He beat Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Vitali and Hasim Rahman. Doesn't that make him the greatest boxer ever?
Tua/Mercer/Morrison/Holyfield (twice)/McCall mean nothing to you? Anyways, he's definitely the P4P Best HW to ever exist.
I can imagine Oliver Mccall and Hasim Rahman Beating him....... It doesn't take much. And I'm a huge Lewis fan........ Keith
It took a cruiser who was considered shot or past his best to KO Louis... We all know what happened in the rematch. Both Louis and Lennox got lazy, they did the job the next fight.
Not resume wise. I'm not a troll so I won't lie to my fellow posters like that. No way is he GOAT resume wise. But h2h. Yes. Resume wise? top 5 Lennox Lewis's career break down Lewis have the honor of being the only modern day heavyweight to defeat every man he ever faced. He avenged both his fluke defeats in spectacular fashion and have a great resume. In the case of Lennox, it is not 1 or 2 wins that stands out but his amazing collective body of work that really puts him ahead of the pack. Lewis in his 15th fight fought a undefeated power puncher name Gary Mason. Gary Mason was 35-0 with 34 Knock outs. Let's think for a moment about just how special that is. Gary Mason's 'padded record' stage consists Tyrell Biggs, James Tillis, Lorenzo Boyd, Alfonzo Ratliff, Ricky Parkey, Donnie Long, James Pritchard, Mark Wills, Everett Martin, Louis Pergaud, Hughroy Currie, Terry Armstrong, David Jaco and Jess Harding. Compare those fights to the fighters Detontay Wilder knocked out and you will see the sheer skill difference between the two. Mason had a 99% knock out ratio heading into the Lewis fight. Lewis was a virtual youngster and he ended up knocking out the knock out artist. Lewis went on to ko Biggs and Weaver and put up a string of very good performances before entering a 4 men elimination tournament which consisted of Bowe-Holyfield Lewis-Ruddock. Razer Ruddock was one of the most feared punchers in the division and a solid favorite to beat the relatively unknown Brit. Lennox ended up destroying Ruddock in 2 rounds. What followed was one of the most despicable acts known to mankind as Riddick Big ***** Bowe decided to duck Lennox and throw his belt into the trashcan. Cheating Lewis of a possible career defining trilogy. Bowe was dominated by Lewis in the Olympics and never ever wanted to get within 200 miles of Lewis's fists ever again. Lewis lost motivation, but still managed to come from behind and knock out Frank Bruno (who is a very solid HW and would have been champion today). He also beat Tony Tucker, who is one of the most under rated heavies of the last 3 eras, Tucker went the distance with a prime Tyson and had Tyson fighting confused for stretches. He lost to Oliver Mccall via a debatable stoppage, regrouped and came back to dominate another underrated fighter in Tommy Morrison. Prime Ray Mercer followed. I hear some people joke about how Mercer was a split decision nail biting fight. These people don't know **** about boxing and should re watch the fight. The match was close and a prime Mercer fought his heart out, but lost steam starting from Round 5 and was eating Lewis right hands, combinations, along with long jabs to the face again and again. Lewis-Mercer was a very competitive 7-3 affair. Lewis went on to beat Mccall in the rematch, Lennox caused some sort of mental melt down from Mccall(some people say drugs, I say Lewis's right hand) Lennox went on to KO the very feared Golota in one round. Golota beat the living crap out of Riddick Bowe for 2 straight fights. His low blows was disgraceful, but it don't change the fact Golota won 90% of the rounds and beat Bowe half to death. Lewis was a under dog and knocked out Golota in 1 round. eljko Mavrović was a undefeated iron chin super champion from Europe and Lennox beat him 9-3. At best you can say it was a 8-4 fight. Zeljko had a lot of talent, heart and chin. What happened after the Lewis fight was a shame, a damn shame. To this day, Lewis was the only guy to have beaten Mavrovic, so many others tried, they all failed. With the exception of Lennox. Prime Shannon Briggs was knocked down numerous times and destroyed by Lennox in the fifth. Some of the most surreal shoulder roll defense was shown by Lewis in that fight. A decade later, a shot Briggs went 12 with a Prime Vitali. Lewis dominated and embarrassed a still elite Holyfield and won 10-2 on every score card imaginable to the human race. He was cheated by sand Devil Demon Don King. He went on to beat Holyfield again, albeit not as dominant as the first time. Michael Grant was hyped beyond belief. This ****er was the original Lucian Bute of the HW'S and he was Froched by Lennox. Grant was also 6'8 and a giant super HW with great athletic abilities. People say Golota and Grant didn't do anything after Lennox fought them, of course they didn't. Lewis broke them, they were done. Lennox went on to fight murderous super puncher David Tua and made Tua look like some kind of fat sparring partner. I had it 12-0 Lewis in the widest most dominant performance of all times when it comes to UD'S. If you think Wladimir dominated Haye, go watch Lewis-Tua, that is what true domination is all about. Oh btw, that version of Tua would have knocked out Haye in 4-5 Rounds tops. Lewis avenged his defeat against Rahman by throwing quite possibly one of the most ruthless 1-2 in boxing history and went on to dominate Mike Tyson. Lewis vs Mike is like Calzaghe vs Jones. Both Mike and Jones was shot, but Calzaghe and Lewis were past their best days as well. Lennox retired by beating Vitali, despite being a very fat 256+ and heavily under trained. HBO repeatly mentioned how fat and how under conditioned Lewis looked. Lewis against a Prime Vitali was a war and Lennox was coming on strong in the end. Rounds 4-6, Lennox was pouring it on and Vitali would not have survived past the 8th if the fight was not stopped.
I recognize this as a troll thread, but nonetheless. Nope. Top 10 Heavyweight, absolutely. Personally, I had him at #5 last time I was called on to do a top 10 list. But #1? Not a chance in hell. Cute.