Lennox Lewis : good chin, poor defense ?

Lewis had a very decent chin in the overall scheme of things. I don't believe he had a bad chin at all, but what cost him at times was, yes, his arrogance. Sometimes Lewis brawled too much and got wild and careless. He overooked Rahman somewhat and he probably underestimated Vitali too. Remember, he said he'd have one Klitschko brother for breakfast and the other lunch, lol! That fight made me wonder about Vitali's power a little because he hit Lennox a lot. Maybe Lewis' extra weight vs Vitali helped him in that regard. LL's defence wasn't that great at times then, even if not many opponents had the power and the wherewithall to actually knock him out. At 6'5" his size helped too. He had quite a few technical flaws earlier on his career, eg with balance, footwork as you could see in the first Oliver McCall fight. You could see McCall looking to land the right hand. Lennox later learned to use his size to its best advantage when Steward took over as trainer. Very good heavyweight for all that.

 

Great discussion so far without turning into another Vitali-Lewis thread

 

That's how I see it, too. But the sloppiness/amateurishness was corrected by Steward.

Lennox from 1992-94 had great speed, reflexes for such a big man, and power. He, however, wasn't technically sound (neither defensively, nor offensively).

He made amateurish mistakes in all his fights from 92 to 94 that lasted more than 3 rounds, his jab wasn't that good, and he was relatively easy to hit.

That was shown in his fights vs Billups, past prime Tucker, Bruno, McCall, and even Jackson.

The Ruddock fight was an exception, Lewis looked sensational that night.

However, even with sometimes sloppy punches, and holes in the defense, Lewis had the size, power, speed and desire, and that was enough to be one of the best HWs even in that talented HW division.

Steward improved Lewis' game a lot, and Lewis put some weight on him. Lewis was heavier and a bit slower in 96-01, but he improved his jab, his defense and he fought 'smarter'. Also, Lewis started to hold his opponents when in danger to be hit, and that was also a part of his improved defense.

Also, Lennox stopped throwing wild punches as he sometimes did in his early days as a pro.

Overall, Lewis from 96-01 was better than the younger Lewis despite losing some speed

 

Good chin. Lost focus at times/laziness/complacency.

He had point in his fights where he seemed to expect his opponents to play along to the script.

 

This thread seems to prove that no matter what Lennox did , he left alot of people rather unconvinced.
Shame really ..he was at the top or thereabouts for 13 years ,which isn't easy to sustain.
My one line on Lennox that nobody can dispute is this..."He met nobody that bettered him without dispute ,in his whole career".
Not many fighters in history can say that.
Also, no matter what Bulls##t tales are told, he ducked nobody.

 

so-so chin, so-so defense. Not many good chinned fighters get kod with one punch and even fewer have it happen twice. And, remember these were isolated shots that did him in. It wasn't like he was taking a beating and then one punch finished him off.

 

When you mention that, i remember that i always think that Holyfield had so much skill but always wanted to fight, yous watch his fights he always shows glimpses of great technique and skill specially in counter-punching, i imagine that if he had not let his mind drag him into a brawl and keep with George Benton, he could have been Benton's offensive project as oppossed to Pernell that was more on the defensive side of Benton's work.

And i mention both of them cause of the Duvas boxing team that was taken from that olympic boxing team Evander and Pernell were the mos outstanding in the professional game and story of the sport.

 

There are a lot of good points here.

Though I would amend that taking punches from 235 lbs. men flush is not so impressive for a professional HW. I am that size, ~ 10% overweight, can lift ~ twice as much as an average man...That does not mean my punching power approaches a hard hitting HW, due to natural ability & training, just like all the really powerful guys in the gym, many juiceheads, could not even throw a decent major league fastball. Training & genetics.

But he had overall good pucnh resistance against the real bangers, who themselves were no comparisons to ordinary men of roughly the same size.