I want to start the thread that I believe Lennox Lewis is top 5 head to head all-time great, and one of the best ten heavyweights on accomplishments and quality of opposition fought. This was my view of him long before his final match. But what if Lewis didn't get the re-match vs. McCall and Rahman? How would his career be viewed? Less for sure, but how much so? Another question to ponder? Lennox had tough fights vs Bruno, Mercer, and Vitali Klitschko. He won them all, however, he was down on points in two matches, and some felt the other could have been a draw. Suppose he offers Bruno, Mercer, and Vitali a re-match and looses at least once? Does his legacy take a hit?
If he offered Bruno an immediate rematch there`s a chance he could have lost because the reason he did so bad was because his right hand wasn`t straight enough, Steward corrected that so if the rematch had been made after Manny helped Lewis with his flaws Bruno wouldn`t be able to win. Losing to Bruno would ended Lewis`s legacy, the other two would have hurt it badly but with Vitali he could be helped if it was close. Mercer and Vitali were both better than Bruno.
If he never avenged his losses to Rahman and McCall he'd have a permanent question mark over his head. Every Lewis vs X thread would have somebody questioning his chin and heart and saying that "Lewis should win except of course if he gets tagged hard or has a war". Conversely if he'd rematched Vitali again and beat him a second time without the cuts controversy, especially at that age, he'd have entire nations of fans hanging off his sack.
I think the more interesting question is if Lewis stayed with Pepe Correa instead of firing him and being trained by Emanuel Steward. Steward really improved Lewis as a fighter. Before he had Steward, Lewis to me always seemed off balance. He frequently had his legs very far apart when he fought. I think Emanuel himself said that one of the biggest things he worked on with Lennox was his balance. Also have to give Lennox credit for being strong enough mentally to improve his style and win the rematches. Although Oliver McCall shouldn't have been in the ring during the second fight, and the draw against Holyfield was a robbery. In fact Evander was better in the second fight, but after getting knocked out cold by Rahman, he flipped the script most impressively.
The other thing Steward fixed was his prep. Apparently Lewis had woeful sparring partners and training camps. So the benefits were multi faceted.
