Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson, prime for prime, who wins?

People make so much of the Ruddock fight. Like somehow, because Tyson didn't get discouraged by Ruddock when he was younger it is impossible for that incarnation of Tyson to be discouraged by anyone.

The fact that Tyson totally outclassed Ruddock, knew it, enjoyed evidence of it in the ring doesn't seem to register. There's a huge difference between crumbling in the face of a fighter you outclass (as close to rank cowardice as you will get in the ring) and becoming the "game quitter" (Teddy Atlas) when being punched by a fighter that is firmly in your class.

 

Tyson never quit in his life, so yeah, that's silly. But I don't accept this idea that Tyson was a different person early doors. What's inside a fighter does't really change, not way down deep where his soul meets the concrete.

However, I think Tyson has an outstanding chin and good, if not tide-turning heart. Discouraged is the right word though, for what would happen to him against Lewis, in my opinion. If this fight was happening tomorrow i'd be picking Lewis, partly for this reason.

This is a close fight, and i've bee wrong plenty before (picked Oscar to beat Pacquiao).

 

I understand what you're saying, but loving the game doesn't change the kind of man you are. You can love being at war, but that doesn't mean you're the guy who will charge the machine-gun nest. That's the hero.

Boxing isn't anything like as important, but it's just as fundamental.

 

Well Mike was never asked to prove that what was in the bottom of his gut was iron before Douglas. That just didn't happen to him. It happened versus Douglas, when he was 24 and failed the test. He failed subsequent tests concerning what was at the core of him too.

What i'm saying is, the motivations you are describing are window dressing. When it comes down to a fighter's very very hardest moments in the ring, it's not about motivation - that gets stripped away by massive punches, or even just consistent punches over a protracted period. When you are at the very bottom of your basin, surviving is not about motivation but the determination not do be dominated, defeated. If there is motivation it is only to beat your opponent, and not for any reason relating to legacy. It comes down to who you are, in the ring as well as in life.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't even call him a "game quitter" in that one, but he got slopier and slopier as he went, his punching became more and more inconsistent and he seemed to be more and more determined that he was going to KO Douglas with one punch. He took on a sense of entitlement in that fight and deteriorated mentally. Douglas wasn't particularly gifted technically nor physically. People talk about this "magical night" for Douglas but it was only his mental limitations that were suspended by that magic.

Tyson went from dominating to dominated against a less gifted opponent. The big difference between them was mental for me, although the argument about his conditioning still rages.

 

And against Williams and against Lewis. That's never been the point.