Lennox Lewis lost to 2 journeyman. Should he be stripped of his ATG status

No, he was a prospect.

 

ROFL Lennox Lewis would annihilate Joshua!!!! Look how he folded to an overweight Mexican TWICE!! Lennox beat every man he ever faced in the pro ring.

 

No, Not really.

 

OP needs to learn what a journeyman is before he starts talking about ATGs.

 

Lewis avenged them both so Lewis is one of 2 heavyweight Champions that beat every opponent they faced. Lewis is special and absolutely an ATG.

 

They certainly have an affect on his standing. Losing like that to those guys can't just be ignored but it doesn't undo what he did in his career either. If he hadn't lost to them he'd probably have a much stronger case for being the GOAT at heavy, but even with the losses he's a great because we have to look at the fighters entire career, not just 2 fight out of 40 something. This goes for all fighters who get upset like that. Lewis is still a bonafide top 10, top 5, or arguably even top 3 heavyweight ATG.

 

Lewis beat everyone he entered the ring with. And avenged his two defeats. Isn't that enough for ATG status?

 

If this were the criteria for being an atg, there would be only a handful of atg fighters.

 

Little or nothing.

 

Fixed that for you.

 

Who knows. He said those losses made him a better fighter, and one can certainly see how the McCall loss spurred him to hire Manny Steward and become the best version of himself as a fighter. I've long considered Lewis to be the head-to-head GOAT in heavyweight boxing. I have him beating all and any other heavyweights from history a good 8 out of 10 times. To me, that's more important than being ranked by resume because if an era is not that great, you can fight whoever you want from that era, but your legacy will never reach the height of that of Ali, for instance. Louis and pre-prison Tyson boxed in relatively weak eras, and even though they fought whoever they could at the time, their resumes built in those stints are simply not good enough.

Lewis' resume is much better, of course, missing only Bowe as a notable name from that era (and even that wasn't Lewis' fault, as Bowe was the one ducking him). There's only so much you can do against the opponents available to you in your time. A prime, post-McCall, Steward-trained, focused, and prepared Lewis beats them all throughout boxing history.

 

if we want to be truly fair, did he really avenge his defeat to McCall? He won because McCall had an in-ring mental breakdown and quit.

 

Fair indeed...it's not Lewis's fault what happened to Oliver; Lewis has done his part.

 

Record books show it as a Lewis victory....good enough

 

Personally I have him at 2 all time H2H behind Ali but I can't argue with having him at one either