Lennox Lewis: the Clever Con-Artist

Dempsey ducked Wills? They both signed for that fight in 1922. Dempsey's guaranteed $100,000 didn't clear, and Wills' $50,000 did (which he kept). Should it have happened? Hell yes, and I wish it had. Does this mean Dempsey ducked him? No. You speak of Zakman's agenda but your anti-Dempsey one is really no different- take the worst aspects of his career and exaggerate the hell out of them. Wash, rinse, repeat. Saying Dempsey ducked Wills is a gross oversimplification and misses the mark of what happened.

Your post comes off as if it was typed by a typical revisionist Dempsey hater who thinks they've somehow cracked the code on him and that everyone from the first half of the century who saw him (and all of his competition, as opposed to the limited film we have of him now) is dead wrong. I respectfully disagree. Dempsey's a legit ATG in my view and it's not a stretch to put him #3 overall.

It'd be better had the environment and economics of things allowed for there to be no color line and it's a damn shame it didn't. I'll never argue differently. But punishing Dempsey for it misses the mark, as the white and black fighters of that era were pretty even in quality anyways. For every fight where Wills beat Fulton, Firpo, or Gunboat Smith, you'd have a fight where Fulton beat Langford, Willard beat Johnson, or Sharkey beat Wills.

Against common opponents, Dempsey routinely delivered the worst losses of their careers to those who fought both the top level black and white fighters despite often being the lighter man. Fulton, Willard, Firpo, and Sharkey all fit that mold. He was the best of his era, even if his resume isn't as good as it could've been due to the racial politics of the day. Even then, in my eyes his resume is still better than other classic fighters who've had a resurgence in popularity recently like Sonny Liston.

 

delete.

 

Dempsey held the UNDISPUTED title for more than 7 years, a reign surpassed in length only by Joe Louis. Larry Holmes, of course, held various versions of the title for a similar length of time. But Louis and Dempsey are the longest tenured Undisputed champs. And like it or not, that should count for something.

You can quibble about the rules being different, but the bottom line is that Dempsey won the Firpo fight. And while his number of defenses were not numerous by modern standards, they were consistent with the standards of the time - which is, of course, the standard by which he should be judged.

Not only this, but Dempsey, like Tyson after him, destroyed many opponents with his aggressive, attacking style. He was rightfully viewed as the most dominant and impressive of the early HW champions. And I know people criticize him for his failure to fight Wills, but it's not like Lewis fought everyone in his era either (Bowe being the most notable omission).

You are free to think I overate Dempsey, of course. And, again, you are free to disagree with the experts if you wish. But the very fact that there are experts out there who DO rate Dempsey above Lewis shows it is not "ridiculous," as it is a view shared by multiple observers, over time. Note that some of these lists are as recent as 2009, and all have Demopsey ranked higher than Lewis

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/heavylists.htm

 

USA! USA! USA!

Bet you don`t have a non American in your top 1000 ATG list. :hey

 

This guy is obviously an insanely bitter Pepe Correra, who can never forgive Lewis for ditching him (and become a better fighter for doing so)

 

Lewis was a fraudster and cherry picker with a personality to match.

 

Top 5 ATG

Ali
Louis
Holmes/LEWIS

Better than HGH Holy, better than Tyson.

There's still 3 Americans above him ladies, don't feel too bad.

 

Only on lists such as yours that grossly overrate Lewis. The only "ridiculous" thing in this thread is that there are actually people who put this guy in the top five. After getting laid out by palookas like McCall or Rahman? :rofl Puh-leez.:nut

 

atsch

You're as dumb as last year. Good to know some things never change.

 

There were good reasons behind both his loses and both his loses he avenged.

LL has the best resume bar Ali. Ducked no-one and beat everyone he ever fought.

Zakman there is a reason everyone thinks you're a ****... and not because you smell like fish and dribble when excited.... just because you genuinely are

 

I love that line

"lennox beat everyone he fought"

Which is actually a nice way of saying

" got KTFO twice and won a rematch so throw above line in there"

 

Lost when green and reckless.... got new trainer, won rematch.

Got stopped at alititude without acclimatising, blowing out of his arse by round 3 due to lack of red blood cells, at a career high weight whilst spending most of training camp filming oceans 11.... trains properly for rematch.... wins via spectacular KO in 4th

 

By the way, let the record state that it was two absolute cracking right hands that knocked him out, both of which would have arguably KO'd most of the guys about at the time IMO

 

So who's better? Dempsey, Johnson, Frazier, Foreman, Marciano, Liston, Walcott, Patterson?

Have a feeling I already know your answer.

 

Besides those two brutal ko's how many times did lennox visit the canvas?