journeyman Marion Wilson? Or Zeljko Mavrovic, whose best win was Julius Francis? Hell, the ONLY guy in Lewis' resume which I wouldn't consider an absolutely hopeless underdog against Ali would be Vitali Klitschko. Ali would toy with others from that overrated resume

 

Are you talking about the same guy who was ko'ed by Rahman and McCall?

 

Yet Usyk at Alis size disposed of the great giant in Anthony Joshua, twice.

 

He's favourite over all of them, but Ali fought a lot of punchers, and Lennox was sparked by at least two second-rate ones.

So the idea that one could confidently predict him to get through the greatest resume in Heavyweight history unscathed is a bit silly.

 

Pretty much this I don't really like these threads because you normally get absurd comments from both sides and theres been a few already.

Realistically if Lewis had to fight 60 odd times then hes going to end up with a few losses, Lewis got one shotted twice by McCall, Rahman. Struggled vs a an older Holyfield, was behind on points to Bruno, barely scrapped by an overweight Mercer, and looked lackluster vs Mavrovic.

In real world Lewis isn't going to at 100 percent peak for every fight, he'd be green and without Emanuel Steward vs the likes of Sonny Liston. He'd be past it vs big punchers like Lyle, Shavers. And theres also other tricky stylistic opponents and other big punchers who could be possible banana skins for Lewis.

Overall Lewis would end up with a few losses as would pretty much any top Heavyweight in history, it's the toughest list of Heavyweights in history to get through and no one would run the gauntlet in a realistic scenario.

Lewis would probably have an easier time vs the likes Norton because he has more power and presence in size, but then on flip side could be knocked out in early stages of his career or at that latter part because simply Lewis isn't as durable as Ali.