Lennox Lewis - What Are Your Thoughts?

It's so good to see the majority of you guys give Lennox Lewis the respect and acclaim he so
richly deserves.
For me personally I have Lewis at no 2 in the ATG ratings.I would only back the peak Muhammad Ali ( 1964-67) to beat a prime,focused Lennox Lewis

 

Holyfield rated far too high he lost most of his biggest fights at Heavyweight.

 

Too bad more haven’t approached it Larry’s way.

“Love of boxing” doesn’t pay bills and keep food in your belly when your fighting days are over. A guy fights into his 30s usually, nowadays some into the 40s and there have been rare exceptions like Foremen well into their 40s, but most super successful boxers have careers that only span 20 years or less.

So they retire and they aren’t really into middle age and way too many spent their money as fast as they made it, needed all the entourage and the flashy cars and all the bling … and then they’re broke. The only thing they know how to do well they’re too old to do anymore. No planning for the reality that were going to need to live the rest of their lives without boxing income … and they simply aren’t prepared for it.

Larry’s way was the right way. Should be applauded for it.

 

Lewis is rated too high by a lot here imo. Probably a lot from the Uk here which is good. He did not fight Tyson or Holyfield near their primes and did not fight Bowe.

His win vs Vitali is a great W but he was outboxed and fortunate to get the w and did not take the rematch which was straight up running away, nothing wrong with that imo I would run away also lol. It’s not a fight you would show someone to show how great Lewis was.

his Greatness is shown in the Holyfield draw. But many of the greats have better wins. Holyfield for example had the Bowe win plus the trilogy which is some of the best heavyweight boxing. Plus the Tyson wins plus Foreman. Lot more big fights and wins. Took on Lewis past his prime gave him a rematch and fought him close enough to a draw in my books.

 

IMO the best HW ever H2H

 

Supposedly Lewis wanted to take the rematch with VK and felt he owed it to him but Lewis's wife was very much against it. I think she even threatened to leave him if he took it. Or so the story goes.

 

Might be a good idea to have a nonprofit organization with workshops and mentoring for boxers on how to make / manage money, especially after retiring.

Might also be interesting to conduct studies on the practices of the most financially successful boxers after they retire, as a reference. The famous guys often did well managing bars/restaurants, managing/training fighters, and doing the ex-celebrity circuit (autographs, working as a greeter, etc.), but I don't know how successful non-contenders were in this.

Then again, your post was more oriented toward contenders who make a lot of money and blow it, so perhaps they *would* be best advised to learn from the financially comfortable guys like Dempsey, Tunney, Schmeling, Foreman, Holmes.

 

Absolutely Fergy.I used to be astonished at how underrated Lewis was by both the
boxing media and boxing fans in general.
Thankfully now the consensus opinion is that Lennox is an ATG top 10.An increasing number of
boxing journalists/fans now place Lewis in their all-time top 5.

 

I see Lewis being in the top 5 greatest heavyweights of all time. Skills were top notch and running on half steam he managed a victory against Vitali, barely granted but he pulled off what most other heavies wouldn’t have.

 

Was never really a fan but he was a great fighter nonetheless. Was able to come back twice after conclusive defeats, which is a mark of true greatness.

 

Amen. What the hell else would he do it for? Why deny it? It's all any of them do it for.

 

A LOT of athletes need this. I know the NFL tries reasonably well to prepare players for life after football.

 

Makes sense. I'd always assumed so.

Though I'd also assume that there's something about boxing that appealed to them more than other sports. At least when they initially got into it.