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

Not a fan of this take at all

 

What does this do? well Lennox is a consensus top 10 all time heavyweight champ, I don't think that's a controversial statement. I generally have him somewhere between 5-10 all time . Had he not come back and disposed of Rahman and McCall his rating would be far lower and deservedly so. I think he may be rated a tad high head to head with some of the other ATG's but it's not a big margin.

 

Lucky punches plus he underrated his opponents. Hes an ATG he avenged all losses. If he didnt lose to McCall and Rahman he would be in the 3 best HWs ever. Instead he is fifth or sixth.

 

I get it, Lewis lost to some lesser caliber fighters and he never defended undisputed, whereas, others have. However, one can't make a list of 50 ATG HW champions and only have the champions who never lost to lower caliber fighters and did defend their dominant position over the division.

Not as great as Marciano but still pretty great. Definitely an ATG.

 

I don't think Lewis underestimated McCall it's just McCall had Emanuel Steward in his corner and they come up with a good gameplan.

I agree he underestimated Rahman and his arrogance was on full display just before he clocked.

But in regards to McCall I think Lewis was in shape and did prepare for McCall he just got caught with a punch he didn't see coming.

 

When Danny Green beat Roy Jones, an announcer said "When you beat a legend, you become a legend." I think a similar axiom holds true: if you lose to a journeyman, you become a journeyman. Lewis should be remembered as a journeyman.

 

Nah. It's heavyweight boxing remember. One punch and all that.

Lewis righted the wrongs both times.

 

If fairness is paramount here, should he ever have been stopped in the earlier fight ?
If he had a different ref, he might well have been allowed to continue.
He was wobbled badly by that big punch, but he was up and had his hands up.

Yes, clearly something wasn't right with McCall's head there.

But Lewis won the first three rounds and laid some serious hurt on McCall in rd 3.

IMO, Oliver was on his way to being stopped for the first time, and that may have triggered his bizarre behaviour.


At any rate, the 'loss' was clearly and decidedly avenged.

Both Ali and Louis suffered losses at or near prime, and one or other of them is rated as the GOAT HW boxer, by over 90 % of boxing observers.

So, to reiterate, the two losses have little or no effect on Lewis' status as an ATG.

I rank him #3 all-time at the weight.

 

Might be but I got some doubt about this

 

Plenty of great fighters lost to journeymen. Art Hafey knocked out Ruben Olivares. It's boxing, it happens.

 

I think a similar axiom holds true in posting also: If you post dumb things, you become dumb. SquaredCircle should be remembered as a dumb poster, maybe the dumbest ever.

 

Jokes aside, I rate Lewis third all-time at heavyweight. Arguably higher if we're just going by head-to-head ability at everybody's apex.