Lennox lewis 90-98

who do you have as number 1 then? Holyfield?

 

He never got his chance to prove he was number 1 until '99. He quite possibly would have always beaten Bowe, Tyson and Holyfield, which he did when he fought them - don't forget that, they didn't want to fight him and when they did they all lost. You can say 'yea but, yea but, yea but' all you want but those are the facts.

Lennox was always skilled and always a physical beast, very fast, huge, very strong - maybe the strongest HW ever functionally. So that combination

The Golota and Rudduck wins are massive really, Golota effectively beat Bowe into retirement, so to blow him out in a round is huge. Not as big as beating Bowe, but very underrated. Rudduck had a fair share of success against a Tyson many considered best in the world and another blow out.

The Akinwande win for me is another underrated, Akinwande was black listed (and suffered from an illness) after that but he was 1 of the divisions greater talents - just look at footage of him. Morrison was quick handed with wins over Rudduck/Foreman and was dominated and ko'd. Mercer was also good enough to push Holyfield and Lewis to the finish line. Bruno had 1 of the best jabs in the division, so did Tucker

The McCall loss was sheer complacency against a boxer not near Lewis's class

From 90-91 he proved himself clearly the best in Europe cleaning out the best Euro contenders and the Mason (RIP) win is forgot, Mason was 35-0 and rated top5 in the world by some, Lewis retired him.

The Briggs win is very good - a completely dominant blow out. Briggs outboxed Bowe for periods and gave him plenty of trouble. Actually if you compare common opponents Lewis is outperforming Bowe with each one - Holyfield 2-1 versus 2-0, Golota, Briggs

So no Lewis didn't win the lineal championship until he blew out Briggs and didn't unify the division until Holyfield but he was beating many of the best names and probably was the best all along. It's a similar situation to Dempsey-Wills pretty much, except Lewis at the age of 34, past his own physical prime, eventually unified the situation

 

Lewis at his best ie the Ruddock Lewis would have beat any other heavyweight around during that timeframe - even an off night Lewis ie Bruno Lewis was too good when he decided to pull it out and let them have it - he was criminally avoided during this period - at the end of the day he was the real champion of the world when Bowe ducked him IMO

 

If you're looking at who was the best retrospectively it's obvious Tyson was never the best in the world in '96, it's obvious Bowe was never the best from 95-96. You have to ask 'when did Lewis overtake Holyfield in terms of ability' too, which may have been as early as '91. I certainly can't the see '94 version beating Lewis.

 

So you're talking who did most year on year, rather than 'who was the best'. If that's the case Bowe's claim probably goes out the window after his first Holy loss as his comp dropped off

As for Tyson, stylistically Tyson has a shot, but the 96 version is a question mark. Lennox has could neutralise Tyson's attacks. His chin is also better than advertised
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIRShCBKwng[/ame]

 

How does one spectacular performance erase what happened after the Ruddock fight. His struggles with Bruno and then getting flattened by Mcall, proved he wasnt close to the finished product. Lewis then went on to go life and death with Ray Mercer, who was beaten by Jesse Ferguson and Larry Holmes a short time earlier. Lewis wasnt a world beater until 1997, but Im not sure he ever beats prime versions of Holyfield Bowe and Tyson. He had too many holes in his game in the early 90's and it WAS exposed by lessor fighters.

 

No he didn't. You're thinking of another fatty that Briggs actually fought.

Otherwise, I agree with your post.

 

Oops I meant Biggs