Chagaev Rahman 2008 Thompson Ibragimov I'm thinking.... Chagaev KO 3 Rahman KO 1 Thompson KO 2 Ibragimov KO 5 All in Lewis's favour obviously...
Well, first of all, i'd easily pick Lewis over them, but then i would've picked Lewis over McCall and Rahman as well... or Ali over Norton, or Holyfield over Moorer. Fact is that in a career-sense, many upsets happen, so these kind of predictions are a bit twisted. Be that as it may: Chagaev - i think the Uzbeki would do better against Lewis than he did against Wlad, simply because Wlad takes absolutely no risk and picks him apart with machine like precision, whereas Lewis is likely to mix it up more and perhaps lose a few rounds. A guy who like to fight in close with a very solid chin could give Lewis some trouble, watch the Mercer fight. Chagaev wasn't stopped because he couldn't take any more shots, he was stopped because he kept shipping punch after punch without being able to hit Wlad in return. I suspect he takes more punishment from Lewis, but also gives some in return, which results in a somewhat wide decision win for the Brit. Rahman 2008 - Lewis by easy KO. Rahman has a smaller puncher's chance (as we saw), but that is very unlikely. Ibragimov - Lewis by decision. I think Ibragimov has a solid beard and pretty good skills. Lets not forget Lewis never fought a highly ranked southpaw. However, i don't think Sultan's attack-in-spurts would bother Lewis too much. Roger Mayweathers tactics work very nicely against someone slow on his feet like Briggs, but the 2004, very aggressive version of Ibragimov who knocked out Whitaker, would match up better with Lewis (and Wlad, for that matter). Lewis comfortable decision. Thompson, again a southpaw, is hard to look good against.. no one's done it. He also has a strong chin, but isn't too powerful. Lewis was always very aggressive against big opponents, but Thompson is not that easy to hit and can take a lick... i suspect Lewis by TKO during the late rounds, as Tony runs out of stamina. After a lot of ugly rounds. Lewis was great.
The Thread starter also does not mention that Lewis wanted nothing to do with Vitali after there first fight. What a stupid thread. Lewis ducked the rematch.
Why was Lewis obliged to fight Vitali in a rematch? He was going downhill and he knew it, he retired at the right time. As far as I'm convinced, even if Vitali beat Lewis I wouldn't rank the win that highly, not even as high as McCall or Rahman's wins over primer versions. The fact is Lewis retired because he was past his prime, he knew he was and didn't want to risk his legacy. That classless ***** Vitali wishes he had a 1/3 of the resume Lewis did, and prime-for-prime Vitali's getting knocked the **** out.
of course lennox wins, unless he gets caught in the jaw, but that proves nothing, and oh yeah for all future heavyweight debates, Mike Tyson (summer of '88) destroys any heavyweight we've ever seen . prime lewis versus prime tyson = trevor berbick!
Tyson in his prime was indeed great, awesome combination of speed and power, very good chin, aggressive, closed the distance well with great head movement. But he struggled with taller guys like James Tillis, who is still quite a bit shorter and far less skilled than Lewis. Tyson in his prime was an enigma because of how he destroyed fighters, but all of his wins we are talking B level at best. Prime-for-prime, I'd pick Ali to stop him in 10, Lewis to prevail via close decision, as perhaps controversially I would Holyfield, who I feel had the beating of any version of Tyson.
