Lennox Lewis P4P

I think it's unfair for Lewis to have to shrink down to 6'0. I mean I don't know how good Ricardo Lopez would have been at 6'0. He used his shorter stature to his advantage. I'm sure Lewis got tired and winded much quicker than Lopez because of all of the extra girth. I used Lopez because I know he could show a huge contrast and also he would be in my P4P list around the time of Lewis' reign. Both great fighters to me.

 

Lewis was very good but he was no David Haye.

 

Interesting how your list also favors guys who only fought about 8,000 years ago.

 

This thread lost all credibility after this post

nuthuggers please continue as you wish ...

 

Lennox Lewis was the prime example of a guy who could use all his tremendous physical advantages to great effect :boxing2.


I agree that at times, and especially towards the 1st stage of his career he looked very amateurish as he boxed, but he was still able to :beat a mofo down into submission or :ko them.

He was athletic and mobile for a big guy, and that helped him utilize that massive 80" reach (total body) of his. I think that's why he was such a devestating KO puncher. Look at Botha and Grant... that was what Lewis could do to you if he set his mind to it.

I realize most found his safety-first approach a tad boring, especially when you consider the potential :bbb punch power and excitement the dude could bring.

But you can't deny that he had great finishing skills as well as one-punch KO power. If he didn't scramble your brains :!: at the beginning of a fight he could do it later by the sheer accumulation of punches :boxx.

A lot of folks say that without his size and strength he wouldn't have been so formidable. I agree with this, but you might as well say the same thing of any great power puncher (Foreman, Liston, Tyson) :-( .

The point is Lennox was able to use these tools to his advantage in most fights - using the long reach and jab to keep an opponent at bay and penalizing them for stepping in with the overhand right. It's called ring smarts.

It's telling that folks who never ducked anybody (Bowe, Tyson etc.) chose to :err :bolt out of his way rather than take the dude on. He was as dangerous an opponent (if not exactly charismatic) as you'll get.

IMO I think he would have been quite an obsticle in any heavyweight era :bowdown ... and the only real fighter I see having consistent success against him is M. Ali :bokc .

 

If Lewis had faced (and beat) Bowe in '92 and Ruiz in 00', I think it would cement him as one of the greatest ever

 

:thumbsup

p4p is about skillset. If Lewis was the same size as his opponents he would have had significant amounts of trouble. His excessive leaning on opponents wouldn't have been nearly as effective.

 

I agree, Lennox never really got the credit he deserved, he very smart and skilled in the ring, current heavyweights pale in comparison.

 

I think it's safe to say Lewis would have handed Ruiz's ass to him on a fine platter :yep .

 

Lewis as a heavyweight it easily in the top 10. H2H I'd say top 5. But p4p is a completely different story. In terms of heavyweights alone I'd put Dempsey, Marciano, Holyfield and perhaps Frazier ahead of him. Hell maybe even Tyson. The reason being is because Lewis had huge size advantages, nothing wrong with that per se because he utilized it probably better than anyone, but it's not a great criteria when talking about P4P lists. Certainly Holyfield fighting as a cruiser and stepping up to Heavy and winning titles in both divisions is a far greater achievement on a p4p basis than anything Lewis did. And this is just the heavyweights. Duran is miles ahead of Lewis on a p4p basis, and that's coming from a huge Lewis fan.

 

Jones
Hopkins
Morales
Mayweather
Barrera
Calzaghe
Mosely
Delahoya
Trinidad
Hamed
Marquez
Lopez

All those were better p4p fighters than LL when LL was boxing but he was defo the best at HWT despite a couple of setbacks.

:thumbsup

 

Lennox not fighting Bowe should NOT count against him. He beat him in the 1988 Olympics, and Bowe didn't want to fight HIM. He threw his WBC belt into a garbage can in front of a TV camera to try to get away with not fighting him. Thats like, the most blatant example of ducking I can think of.

 

lol at u...talking about credability with a 100+ posts. i didn't say he would beat everyone but he could beat anyone.

how is that not possible given the man's size, power, skill and ring savvy?

i wont hold my breath on a factual rebuttal from u

KING LENNOX!!!

 

exactly...then consider after the first holyfield fight...newman and bowe saying to lennox, "u can be next" what a bunch of bs. bowe at his peak was a real talent but lennox was clearly in his head