Lewis is a top 5 ATG Heavyweight.

No he didn't. He didn't fight Tyson anytime between 1988 and Tyson's imprisonment in 1992 when Tyson was at the tail end of his rather short prime and he was actually a viable opponent for Tyson - part of the reason Tyson/Holyfield was such a big draw in 1996 was because they hadn't fought when Tyson was in his pomp - and he got a lot of stick for seemingly avoiding a fight with Ruddock back when Ruddock was thought amugst the division's most dangerous fighter prior to his ruination at the hands of Lewis.

Lewis certainly did not "wait" until Holyfield had "declined" to fight him, the stars just never aligned.

If Holyfield had beaten Bowe in 1992 then he would have not have backed out of the deal like Bowe did and would have fought Lewis in 1993, but Holyfield lost and decided to go for an easier opponent in Alex Stewart as a warm up for his rematch with Bowe which he won. Because he needed to avenge his loss and regain his titles Holyfield didn't want to fight Lewis at the time.

Holyfield and Lewis were then talking of an autumn 1994 show-down to unify the belt, but Holyfield lost to Moorer and retired so that ended that. Moorer, when asked about the proposed unification fight with Lewis, basically said "no one tells me what to do" then got KO'd by Foreman while Lewis went on to get KO'd by McCall.

Lewis spent the next few years rebuilding his career and working his way into a WBC mandatory spot while Holyfield came out of retirement fought Mercer, lost his rubbermatch with Bowe the beat Bobby Czyz. At this time Tyson dropped the WBC belt to defend the WBA belt against Holyfield.

Lewis reclaimed the WBC belt and set about establishing himself after two farcical initial fights by destroying Golota and capturing the Lineal title from Briggs before struggling with Mavrovic while Holyfield has a second match with Tyson (the Bite Fight) then avenged his loss to Moorer picking up the IBF belt in the process before stuggling with Vaughn Bean.

When Holyfield and Lewis signed to fight they were the two dominant figures in the division, bringing with them to the fight the three major belts and the Lineal Title, and Holyfield was rated the #3 best fighter across all divisions. It was a fight that mattered a great deal. It was only after their first fight that Holyfield suddenly became washed up over night.

 

Wow encyclopedic knowledge of the time period. Impressive.

 

Yes he is, if he comes out of retirement to fight whoever becomes the next Undisputed Heavyweight champion since.himself, he gets GOAT Heavyweight spot if he wins

Its not healthy :nono but that is what the GOAT does :boxer

 

No he was gifted against Mercer and the rematch with Holy .


There is no claim its fact he's good but not as good as you make him out to be .And to say he's top 5 with losses to guys like Rahaman and McCall is comical !

 

Holyfield was no gift, I've had many, many debates about this fight on a round by round basis over the years and I haven't lost yet. If you want to break it down, round by round, let's do it. And the Mercer fight was a close but deserved victory for Lewis. Instead of getting props for a hard fought win he gets pissed on by some such as yourself for god knows why. I can understand criticising him when he losses, but to criticise him when he wins, come on.

 

if you can't score a fight, then fine. no point in wasting each others time.

but if you think it's comical by having Lewis in the top 5 due to the two losses, can i please see where you place Joe Louis in the top ten. and your argument for his placing considering his loss to a way past his best Schmelling, and being one punch away from getting stopped again by a genuine trash can in Tony Galento.

Thanks.

 

Who is pissing on him he lost those fights imo .. What I don't agree with is him being top 5 .. I think he's being overrated here especially since he looked so beatable against guys like Rahman and McCall and the fights just mentioned .

 

Everyone knows that Vitali was robbed against Lewis and Wlad's win over Byrd is much more impressive that Lewis' win over Holyfield. Byrd beat both Holyfield and Tua back then.

 

LL…The last Undisputed King + Beat every man he faced + Vitali/Holy/Tyson

 

atsch

 

Yes Vitali was robbed of getting KTFO in the next 2 rounds by lewis and being giving a career ending injury (permanent Vagina face)

 

Vitali loss to Lewis is fair and legitimate. The stoppage was entirely justified, he couldn't safely continue. You have never proven the cuts on Vitali's face were caused by anything other than perfectly legal punches. Bottom line, Vitali wasn't good enough on the night to get the job done.

 

Lennox fought all his opponents when they were well past their best, and ducked fellow champion Chris Byrd who was begging him for a fight.

Lennox is possibly the worst HW champion of all time. If he had fought Tyson, Tucker and Holyfield in their primes, I'd have respect for him. Instead he chose to hide in the UK while those guys got washed up, then swooped in like a vulture and feasted on their corpses.

 

How did that go?

 

Tucker wasn't in his prime when Lewis fought him but was still rated #5 best Heavyweight and was still dangerous. You cant hold it against him that Tucker's prime was almost five years before Lewis arrived on the world stage.

Tyson was in jail when Lewis reached the world stage and chose to fight Holyfield instead of Lewis in 1996 and avoided Lewis after returning from suspension in 1999 until the money on offer was too big for him to turn down. That this fight didn't happen earlier is more down to Tyson.

Holyfield, as I stated before, would have fought Lewis much earlier if he hadn't lost to Bowe and Moorer, yet he was still the top rated Heavyweight and #3 P4P when he and Lewis fought.