9 of 10. Not exactly the Foreman's of Shavers' punching power, but still a very high 9. He looked absolutely monstrous puncher against Ruddock, Golota, Grant,Botha, Rahman. However, Lennox wasn't able to put down granite chinned fighters like Holyfield, Mercer, Tua and Vitali at least once in 52 total rounds.
Bigger, more explosive puncher than Shavers and Foreman, who fought a lot more bums and generally smaller opponents than Lewis. Lewis was also more cautious in his temperament and that causes the KO's/KD's to dry up. Look at five of Joshua's last six fights: Ruiz x2, Usyk x2, Franklin. 0 KO's, 1 KD. Among heavyweight champs, Wilder and Wlad probably had greater single shot power. Tyson was more explosive but not a harder, more concussive puncher with a single shot than Lewis. After that I'm not sure.
According to Lewis’s own trainer Manny Steward… Wladimir hit harder. Lewis hit very hard though. Definitely in the top 10 all time.
Bowe did better against a fresher Holyfield, have to put that out there. The vaunted Lewis power didn't show itself much there.
He's one of the biggest punchers of all time. Trying to put punchers in some kind of order is guess work at best. Did he hit harder than x or y? Who knows for sure. He hit plenty hard at a world class level, and was fighting in an era of giants. So, he probably hit harder than some of the smaller historical punchers...Dempsey, Marciano, Louis, Tyson Foreman was pretty close in size. Foreman had that clubbering type power. Most people think Foreman is the hardest puncher. Got no reason to doubt that. As for others close in size to Lewis, who knows? Wlad, Wilder, Bowe, Briggs, etc. They all hit plenty hard.
I respect the hell out of Holyfield, and while he had a solid chin, he didn't have an iron chin. The way Bowe dealt with a still-only-33-year-old Evander in their third fight clearly showed that he didn't have a chin like a prime Mercer or McCall.
One of the best punchers ever. The bombers Lewis slugged it out with and stopped is truly impressive. Vitali Klitschko, Mike Tyson, Tommy Morrison, Frank Bruno, Shannon Briggs, Gary Mason, Razor Ruddock, Hasim Rahman, Andrew Golota ... If Orlin Norris was a smooth boxer trapped in the body of a short slugger, Lennox Lewis was a short slugger trapped in the body of a smooth boxer. Lennox could seem a bit awkward and sometimes appeared to be overthinking it when trying to box. But if you wanted to slug with him, he could trade with the very best.
True but Bowe hit Golota with some big shots and couldn't put him away, Lewis blasted Golota out in under a round, hit him so hard the first time Golota genuinely looked shocked at the power.
