Lennox never seemed to be rated so highly in real time DURING his career.

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We quibble over terms.

Mike vacated it, same as Bowe. Throwing a physical object into the trash is symbolic. A champ could drop his belt in a waste bin and still defend the title if he wanted to for some reason — unless he vacated it or was stripped.

 

I never said Bowe didn’t. I said Tyson did.

Two things can be true. You realize that, right?

Like if I say ‘Oliver McCall knocked out Lennox Lewis’ and you said, ‘No, Hasim Rahman knocked him out.’ That doesn’t mean Oliver didn’t.

 

Not arguing w u. Just thought u had the physical story mixed up. I agree Tyson avoided Lewis.

 

OK, I was thinking of when he paid him step-aside to fight Seldon.

 

Lennox was a great fighter, but I would have liked to have seen his skills with a smaller body.. he benefitted as did the Klitchkos from being big heavyweights.

 

He got his props by '99. That's the era that is getting him through today. He damn sure was fat and ill trained when he fought Vitali.

 

I think your take is correct. He suffered IMO from not being American (the big fights and main boxing media were based there and heavily US slanted) and not having the personality of a Tyson or a Bowe. I think he also refused to deal with Don King who was still a major power broker, in terms of the belts.
When he lost to McCall he was basically written off and had to work his way back. It took years for him to finally be recognised as the best (the Holyfield draw actually helped him a lot, in terms of public sympathy). And when he lost to Rahman (a fight he was obviously under prepared for. I thought the rematch would be a straight forward KO win for Lewis) he was written off again in many quarters. I remember - even after winning the rematch - he was grudgingly given credit in some of the boxing publications at the time - but they were all saying he was no ATG. A lot still had Tyson beating him... Compare that to Holyfield who, after beating Tyson in 1996, was being touted by many outlets as being an active ATG.
He got slated again for not rematching Vitali, which I actually thought at the time was the right choice (as he was declining).
I think, ultimately, Lewis was rarely flavour of the month in the media and among some fans (this was in the shadow of Tyson, remember). He did, slowly, grudgingly, start to earn mainstream respect as his career went on but it always seemed to me he had to face more obstacles - and was held to a higher standard - than others.
One thing I was pleasantly surprised at was how quickly he started being recognised as a high ranking ATG after his retirement. It really only took a few years. But he was certainly great all along.

 

Yeah, you're correct, and I'm an offender as far as Lewis. I just couldn't see what was happening in real time. His overall depth of quality kind of snuck up on me until his final few years. Not a proud moment as a boxing fan, that I was dismissive. I rated his best ability highly, but he just seemed to have a weird and unfit temperament to me. I remember telling people he COULD beat anybody but his mindset is weird, whether he lights up or not and why was weird. But by the end I looked at how stacked his record was and some of his best looks and I thought ''Yeah, he does have everything. It wasn't just potential." But as far as everyone else, you're correct about the overall sentiment. Even by the time he fought Morrison, it's glaring, when you go watch the HBO commentary for that fight, they're talking about him being too one-dimensional, I seem to remember, and the funny thing is, even that late, maybe it's true that his skills were still not where they would be. If I'm remembering that correctly as being somewhat late for that, but a few really devastating losses can blind you to someone's best or overall body of work and in fairness to us, he had that. It just means surprisingly little when you look back at the whole picture for him.

 

it is true of a lot of fighters...

JJW, Charles and Lloyd Marshall also suffered from that bias, press and of course Boxing B.S and Politicking.

which of course is the Lying Business and Protection side of Boxing, which is also how & why we know Boxing History can & in many a case should be rewritten.

so just like Walcott, Charles and Marshall, Lennox Lewis too is Definitely ONE of the True Greats, he IS certainly the absolute Best of the Super Heavyweights, and by a very long & wide Margin.

 

That's a great post with many bang on points.

 

He’s quite over-rated nowadays. I hope that gives him comfort. To see what’s come since him makes him look better.

 

Lewis' case is a paradox. Once underrated, today highly overrated. This is due to personality. In the past, the fact that he was a nice guy didn't help him, but then it changed. Opinions about him are created by boxing people - publicists, managers, journalists, Lennox has great contacts with everyone. I learned this the hard way. It's a different personality about Tyson who ****s everyone and discourages people from him and causes him to have a lot of critics. But beneath the appearance of PR there are sporting achievements and these - if you look closely at them - are much weaker than they seem.
Lewis' biggest victory was Holy after a festival of boredom and two weak fights in which the second one was won by maybe 115-113. John Ruiz should have received the same result in the next fight with Holy, not even a year has passed. But Ruiz was not appreciated and Lewis today so much that he cleared his era, which is nonsense. he simply sat on what was left of the division. Holmes and Foreman were already old, Ike went to prison, Holy was a broken veteran, Tyson, despite his age, had his prime over a decade earlier and didn't know how to fight someone like Botha, Tua was a perfect fit for him and was inconsistent... Looking at the fights Lewis and I don't see anything great there... Briggs, Mavrowić... these are victories worthy of Trevor Berbick. Embarrassing defeats with McCall, with Rahman, no rematch with Mercer who was already old, avoiding the uncomfortable Byrd, Ruiz and when strong, young rivals finally appeared in the form of Klitschko - retirement.
Lennox Lewis' career is the most overrated career in boxing

 

Spot on. I'm glad people see him for how good he was now.

 

Have you considered making him pay?