Loads of peeps my age (late teens/20s) never heard of Lennox Lewis, yet IMO i think he's top 3 greatest heavyweights ever. Why do you think he is only rated by boxing purists?
lennox lewis for the record defeated all the known heavyweights from his era tyson,holyfield,rahman,tua,vitaly, but he's from another country so he doesn't get the credit he deserves.
He is certainly an all-time great; I think many people realize that He was obviously not undefeated, but by way of rematch, he beat every man ever placed in front of him It's rare for a fighter of his size to be as good as he was Lewis was on another level than Tyson ( partially due to his size advantage ) but Lewis don't seem to get the notoriety and fame that Tyson does. As we all know this is due to style and dramatic knockouts, but overall, Lewis was a much better fighter
I don't think that he's underrated. He's been ko'd twice and while he beat Holy, he never overwhelmed him which told me that some smaller heavyweights with speed and movement could give him problems. But that list isn't long at all. Lewis just came along at a bad time. Holy was past it, Tyson was in jail and then past it. He had no true contemporary. Bowe just flat out ducked him. But Lewis proved that if you beat me, I'll rematch you and beat you. I loved Lewis as a fighter. He never ducked anyone. He had a huge heart and Lewis is the epitome of "we started from the bottom now we here"! Lol. When you don't do rematches, history will penalize you. History will be fair to Lewis.
Pinheadzy, lewis took Holyfield to school in the 1st fight and robbed disgracefully. Holyfield was coming towards Lewis all night and got banged up casually. The second fight was closer but I didn't see any lighter man with movement, Holyfield wanted to do damage and was on thenfront. Did you watch them fights?