Lennox Lewis vs. Small Swarmers

Lennox did better when faced with very small active guys, he had a way of slowing thier roll down by stabbing that jab right through them making them step back at distance, no one really got inside of Lennox's domineering offence and when they did he always had something waiting for them..

Lewis was quite exceptional in that way... McCall was the only semi small man who managed to shoot away at inside of lewis's range, only by catching him cold early in a fight.. he tried the same move twice.. feinting the body with a touch jab, then detonating over the top of his hands with a blind right hand.. It was absolutely perfect...

 

Are you sure you seen the Tyson-Lewis fight? Because if you did, you'd know that Lewis did a lot more than rely on the jab to beat him. With Tyson he hit him with 3-4 wicked upper cuts in the first round and Tyson went back to the corner saying he was hurt. In the second round Lewis simply used his size to push Tyson around and even got warnings from the ref. In the Tua fight, once Tua tasted Lewis' overhand right, he seems to turtle and went into survival mode.

I personally thought that Lewis fought the perfect fight against Tyson, he hurt him early and repeatedly when he Tyson tried getting inside and then manhandled him on top of that..it was an awesome display of a fighter taking full advantage of his size.

I'd go so far as to say, I don't think a fighter of Lewis' size ever used this more to his advantage than Lewis did, meaning one of his greatest attributes was that he usually fought like the big man he was.

 

I don´t agree with that. I think Lewis had the blue print of how to beat Tyson since they spared as youth. Tyson never changed his style and so it would work, additionally Lewis changed, thankt to Many Steward, quite a bit - and to his advantage.

 

You think that all Lewis demonstrated in the Tyson fight, or Tua fight for that matter, was 'a jab and some movement'? I think you are grossly over simplifying things and not acknowledging the role that Lewis's considerable power played in these fights. Lewis hit both Tyson and Tua with more than a few hard shots and it made both fighters tentative. Tyson wasn't the same fighter he was in his prime, of course, but the one thing he could still do was punch very hard. As the old maxim states; the last thing you lose is your power and it's true. If Lewis had no power Tyson would have had a much easier time of it and both fighters might knocked Lewis out.

In any fight with Lewis it's all very well to say that you'd favour prime Tyson or even the likes of Marciano and Dempsey, without recognising Lewis's size and power. The fact of the matter is that Lewis is a big, powerful lump to deal with and I don't think you can really rely on his chin failing to beat him. After all, he was only stopped twice in 14 years and took big shots from Tyson, Tua, Bruno, Mercer, Klitshcko etc, punchers all. If I was training someone to fight Lewis I would be seriously remiss if I told my fighter he only had to take Lewis into the later rounds or catch him with a big right hand to win.

And I would question that Lewis was hesitant to engage. To me it was more like he was fighting a smart fight by using his physical advantages against smaller opponents; height, reach, power and so on. I think you are confusing ring smarts for hesitancy. There is something about being hit very hard that makes even the toughest fighters tentative and unwilling to come in and you may find that Marciano, Dempsey and Frasier, as tough as they were, would find their own gameplans affected by the fact that it's a natural defense reaction to want to avoid being hit by very hard shots.

It's also possible that these same fighters would take Lewis into the trenches and beat him but they would be dealing with a lot more than 'a jab and some movement'.

 

Lewis was never ever given credit for how physically strong he was in there. The guy was up there with Ali and Foreman as one of the strongest ever. The only guy he never outmuscled was Vitali. Everyone else he sure did. But those short swarmer types are going to get tied up by Lennox whenever he wants to. I actually also think Lewis is/was capable of doing that great Foreman shoulder shove & likely would've incorporated it into his game, depending upon the specific matchup.

And Lewis was very effective with his footwork in there even going laterally or backwards, especially for a big guy. Just how many guys can do that effectively? Those swarmers are going to have a tough time catching him in any sort of exchange and simply have to be in fantastic condition to apply pressure consistently on a big strong mobile and accurate puncher like a Lennox Lewis.

 

If you look at the Tua fight Lewis had an easy fight in retrospect and Marovic was a sporatic swarmer but I like Lewis size and power and skill but he would be equally at risk against pressure fighters like Marciano,Dempsey, Frazier would have a chance also but the early rounds is where Lewis had power and then slowed up. If the swarmers could hurt Lennox early and keep him on his toes, the fast pace would be one of the things that could get to him. When Rahman hurt him in the 4th, he followed up quickly in the 5th, I think Lennox took a good shot, iT was recuping when hurt that he had issues. Everyone looks at Frazier /Foreman as an example of what would happen but Frazier was burnt in that fighter and was not a swarmer but a yo yo....Its hard to tell when great fighters get into the ring but I think Pressure swarmers can give Lewis trouble if they get past the initial early exchanges, Dempsey,Marciano would be more likely than Frazier but a Prime Frazier Ali 1 did still have the power to take a guy out a there quick....A prime pumped Tyson ofcource had a better chance than the version that fought Lewis but Mike had early rd stamina then slowed

 

It depends who he was against ... Lewis also absolutely devestated Bothra who tried hard to come in against him ...

I say if they fought in the 1990's Jack Dempsey would be basically the size of Holyfield (215 or so) ... he had speed and power and I feel he would have knocked out Lewis ...

Joe Frazier would stop him in the later rounds ....

I do not like Marciano's chances ...I do not like Tyson's as well ...

 

Well, in my opinion I think that a prime Joe Frazier would destroy Lennox Lewis.
A prime Mike Tyson would do the same.
The Predator