Is Lennox Lewis's record & resume grossly, disgustingly, extremely suspect & overrated?

Considering most boxers take approx 17-20 fights to get to world level, and suffer a slip from prime in their final five or so bouts (sometimes many more if they don't know when to quit) and the average career is around 40-45 fights, it's pretty easy to dissect almost anyone's career, especially when you start from the perspective of doing precisely that. Nearly all careers are padded FFS, and the number of great fights within them are typically small in number.

Dumb thread, or low-grade trolling. Take your pick....

 

Name any fighter and I'll dissect it.

 

Lewis is definitely overrated, especially by UK fans. Small cruiserweight Chris Byrd matches his 3 BEST wins:

1. Vitali Klitschko - Lewis stopped him on cuts while losing the fight prior to stoppage; Byrd stopped Vitali on injury while losing the fight prior to stoppage. Vitali said on Ukrainian TV years later that his injury was caused by a MISSED punch. So, if Lewis caused Vitali's eye injury by his offence, Byrd caused Vitali's arm injury by his defence. And there were way more controversy in Lewis vs Vitali fight than in Byrd vs Vitali fight. Vitali WANTED to continue against Lewis, against Byrd he didn't want to continue.

2. Evander Holyfield. Byrd's win over washed-up, way past his prime Holyfield was much, much easier than Lewis win over slightly less but still clearly washed-up and past prime version of Holyfield.

3. David Tua. Lewis beat Tua by a wider margin, but Tua was in much better shape against Byrd - 12 lbs lighter (245 against Lewis and 233 against Byrd).

 

Lewis does tend to get a little overrated. He is clearly top 10 heavyweight for me but where he places in the top 10 is something I tend to ponder.
He clearly feasted on the relic of Tyson and the rapidly declining Holyfield (who gave him a very close fight in the rematch)
During the first half of the 90s I didn’t view Lewis to be a patch on Bowe, Holyfield and Tyson who was in exile. Commentators agreed listen to them in the Mercer fight. They feel he plateaud and not on the level of Bowe.
Lewis improved under Steward and bloomed late, he also was more dedicated than Bowe and Tyson post prison.
For me his best wins are Rahman 2, he totally outclassed Rahman and showed that a motivated Lewis was two levels above Hasim. Tua, who showed up fat but was a good heavyweight in their prime and for a time I would say Golota but Golota was a weird guy and apparently had some novacaine injection that went bad in the dressing room, so i’ll Replace that with Ruddock which was Lewis coming out party.
Tko 6 should of had rematch. Lewis was trailing and in the fight of his life that night. To be fair to Lewis he was also post prime and slightly overweight although he carried weight well.
Probably the most inconclusive big heavyweight fight that had a definitive ending - a stoppage- in a long time.
I like Lewis he mixed it up when he had to and he had a mean streak where he could really destroy an opponent. On the other side he could be out of shape at times and looked a little clumsy with an average chin for an atg.

 

There must be a way to dislike insects like this straight to the trash can they came from.

 

It's a better resume than that of any heavyweight boxer active today.

 

Pretty good resume.

 

While each of the OP's points are justified in isolation, what needs to be taken into account with any ATG fighter is the whole of their accomplishments. Lennox fought the who's who of the division in one of the deepest periods in HW boxing history, certainly the period with the largest number of punchers, and emerged with only two losses, both of which he avenged as soon as he could.

It's unfair to expect him to excel in every one of those fights, or to better past or future wins that others achieved against them, just as it's unfair to expect him to have been able to fight every single one of his top opponents at the peak of their game. There are just too many outside factors that go into making that feasible.

As for close decisions or controversial wins, almost every HW champ worth their salt has a few. It's next to impossible to be on your game time after time. What matters is that the win is obtained, in whatever fashion. Quibbling afterwards that it couldn't surpass another fighter's performance is nitpicking, unless there is a trend to be observed, and the fighter achieving the superior results is being avoided. So far as I know, that was never the case for Lennox.

Lennox didn't get to fight prime versions of a number of opponents he faced, but he didn't fight old, broken down versions of those fighters either, barring Tyson (who was still a very dangerous puncher, whatever erosion he had suffered over the years). Almost every top opponent he fought could have taken him out if he'd slipped up. That he was able to hold his nerve and emerge the victor in 42 out of 44 fights is more impressive than the fact that he didn't fight prime or undefeated versions of every one of them (which, like I said, is next to impossible in such a stacked division as Lennox fought in).

 

Rahman and McCall only won because Lewis was overconfident. If he had beaten them both in the first fight and retired undefeated, he'd have a strong case for GOAT.

 

OK, so he got caught by Rahman. Even so, Lennox was legit, no doubt.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been observing for years how wildly overrated Lewis is by some boxing fans - as many of the posts in this thread demonstrate. Lewis is the ONLY - the ONLY - top level HW ATG taken out in the early rounds not once, but TWICE, by B level mediocrities like McCall and Rahman.

When you add to this how he faced faded versions of the other two ATG level fighters of his era, Holyfield and Tyson, both of whom - Holyfield clearly so - should be rated higher on the ATG list, it's pretty clear that the rating some give him is grossly overinflated.

 

lol you can do that to any fighter if you take the time to twist it to your own agenda. unfortunately a terrible attempt in this case

 

Troolloloolololollo

 

This post saved me some typing. What the very biased OP did with Lennox's resume could be done with any ATG.

I have Lewis right behind Ali and Louis.