Lennox Lewis Against Ali's Later Opponents?

You forgot about the Lion of Flanders, Jean Pierre Coopman. I think he'd last about one minute vs Lennox at best.

 

Hi Fergy. Lennox would have to be favoured to beat all Muhammad's post-Foreman opponents with the exception of Larry Holmes. Although if he gets careless I see Earnie Shavers and Ken Norton chinning him with a big right.

 

I think Holmes wins easier than people think. Holmes in 1980 is much better than Holyfield in '99, than Mercer in '96, not to mention Rahman and McCall. Nevertheless, Lewis would have a chance against him, but I'm very confident in favor of Holmes. As for the rest, a focused Lewis beats everyone, quite easily. Of course, you can't be 100% ready for every fight, and as others have said, fighters like Lyle and Shavers have a puncher's chance because they're better than those who knocked Lewis out, but a focused Lewis would still win in a rematch because he's simply better. I think Leon from the first Ali fight would have a better chance than Shavers. Unfortunately, he's too lightweight, and in nine out of ten fights, Lewis crushes him.

 

Yet Cooney was out jabbing Holmes at points in their fight. You don't think Lewis would present the same issues?

And Lewis is much better then Norton and Witherspoon who gave prime Holmes close fights. And better then Cooney who gave Holmes a competitive fight before gassing because of his lack of experience.

 

I don't really remember Cooney out jabbing Holmes to the extent Mercer did to Lewis.

Mercer was only 6'1 aswell and really had no business out jabbing Lewis to the extent he did.

Of course Lewis is going to cause Holmes issues but I think Holmes's extra speed, better jab, and superior stamina will be the difference over the distance.

 

Nobody in Ali’s later career beats Lewis except for maybe Holmes. And that’s assuming that we’re counting him

 

Truthfully don't recall Mercer out jabbing Lewis either. From what I remember most of his success came from walking through Lewis's punches to land hard shots. But Lewis was still landing more punches. Might have to rewatch.

But I was surprised by how much success Cooney had with his jab against Holmes. Holmes was clearly the better fighter overall, but once Cooney committed to the jab, it did start to trouble him. Cooney didn’t have the tools to build off that success, but it’s still a good example of a slower, less “snappy” jab being effective because of size and length. That’s relevant here because Lewis has a far more developed jab than Cooney, so there’s a clear pathway for him to find success in a similar way but also having the tools to build off that success.

 

I watched a few Mercer fights awhile ago and I was quite surprised by a few of his fights.

The Lewis fight Mercer actually out jabbed Lewis and Lewis actually pulled it out with power punches down the stretch.

And you'd think it would be opposite.

With the Witherspoon fight Mercer was actually feeling Witherspoon's punches and then had to box on the backfoot and out jabbed Witherspoon aswell.

Two different approaches to the fights but Mercer out jabbed two fighters who have very established jabs which surprised me.

My issue with Lewis is that I'm not sure he has the stamina to beat Holmes over the distance.

Lewis was visibly very tired against Holyfield 2, Mavrovic. And Holmes is one of the best Heavyweights in the later rounds.

So unless Lewis stops Holmes which is a possibility I think Holmes wins on points IMO.

 

Mercer's jab was very powerful and snappy in that fight. Even though Holmes's jab is faster I actually think in some ways Mercer's jab would have been more difficult to handle because it had the power to stun Lewis.

 

I think Lewis finished well in the Holyfield fight despite being tired. From what I remember he won most of the later rounds at least on my scorecard only really losing the 12th. Same thing against Mavrovic even though he was tired he still won the later rounds. Holmes does tend to finish better but that comes from taking off the middle rounds to have the energy to win the later rounds. Whether he can afford to do that against Lewis idk would be risky. And whether it would be enough especially if its a 12 round fight idk. 15 he would probably have an advantage at least if it gets that far.

 

Let's just say this to agree to disagree.

Lewis would have a better chance over 12 rounds.

Holmes would have a better chance over 15 rounds.

 

On what basis do you think Whitearspoon and Norton are so much weaker than Lewis? Norton has Ali, who is better than all the opponents Lewis has fought and lost to. Whitearspoon did just as well against Mercer in '96 as Lewis, and he was older than the old Holmes from the Tyson fight. Besides, what you probably don't know, Norton and Whitearspoon's style is completely different from Lewis's! They throw punches differently, defend differently, and move differently. They're actually quite similar in that respect, and perhaps that style was a problem for Holmes.

 

Because one is a ATG the other two are good or even every good fighters but not nearly on the same level. Neither has consistently beaten the level of fighters that Lewis has.

 

Nonsens.ATG is a resume. You can have a great career, but in the ring, it's athleticism that counts... Leon Spinks' fight with Ali proved that. Who is Leon next to Muhammad? Hearns was ATG when he couldn't beat Barkley and Duran Laing. And countless others.

Whitearspoon's career was poorly managed; in reality, he was just as effective a fighter. Norton was the same