Lennox Lewis: the Clever Con-Artist

Eh - that's a 14yr old article from the NY Times and all it states (if true) is that Lewis thought the fight was worth more than $13.5m (then c. £7M) and didn's see Seldon as an obstacle to the payday.

Don King (who hated Lewis) is on record as stating that he would never have let Tyson fight Lewis till there were no more options.

This is an AP article, a shite post and a nonsense thread.

Haters - you don't need to like Lewis, just get used to his name around the top of the H/W atg tree cos he aint going away. You're wrong - that's it

 

This I call a comment with sense of proportion and knowledge!

 

Am i the only won who thinks the opposite can be true a lot of the time?

Fighters who are active at the moment are under a load of scrutiny; poor performances, bad quality opposition, defeats all lead to lots of criticism. There is a tendency to over look these aspects of boxers from previous generations/eras. People seem to mainly focus on the postive aspects of their careers. I think nostalgia can quite often cloud people's judgements.

 

Dempsey lost to Flynn early in his career, before he had even sniffed the title. Hardly the same thing as getting laid out at age 29 or 35 in the heart of your career, while you are recognized as either one of, or THE, top fighter in the sport.

And even assuming your stat on Lewis is correct - which without citation I cannot - I doubt Holyfield is much different in terms of the # of top ten contenders fought. And, unlike Lewis he fought formidable versions of Bowe and Tyson, two of the other top fighters of the era, while Lewis fought old versions of Holyfield himself, and particularly Tyson. Oh, and Holyfield never got taken out early by second-raters (maybe that makes it clear what I'm talking about) either.

 

Are you amused by those three being put at the top, or by the given order?

 

Since when is 35 the heart of any heavyweight's career?

Who exactly was Dempsey fighting at age 35?

 

Dempsay got KOED by a fireman.

Lewis was an old man when he got KOED.

He was pre-Prime when stopped against McCall. The HBO crew were shocked at the stoppage.

In the 20's Lewis would not have that KO loss.

 

Imagine if Lewis fought in the 20's and could hit a man on one knee.

He would be a mass murdering terrorist.

 

You know as well as I do that 35 is a lot younger in terms of physical deterioration today than it was in Dempsey's time. Fighters routinely fight later into their careers at a high level. Furthermore, some fighters mature later than others.

No one can dispute that Lewis was at 29 in 1994 and WBC champ, one of the two or three best HWs out there, or that in 2001 he was as unified champ the acknowledged best HW in the sport. The same surely cannot be said of the 21 year old Dempsey who was knocked out by Flynn.

 

Yet Holy who was majority champ gets a pass.

Pathetic.

 

Lewis above Ali:rofl:nut

 

Yes, I rank Dempsey at number 3, and I am hardly alone in that. Nor am I alone in ranking him higher than Lewis. No less respected authorities than boxing historian Monte Cox rank Dempsey, at #6, higher than Lews. I believe Burt Sugar does as well.

So let's be clear, it is not "ridiculous" to rank Dempsey higher than Lewis, and I am FAR from the only person to do so.