Lennox Lewis should have been the undisputed heavyweight champ earlier than 1999

Even though he "got there in the end" and outlasted the era beating all of his generations of rivals everyone forgets one thing. The Lennox Lewis career was a slow burner. Its only good looking back and until the ciggerette end of his career he never ever had that undisputed dominance that other great fighters are afforded so instantly.

For 90% of his career at World level (that starts with the Ruddock win) Lewis was unable to establish universal acceptance as the best heavyweight. He was only ever "one of" the best two IN HIS PRIME.

Lewis prime was not the holyfeild fights anymore than Ali was in his prime beating Frazier in manila. It's just by that time those two were the last men standing. They had outlasted everyone else. Bowe, Ruddock, Moorer, Tucker, Foreman, Mercer, Bruno, Tyson, McCall and Morrison had petered out by then.

Rahman was his Leon Spinks moment yet still he got past Klitchsko..

 

The 2001 KO loss has nothing to do with the OP.

I believe the thread starter is referring to this,

On 31 October 1992, Lewis knocked out Canadian Donovan "Razor" Ruddock in two rounds for the number one contender's position in the WBC rankings. It was Lewis' most impressive win to date, and established him as one of the world's best heavyweights. Sportscaster Larry Merchant declared, "We have a great new heavyweight."
The win over Ruddock made Lewis the number one contender for Rid**** Bowe's heavyweight championship. Bowe refused to face Lewis, and held a press conference to dump his title in a trash can and relinquish it. On 14 December 1992, the WBC declared Lewis its champion, making him the first world heavyweight titleholder from Britain in the 20th century.

and more than likely this,

In his first comeback fight Lewis was given a chance to fight for the mandatory challenger position within the WBC and won it by knocking out American contender Lionel Butler. However, at the behest of promoter Don King, the WBC bypassed him and gave Mike Tyson the first chance at the title recently been won by Briton Frank Bruno from Oliver McCall. Bruno had previously lost to both Lewis and Tyson.
Lewis had the number 1 contender's slot in the WBC rankings when he knocked out Australian Justin Fortune, then defeated former WBO Champion Tommy Morrison in October 1995, followed by Olympic gold medallist and former WBO champion Ray Mercer in a close majority decision in May 1996. Lewis successfully sued to force Tyson to make a mandatory defence of the WBC title against him or force him to give up the title, winning a four million dollar settlement from promoter Don King. Rather than fight Lewis, Tyson relinquished the WBC title to fight Evander Holyfield. The WBC title was declared vacant. This set up a rematch between Lewis and McCall, who met on 7 February 1997 in Las Vegas for the WBC title.

 

What is a fact is Lewis declining to sign the contract to face Tyson. So Holyfield stepped to the plate and wanted to beat Tyson in the ring and not a courtroom.

 

Lewis was DEFINITELY avoided, no question. But there were technical issues that needed to be addressed.

The second Holyfield fight gives me pause in assuming Lewis could deal with the Evander that edged Bowe.

I think he bosses Tyson around though.

 

The matchmaking decisions of the 90s were so weird that I do wonder if some of the promoters who acted like Lewis wasn't a threat actually did believe it.