Is Lennox Lewis the most skilled "giant" in boxing history?

This reply is a bit all over the place. What has strength and reach to do with technicla skill?

And you say that AJ moves his head more but Lewis had better upper body movement. How does those fit together? Lewis moved his chest better? Or are you saying he was a shoulder roller? Would disagree in that sense.

You say that AJ had better fundamentals, is a better combination puncher at midrange and moves his head more, which seems to pretty much equate what I said.

Lewis was smarter and mentally stronger. On that we agree. Would have been interesting if he had ran across a prime Usyk, though, what that would have done to his legacy. Props to AJ for doing better in the rematch. Who knows, if he hadn't ran across the, to my mind, most skilled HW ever, maybe he would have rebuilt his confidence and his career developed differently.

 

More movement from the waist, Lewis was more agile and flexible/fluid, he was also better at leaning back from punches. Lewis rolled with punches better and was just as good at blocking punches.

You said joshua has a better overall game but Lewis does almost everything better and has more tools, joshua is more athletic but only a better combination puncher at midrange. Lewis has superior combination punching at close range and had a better 1-2

 

AJ had better guard, so better at blocking punches. Yes, Lewis leaned back more, but that's a negative in terms of head movement. Lewis had a a good uppercut in close, but I prefer AJ's uppercut overall and I haven't seen much inside game from Lewis except for thet one.

Maybe better 1-2 from Lewis, but overall more variety to AJ.s combos, and better counters.

Lewis had much of the "big guys flaws", i e things you get away with due to being bigger. Sloppy guard, pulling the head back, stiff arming (which actually is against the rules) and often pawing with the jab (it was very good as a classic jab when he used it as such, though) and 1-2 as pretty much the combo. Wlad was even more so, but they got their style to work very well for them after some early set backs.

AJ was a big fighter with proper fundamentals, if a bit stiff. Did everything well. He never pulled himself together after his setbacks and found a groove like they did, but they on the other hand didn't have to fight Usyk twice.

But I'm kind of just repeating this, so I'll leave it at that.

 

Lewis has dropped more people with his uppercut than aj and had an active guard compared to aj; used his lead to paw, frame to create space and probe, and this more variable lead hand had made him better at hiding the right hand. The lower position of Lennox's left is also part of the reason why his jab is so stiff compared to ajs. Lewis wasn't as much of a robot and didn't need to hold his hands up as often because he had better footwork and was just smarter

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Lewis had more variety with his combinations at close range and blocked plenty, moved his head before following up and knew how to roll with punches as shown against Ray Mecer. I don't see how aj has more creative offense??? Look at these sustained exchanges.

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Ajs best display of offensive was against Whyte and Lewis clearly has more creative offense against a more skilled fighter than Whyte

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Aj didn't get hit less against world level opposition. Lewis had more effective defense, was more skilled and someone like old Pulev doesn't make Lewis's top 10 opponents.

 

Almost nobody ever mentions mental strength/discipline either. 50% of the game at that level.

 

Again, as I said it's such a pet peeve of mine. And not just in boxing. There are countless other examples where an athlete with transcendent gifts dominate in spite of the lack of fundamentals or "skills," simply because what the man upstairs endowed him.

And thanks for the Stable-Scott reference. I did have to look that up!

 

Yes probably followed by Fury