Lennox Lewis v Levi Billups

I saw this fight on HBO 100 hundred years ago. I think it was on the undercard of some other big fight, but can't remember. Billups was coming off a decision win over Bonecrusher Smith, and Larry Merchant commented by saying " Bonecrusher Smith is so over the hill, he's burried under it. " Billups gave Lewis a decent effort, but I can remember getting the impression that Lennox seemed to be playing it safe, and didn't want to risk himself in a low profile nothing bout.

 

I think Lenny saw this 1 as an unimportant unthreatening and seemed switched off. He seemed to be going through the motions.

This is the essence of Lennox, he needed to be up for his opponent, to fear him perhaps, otherwise he'd switch off or get sloppy and wouldnt train properly

 

Billips was KO'd in 1 rd by Corrie Sanders and KO'd many times. I don't think he was too tall about 6"ft but he was KO'd many times but some styles are just hard for certain fighters. Big Foot Martin went 10 with Foreman and others. Vicente Rondon who was stopped as a middleweight by Jose Gonzales and Bennie Briscoe and in 2 rds by Bob Foster as a Light Heavyweight went 10 full rds with Earnie Shavers...the ESB legend

By the way Billips was also stopped in 1 rd by Orlin Norris but won a 10 round decision over a 11 fight win streak James Bonecrusher Smith

 

Everett Martin went the distance with everyone. Only one man ever truly laid him out and that was Johnny DuPlooy, most others were cuts or "**** it" jobs.

 

Wow Billups looks pretty good there, its a pity the Morrison fight ws about the last time we saw Lewis use his excellent left hook

 

Billups gave Lewis a good fight & shouldn't have done, it can happen sometimes although Billups had been fighting quite well on & around that period, winning twelve of his previous fourteen fights, the general feeling was that Lewis should have stopped him though.

 

4 of the 7 men to last the distance with Lennox Lewis were listed as 5'10"-6'1".

Of the other 3...

2 were under 6'3" and we're outweighed by 25-29 lbs.

Tony Tucker being the only 6'4" plus Super Heavy to last the distance with Lewis.

Of these 7 men. 2 were competitive enough to have arguably won on points.

Amazingly....No one was killed. No heads were sent into orbit. Nobody got drove through the ring. Its almost as if being a tall modern super heavy doesn't guarantee you will destroy a smaller opponent regardless of class and half this forum is clueless....