Lennox Lewis faces George Foreman in 1983-1994. How does it unfold?

Yes, Bruno`s jab gave Lewis a lot of trouble in 93 however Bruno had an 84 inch reach while Foreman only had a 78 inch reach, I feel Lewis would have beat Foreman to the jab due to his massive reach advantage, Foreman never beat a fighter with an 84 inch reach.

 

Well correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't George given a very slow path on his comeback in the late 80s to get back in shape? So let's say he was at his best around 90/91, I still think a young Lewis batters him pretty good. I personally don't rate old Foreman that much, I think he was about prime Bonecrusher Smith level.

 

Yeah, could be.

 

Possibly. Lewis hated being jabbed at and liked controlling the pace. I have a suspicion this is part of the reason he didn't want to fight jab spamming guys like John Ruiz who wouldn't just let Lewis control them and would turn it into a painfully slow technical fight.

 

Apparently I heard John Ruiz got the better of Lewis in sparring, not sure how true that is but you never know. Ruiz might of give Lewis a tougher fighter than you might think.

 

I'm not convinced that an older Foreman follows up if he hurts Lewis. Lewis UD is the safest decision I just don't think Foreman will get past that jab either. Nor do I see Lewis getting cocky to give Foreman more opportunity for a punchers chance.

 

That`s about right but he had more guile than the extremely limited Smith.

 

OMG! Lewis was on another planet to Ruiz who give a crap about some sparring?

 

Ruiz wasn`t a big name nobody would have interested in Lewis v Ruiz.

 

Except that the versions of Tua and Morrison that Lewis faced were nowhere near as good as they were several years earlier. Tua's lack of conditioning and excess weight severely hampered his mobility and punch output, and Morrison looked ill by that point (the fact is he was). Those were far from their best versions. As for Briggs, he rocked and stumbled a prime Lewis in those first few rounds. Something Briggs was unable to do in his previous fight against a 48-year-old Foreman where he was awarded a dubious decision.

 

Yes we're all aware of that I didn't need you to state the obvious, all I was saying is that Ruiz may of had a style that troubled Lewis. He gave Lewis trouble in sparring that may or may not have any revelance. But Lewis was stripped of his title for not facing Ruiz, now I'm not suggesting that Lewis ducked Ruiz. But he may of thought Ruiz had a style that might of gave him some issues and made him look bad.

Overall on paper obviously Lewis is light years ahead of Ruiz, but as I said boxing can be a strange sport at times. And Ruiz may of gave Lewis more trouble than you might think. Remember Ruiz actually floored and badly hurt Holyfield, the same Holyfield who was fresh off almost beating a prime Lennox Lewis in their 2nd fight. I don't think many people would of thought Ruiz would've done that, especially after Holyfields performance against Lewis.

 

I think Ruiz would be tailor made for Lewis. Couldn't outbox him at range and would be unlikely to be a single punch KO threat. I'd expect it to look somewhere inbetween Lennox's fights with Morrison and Botha. Ruiz was more durable than either, but it would be one way traffic for as long as it lasted.

 

Lewis very well could've blown away Ruiz I'm not saying he wouldn't of. All I was saying is that I've heard stories that Ruiz handled Lewis in sparring, and Lewis was also stripped of the title for not fighting Ruiz. Does any of this mean anything ? Probably not. But I was mostly replying to @Glass City Cobra who commented that maybe Ruiz could of gave Lewis some trouble with his style, so I was just bringing up some points regarding that.

As i said though if Holyfield had never fought Ruiz, would anyone on this forum believe that a Holyfield fresh off coming close to beating a prime Lewis. Would lose to Ruiz whilst getting dropped and badly hurt ? Ruiz beat pretty much the same version of Holyfield that Lewis fought. Unless you think Holyfield aged considerably in 1 fight well i guess that's up for debate.

But overall i don't think anyone doesn't believe that Lewis wouldn't beat Ruiz, but Ruiz may surprise a few people by being more competitive than some may think. But on flip side as i said Ruiz could very well get blown away early, but apart from Tua catching him cold before he become established. Ruiz was normally pretty durable and wasn't an easy guy to stop.

 

He did in fact duck Ruiz. The fact Ruiz gave him trouble in sparring does raise an eyebrow. I think he saw something in Ruiz that made him not want to fight him.

 

I don't know how this somehow became a Lewis vs Ruiz thread. All I was saying was that Lewis didn't like being jabbed at and a Ruiz fight would probably annoy Lewis, win lose or draw, due to the clash of styles.

Lewis would need to find some way to neutralize, take away, or avoid Foreman's jab because it would be a constant threat and in his face every round. It was big, powerful, and hard to dodge. Even prime Hoylfield got nailed by it several times.