Lennox Lewis is a lock for top 5 heavyweight of all time

@SuzieQ49 - the loss to Rahman has to impact Lewis’s legacy a bit. Some people give him a pass because he avenged it but that loss (when combined with his earlier KO loss to McCall) makes him the only heavyweight to lose by KO to 2 fighters in his prime who is in the top 10. Frazier lost by KO to Foreman twice, yes, but I rank Frazier below Foreman because of it. And Rahman was not a good fighter to lose to. His record at the top leve outside that one win is poor.

Again, I have no personal problem with wherever anyone ranks Lewis from 3-10 but it’s a significant reason not to rank him top 5.

 

My #3 as well

 

Wlad my #5

 

What the? Oliver can bench 500lbs?

 

To set the right position of Lennox in the top five is difficult. For sure hes in the top five. Maybe fourth or fifth.

However a Pugilistic Specialist.

 

He literally holds his hands together to continue. He didn’t even look particularly off balance for a guy who just ate a huge shot. Never understood how this fight can be counted against him.

 

I think he says Rahman

but if is true so what? maybe Rahman better bench presser than boxer ? Lol

 

My Top 5 Heavyweights are in chronological order so I have it this way

Jack Johnson
Joe Louis
Cassius Clay/Ali
Larry Holmes
Lennox Lewis

That's my top 5 Joe Frazier is my favourite heavyweight but I am under no allusions he is top 5.

 

Fixed it for YOU more like it!!!!!

 

I have Holmes there, but no strong objections to Lewis in third.

 

I also didn't see anything blatantly wrong with that stoppage. Sure, he could have let it continue, but I can see why he didn't.

 

What were your objections to that?

 

I don't think anyone is a lock for top five after Louis and Ali, the way that I judge them but where I have Holmes as #3, I consider Lewis a perfectly valid spot from 3 to all over the place. After the top two, there are so many unique pluses and minuses on the best heavyweight champions going all the way to roughly 15 or even 20 that you could justify more combinations than my poor, stupid, bad brain can calculate. But my brain is old and dumb and simple. Otherwise, I could probably figure it out. I could probably Google it, actually. But I don't want Google to know about my brain being bad or me being lazy. Hah hah, now they'll never know.

 

Big George has said 5 or 6 different people are the GOAT. Take what he says with a boulder of salt.

 

Whilst I probably lean more towards the "It was dubious" than I do the "It was good" side of this argument, Garcia's stoppage of Lewis was not incorrect. But this does not mean that stopping the fight was absolutely necessary.

The question for me has always been should Lewis have been given the chance to fight on?
I think he should have been given that chance.

There was no absolute need for Garcia to call it off. He had the option, but chose not to take it.
So, we'll never know whether Lewis could have seen out the stanza and turned the fight around.

I don't hold this stoppage against Lewis too heavily, on the basis of the above. Moreover, in retrospect, the event could be interpreted as the catalyst behind the fighter Lewis would become and perhaps the silver lining of this questionable affair.