Lennox Lewis: the Clever Con-Artist

As usual you look for statistics that support your position rather than the actual truth which would illuminate the situation. Dempsey held the UNDISPUTED title for seven years? Sure. In that time he defended it eight times. He proudly sat on the title, not bothering to defend it for three of those years. Of course, you count those years to the good, actually comapring him to the super-active Joe Louis He never defended it against the most deserving challenger. In all that time, he never stepped in with a #1 contender. That is incredible. The fact that this went on for seven years makes his position MORE dispicable, not less.

Miske - ill
Brennan - already been beaten!!
Carpantier - not qualified, a horrible HW resume, not on the public's radar until the superb publicity began and nothing like as good or qualified as the similarly sized Harry Greb who by this time had been chasing Dempsey for some six years!!
Darcy - A four rounder (!!) against a 40-32 fighter
Gibbons - a good opponent, Dempsey's best sclap Never #1 contender, and beaten by Harry Greb in a shutout No title fight for Greb though
Firpo - in a vote conducted to find the #1 contender, Firpo recieved one hundred votes. Wills recieved nearly 4000 and Greb was miles ahead of Firpo. However much fanboys cream for him now, he was NOT a legitimate contender, not in comparison to the two Americans who couldn't get a shot, and just happened to be the most likely to beat Dempsey.
Tunney - Thrashed. Utterly humiliated.

I like it fine, but what do three years of inactivity count for? Especially with two highly qualified challangers - one white, one black before you start - desperate for a title match during that time?

Lewis, on the other hand, fought in many, many more title fights, was far more active, has superior longevity and class of opponent. Old Holyfield would beat every...single...fighter...Dempsey beat, regardless of the fact that he was past his best. If you think he would not, rest assured that Vitali Klitschko would. Lewis beat the best to come AFTER him, the best that came BEFORE him and some of the best HW's of his time.

Dempsey didn't even fight the best of his time! He crossed paths with Langford, Greb, Tunney and Wills. These are the great fighters he could possibly matched. He faced one twice and was destroyed.

Why? Why judge him by the standards of his times? Why not judge him by the standards of his opposition, instead? Which was consistantly not as good as it could and should have been. If Demspey had a few iffy fights but had creamed Langford and old Jeanette coming up plus Wills and Greb when with the title, THEN sat on the title for three years, he would be a lock for the top 5, arguably top 3. But he did none of that.

You are either to stupid to see the difference or ignoring the facts again - either way I refuse to explain the differences between the Bowe and Wills situations.

Dempsey got knocked cold by a fighter with a 30% KO record who was being feasted upon by MW's and HW's at the time. It was a one punch KO in the first round.

Glass chin, or not?

Repeatedly posting this list and insisting that because someone you think is smart has made the same mistake as you is ridiculous.

 

In the top 3 you have a fighter who was laid out by a fighter so vastly inferior to McCall or Rahman, in a single round, a fighter that had lost five in a row going in, a fighter that couldn't really hit, a fighter that was knocked out 32 times in his career.

It is likely that either Rahman or McCall could have beaten Jim Flynn if you hamstrung him before he entered the ring.

 

Now he's not the guy who took on the second most top ten contenders ever - since Ali is what the research done my OLD FOGEY turned up. Louis is second, Lewis is third, this is of the major HW champs. Chris Pontius also made him the man who has taken on the most punchers since Ali.

Going back further on the top 10 contender issue is harder. I think it's likely that Wills was matched more often with men who would have been ranked in the top 10 than any other HW ever - but that is hard to determine.