Lennox Lewis - Whats The Lowest He Can Be Ranked?

honestly, though I don't have him ranked this low, i could see an argument for 9 or 10. The rahman and mccall loses in his relative prime hurt him and does the fact that he didn't beat any ATG anywhere near their primes does as well.

I have him at 7 but if you wanted to push for 9 or 10, you probably could

 

He's in the top 10 but I dunno where to place him at

 

Prime Tyson has the style advantage no doubt, he was a great counterpuncher and did so with ko shots in centre ring against guys who liked to jab. Lennox might be able to emulate the Buster Douglas showing though, but for me the style advantage still lies slightly with Tyson. The big question is simple though, deep down, and i say this as a huge fan of Tyson, (the only boxer that can make me biased) the question is 'can Tyson do it?', that simple, can he dig deep in a fight against a prime legend and win?

We just don't know.

I would like to think you are right though, like i said he has a good style on paper

 

I would never put Liston in the top three personally, i understand the arguments and have read them plenty, but i don't believe in them. He's of an outstanding level of greatness as a fighter, but i always have others above him when it comes down to it.

 

i agree. his prime was relatively brief and his resume is very, very good but not ATG. without the jail time, and obvious issues with his advanced age, he COULD have been in the top 5 but from his actual achievements he doesn't warrant that placement

 

I'll go along with this as well.

Having the claim to only having beaten one man in world title fights, and one that was made for him at that, doesn't bode well for an all time top 5 placement.

 

hmmm, not too argue but i've always felt his prime ended a little earlier, probably around the machen fight. i feel the patterson wins aren't representative of his greatness as he'd of beaten patterson ANYTIME based on intimidation alone. the liston that fought ali was not the same that took out williams in my book

 

I don't rank H2H I have an entirely different list for that. That in and of itself is unreasonable for tons of factors not worth going through.

Rahman II only seems like some impressive win because he avenged himself. But we're talking about Rahman here. Rahman got owned by Ruiz. It's a nice highlight for Lennox but really, but not a groundbreaking win.

I think Lewis can be justified at #5. #5 is the cusp of where things don't get blurry loony for me. He's overrated on ESB, no doubt.

As for Liston, yes you're clearly being a fan to have him at #3. I respect Suzie but he loves Liston and rates him way too high. It requires a bad criteria in my opinion to have him in your top 5. The reason he is so beloved and ranks so high is because of how dangerous he was within the time, and how people speculate his abilities are in terms of H2H. Let's be frank, Liston is and was a monster who is probably one of the best H2H Heavyweight fighters. If we're talking H2H Heavyweights then having him at #3 or your top 5 is fair. But this factor obviously gets over-weighted for him to make your top 3-5. It's crazy talk. And the only way to really justify him being ranked in the 3-5. Or you get the 'age' or 'circumstance' excuse for the Ali fights. That shouldn't have too much bearing, it hurts his legacy either way. Unless the Mob threatened his life no excuse is good enough to not damage his legacy. His run from 58-60 is extremely impressive though, and I have him in my top 10 for those who think I'm hating. Just ranting on my thoughts on some common rankings I find to just be off-base.

Pretty much nobody else rates him #10 here as far as I remember. And that's a hard pill to swallow. Honestly I don't think Willis belongs in a top 10 list. Either way, we're talking about limited title fights with a man who is in some peoples top 3-5. Not scrapping the list. Willis is a hugely different scenario, too. Well, Liston was avoided for at least 2 years so it's somewhat relative I guess.

 

true and it's nit picking to a degree. i guess i was more impressed with him pre-patterson. the fights i've seen from 58-61 or so show probably my favourite heavyweight jab ever, better foot movement, patient measured use of his power. post ali-he seemed to slip slightly in workrate, movement and the jab lost a little something for me.

again, nit picking and an argument could be made either way. still i think liston could fall into the top 10 depending on your criteria but top 5 is unlikely.

 

five is fair for me. There are some fighters he CAN'T be rated above (ali, louis), some he ARGUABLY can be rated above (marciano, holmes, johnson), and some he PROBABLY should be rated above (holyfield, tyson, charles). based on that i think 5-7 is about right