Lewis career/legacy - one of the best ever

Excellent post. People often forget that it wasn't just Holyfield and Tyson who were past their primes when he fought them!! Lewis fought guys when the time was right - for him! And even then two of these guys took him out early!

 

Stopped by doc when lummox was done like a roast. Lummox didn't trust a doc stoppage tho in a rematch. So never turned up! :deal :smoke

 

"Done like a roast" and STILL swept the last round on all cards.

What a legend! :happy

 

If you discard wins over scared fighters, Tyson wouldn't even have had a career.

 

Galota wasn't scared. He was just mentally weak, and easily discouraged as he proved previously against Bowe, Grant, and later against Tyson.

 

Prime Lewis vs prime Tyson could go either way. Lewis could easily be KOed, even quite quickly by the lightning fast and super aggressive Tyson. On the other hand, Tyson was taken the distance by fighters like Bonecrusher Smith and Tony Tucker in his prime and was rocked by a Tucker uppercut. Lewis in his prime is far superior to these fighters and had far more power.

 

I think it´s kinda far fetched to say every opponent of Lewis´was past his prime, scared, sick or whatnot.

Lewis beat a 36 year old Holyfield who still had a lot in the tank, once decisively and then again in a closer fight. Lewis was 33 himself at the time. Lewis was then well over 36 himself when he beat Tyson and about 38 when he beat a prime Vitali, in a fair decisive way - despite the fact it was a close fight.

It is actually very rare for two prime heavyweights, who both are greats, to fight each other. I can think of some after the 50s:

Holyfield-Bowe 1 & 2
Ali-Frazier 1 & 2
Ali-Foreman
Ali-Liston
Norton-Holmes

And you could well argue Ali being past his best in the Foreman and Frazier fights and Bowe and Norton not being real greats.

 

I think you could also argue Liston was past his prime when he fought Clay as well.

 

Holyfields biggest moments at HW were against Tyson who as everyone knows was nowhere near prime at the time.

If you're going to judge Lewis by a certain standard then you need to use the same yardstick for Holy. Let's also not forget the 2 defences against guys that were 40+ that Holy had - and he couldn't stop either of them. Holmes was pretty damn competitive in fact

Yet people rag on Lennox for turning VITLAYS face into mincemeat at the age of 38 :nut

 

There was also the Bowe trilogy, where Bowe won 2 out of 3, and Holyfield winning the one fight by a very close decision over a chubby and overweight Bowe.

And there was Moorer. Oh wait, Mr. HGH needed two tries to beat that chinny light heavy.

 

No one thought Liston was past his best when he fought Clay cuz he had destroyed Patterson twice. Many thought Ali was past it when he fought Foreman and didn't give him much of a chance. That's why he was a big underdog. That's the difference.

 

Well I see it different, cause no one was, or is as far as I know is, sure of his age. He may have been anywhere from 32-34 years old.

 

so by your logic ali should'nt be rated because he struggled with ken norton (a guy who was sparked out in 1 round by gerry cooney) or because he toiled with joe bugner!! etc

you seriously expect people to take YOU seriously when you post crap like this?