Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis

I'm not trying to discredit Lewis BTW but I do think him getting one shotted twice in his prime is a bit of a mark against him.

As I've said in previous threads I think Lewis and Holmes both have advantages and disadvantages over eachother.

Pros for Holmes......

Never lost in his prime.

Very consistent champion with alot of title defences.

Comeback from heavy knockdowns and showed alot of championship heart.

Pros for Lewis......

Beat every man he ever fought.

Had a good solid list of opposition in a good era for Heavyweights.

Unified the championship unlike Holmes.

 

The only cons that Lewis really has is that he was so frightening that everybody spent most of the nineties not trying to fight him, lol. Tyson gave him step aside money, Bowe dumped the belt (Still think he would've won against early Lewis, though), and he didn't get to fight Holyfield till way past his comeback.

 

Yeah he has three close fights against a past their best Norton, a young Witherspoon (which I thought he lost) and Williams as well as ducking several contenders, refusing to give Witherspoon or Williams a rematch, and finally cherry-picking a light heavyweight to try and match Marciano's record only to lose. While he had a great career and is in my top 5 along with Lewis I think Lewis overall ranks higher.

 

I think we just have a difference in how we evaluate fighters I focus on who they beat and how they beat them while not focusing too much on loses but you seem to place more emphasis on losses. Overall we can agree Lewis's era was better and he beat better fighters which is why I rank him higher. If you value other things more fair enough.

 

It’s close, surely we can at least agree on that.

 

I'd probably have Lewis over Holmes because he unified and had stronger opposition than Holmes.

But I think there is an argument for Holmes based on his number of title defences and never losing in his prime.

But as I said if you put me on the spot I'd probably give the edge to Lewis overall.

 

Sure I think they're both neck and neck and I would place them both in the top 5

 

He chose not to fight Witherspoon again because he was on a decline and chose to take it easy, he said that himself. Even then, was able to win out over guys like Smith and Williams. After that, he chose to fight Spinks because of the money, which likely added on to why he didn't fight guys like Witherspoon, Williams, or Thomas, for his next defense instead of Spinks.
I also refuse to believe that Norton was past his best against Holmes, that was one of the best performances of his life, probably only proceeded by his first win and "loss" over Ali.

 

Lewis was definitely the more active one and yeah, he can take the spot.
I wanna say Holmes, but Lewis definitely went for it more and definitely got the best win while past his best.
I am biased, to be fair. Lol

 

Fair enough we all have our biases lol

 

You've been speaking the truth, too. It's good to see.
I can get heated up talking about this stuff cause boxing means a lot to me.

 

1. Lewis' best moment was definitely 2 * 37-year-old, past prime Holyfield in two average fights. Holmes's best moment was the fight with the 35-year-old Norton, who was uncomfortable in his style, where Ken didn't look like a past prime and he was very lucky, and the fight was one of the best HW fights in history, Lennox has nothing comparable.
2. The worst moments are defeats, but Holmes never lost in the prime and Lewis did it twice in terrible style.
3. 42-year-old Holmes easily won against 30-year-old Mercer, who 5 years later gave prime Lewis a very tough, equal fight.
4. Lewis has never fought anyone like 35-year-old Norton, 21-year-old Tyson and 30-year-old Holyfield.
5. Lewis's victories look better on Wikipedia than they looked in the ring. Wins against Bruno, Briggs, Mavrowic, Holyfield, Mercer, Klitschko... these were not performances worthy of ATG

To sum up - Larry Holmes definitely and it's not even close!!

 

Its close. Holmes beat better boxers and Lewis beat more top punchers.

Skill wise, Witherspoon and Norton are better than virtually all of Lewis's opponents except maybe a completely past it Holyfield.

However, Lewis beat an absurd amount of big hitters - Tua, Ruddock, Morrison, Bruno, Golota, even Briggs.

Lewis didn't really avoid any challengers late in his reign while Larry did.

Still, Holmes could never really be stopped by one punch. In an all time tournament, i trust Holmes's chin to hold up better vs an upset.

Neither guy would win an all time tournament though despite their greatness. Lewis has a good chin but would always be susceptible to a one punch ko and Holmes has to work too hard each time to win since he doesn't have any major weapons except his jab.

I have Holmes at #3 on my atg list but you can make a case of anywhere from #3- #8.

Lewis, i have at #6. You can make a case of anywhere from #5 - # 9.

 

I find the claim that Holmes doesn't have any major weapons other than his jab extremely funny. Lol

 

Not really. holyfield was past his best, Tyson was pretty much shot.

Larry never lost in his prime for one. More importantly he never got knocked out by someone like hasim Rahman or Oliver McCall