Lennox Lewis is overrated

Zackman. ****, I sure screwed that one up.

Castillo or Hatton?

 

Zakman, the guy dumped a version of the HW Championship of the World in a trashcan rather than fight Lewis. That makes it in my eyes 'de-facto' that Bowe ducked Lewis. What do you need to see before you will concede that one fighter ducked another? Any Lewis v Bowe match-up in the pros was IMO the logical match at the time, it was signed and sealed and would have been a HUGE money-maker for both camps. The fight was screaming to be made and it was made yet one fighter gave up the greatest prize in sport so that he wouldn't have to defend against another fighter. If that ain't ducking then please tell me what is. :huh

As I recall, Lewis fought a gameplan in the 2nd fight to ensure that he would win the decision that most observers thought he was robbed of in the first fight. The more aggressive style suited Holyfield better and thus Holyfield had a better time of it. If Lewis sticks to boxing on the outside it makes it quite difficult for any version of Holyfield to win. The point here is that Lewis controlled both fights and chose how easy or hard a time of it Holyfield would have. Doesn't that makes him the better fighter of the two?

 

It's also an interpretation that Holyfield was on the slide when he fought Lewis :deal He certainly didn't look past it in either of those fights, just 2nd best.

 

Some points:
-Holyfield was 36 for the first Lewis fight, only 37 for the second
-Lewis was 35 himself, no one can escape father time no matter how much you'll twist "but Holyfield aged faster than Lewis:|"
-The size advantage that Lewis had over Holyfield is of NO relevance here because we are talking heavyweights which is the unlimited division.
We're not discussing p4p rankings.
If anything, his size advantage should make him rank higher, because it is just that, an advantage.

 

Actually, Acelino did unify the WBA and WBO in 2002. Lewis fought Rahman in November 2001 to regain his title, and fought Tyson in june of 2002. Wlad fought Botha in March 2002, Mercer in June before losing to Corrie Sanders in March of 2003.

So when where they supposed to fight? 2000? Lewis fought Grant, Tua and Botha that year. All where higher ranked fighters at the time with Grant and Tua being #1 contenders. 2001? That is when Lewis lost and regained his title against Rahman (stay busy for Tyson). In 2002 he fought Tyson.


Wlad fought McCline in December 2002, which was his first top 10 ranked fighter, #10, Wlad faced. That leaves only early 2003 as a possible date for Lewis - Wlad, but in March 2003 he got brutally KOd by Sanders. So when where they supposed to fight?

 

2000: Grant (#1), Botha (top 10), Tua (#1)
2001: Rahman (top 10) - Loss, Rahman (#1) - win
2002: Tyson
2003: Vitaly (top 5).

In 2000 Wlad was beating up on Paegram, Barrett, Bostice and Byrd. None were top 10 at the time. Byrd top 15, the others > 20. He fought Jefferson and Shufford in 2001 (= not top 10). In 2002, he fought old Botha and Mercer, neither were top 15. McCline in December 2002 was his first ranked contender he faced (#10). Then he lost to Sanders in March 2003. When were they supposed to fight?

 

I'm certain Lewis-Wlad would've happened, and was meant to happen, in 2003...not Lewis-Vitali. HBO was so hot for that fight. Everything was going completely to plan, until a semi-retired golfer chucked a spanner in the works and everything came tumbling down.

 

And Lewis got more in his first defense of the WBC title than Bowe made for his first two defences of the linear title.

 

Its probably a good thing Bowe never fought Lewis, because we would not have had the Holy/Bowe trilogy. There may not have been any Bowe/Galota either. Considering Lewis's dry style, I have no problem with what Bowe did. Outside of Lewis, he faught the best available, and was a completely ruined fighter coming in, and even more so, coming out of the Galota matches. Lewis would have beaten Bowe then, but the one against Holyfield was a completely different animal.

 

Yeah, Bowe was a completely ruined fighter when he came in against Golota, because he just handed Holyfield his first knockout loss a few months earlier... :nut

Or maybe it was the first time that Bowe fought someone of his own size with skills to go with it?
I don't doubt that Bowe was not as good as in 1992, but he sure had a lot left as he showed when he beat Holyfield for the third time. Golota simply destroyed him twice. Oh, and Lewis destroyed Golota in 60 seconds.

 

Want to know why Lewis would give Bowe a good hiding at any time of their career?

I stole this quote from an article on another site, it's from Ray Mercer speaking about Riddick Bowe..

How does a peak Bowe get Lewis early?

Stewards comments regarding the Olympic final were along these lines ( I can't find the article )

"Bowe was outboxing Lewis in the first quite well. Lewis came out in the second a different fighter, trying to be physical and rough Bowe up. Bowe couldn't deal with it, and got stopped. Bowe didn't like the physical side of it".


Lewis hammers Bowe and early. Lewis is a lot bigger, stronger and a better puncher than Holy.

 

3 Matches with Holyfield took a big toll on Bowe, regardless if he won the last match or not. Coming into the second match with Galota, Bowe looked clumsy, and uncoordinated. My bet, is that he was pretty damaged by then, and listening to him speak afterwards, pretty much confirms this.

Bowe also inadvertedly helped Lewis, by being the first to expose Galota's fragile mindset, and inability to cope with a high pressure match. Lewis would later exploit this same weakness, by blitzing and swarming Galota from the early seconds of round 1 of their match. :thumbsup

 

Lewis is overrated, if you have him in your top 5. If he isn't in your top 10, he is probably underrated.

I don't dislike any fighters, but Lewis isn't one of my favorites. I am just giving credit where credit is due.

He made around 16 successful title defenses (over the course of 2 reigns), which is 4th all time.

I don't believe he beat a prime Holyfield, but Holyfield was not shot. Holyfield did go on to beat Rahman later. Tyson was not in his prime, but ask Lou Savarese if you needed to be good to beat him. Savarese was not an elite heavyweight, but you needed to be a contender to defeat him.

He is only the 2nd heavyweight champion to have a victory over everyone he faced.

Good wins came against Razor Ruddock, Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Lionel Butler, Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, Henry Akinwande, Andrew Golata, Shannon Briggs, Evander Holyfield, Michael Grant, Evander Holyfield, David Tua, Hasim Rahman, Mike Tyson, and Vitaly Klitschko. That's not too shabby.