Most overrated HW of all time.

Lewis wanted to fight them all. they ducked him. Bowe gave up a title to avoid facing him, when he wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to fight for the belt when he did if he had not agreed to fight Lewis.

Holyfield is better than Lewis? They same Holyfield that lost to Bowe twice, split with Moore, was busy fighting guys like Holmes & Foreman?

No, Lewis was better than them. His title riegns were interrupted by a couple of knockout loses that could be contributed to the other guys getting lucky. Lewis went on to beat both of them.

And him getting startched by a couple of punchers is in someway worse than Holyfield getting his ass handed to him over 12 rounds?

 

Rocky Marciano

 

Even if you could prove that - which you CAN'T - it's irrelevant. Lewis either fought older versons of them, as in the case of Holyfield and Tyson (who was washed up), or not at all, in the case of Bowe. Those are the FACTS. All the excuses about "ducking" are just speculation to justify these serious omissions on Lewis's record. And, I might add - it ORIGINATED with the Lewis Camp propaganda campaign in the 90s, and now fans repeat it as if it were "fact." It's self-serving disinformation, nothing more

Holyfield's decision loss to Moorer was controversial. Several journalists thought he should have gotten the nod. And to competitive losses to Bowe - who at his peak however short it may have been was perhaps the most naturally talented of ALL these guys - is not much of a detractions. Particularly considering how competitive the fights were.

Yeah, yeah, that " avenged" line. Sorry, doesn't erase the fact he got starched in the first place. Particularly his tainted victory over mental cripple McCall, fresh out of rehab and still obviously suffering the aftereffects of his addictions.

No it's not, not by a lonshot. There are fewer more serious blemishes on a fighter's record than getting laid out early by second rate fighters. And especially when compared to close competitive fights - that at least in the case of the Moorer fight, could have easily gone the other way, and should have according to a lot of experts.

 

Fine, Bowe didn't throw his belt into a garbage can vacating that title to avoid a mandatory, when the agreement he signed was for him to fight Lewis.

Nor did Tyson pay Lewis stand a side money. Right. All unsubstantiated speculation. :roll:

Only controversy that resulted from this fight was Holyfield alleged "heart problem" Which was later "cured" by God, via Benny Hinn.

Bowe? err. Who did Bowe beat beside Holyfield? Same way you allege that McCall and Rahman werent known for having a K.O. punch until they beat Lewis Bowe didn't get any recognition as a top Heavyweight. And his resume STILL stands on the Holyfield fights, without them he has no chance of cracking the top 100.

Yeah, the avenged line. His McCall victory is just as viable as Holyfields fights with Tyson. Not his fault Oliver is a headcase, and being the champ if McCall felt he wasn't fit to fight he could have postponed.

Yeah, hate on Lennox all you want but it doesnt change the fact that Evander stuggled against a guy that was startched by a geriatic, and lost a trilogy to a guy who's big fights besides the wins agianst Holyfield are DQ wins he got while getting a pounding from Andrew Golota.

Holyfield's record is a hell of a lot more blemished than Lewis'.

 

Oh please, that was a publicity stunt. Bowe and Newman knew they could make MUCH more money fighting Lewis after he had become better known in the states. ANd in fact, a Bowe-Lewis fight was on the draawing baord but then Lewis want and got himself startched by McCall.

Oh, and didn't Lewis take the payoff?? Seems he wasn't particularly interested in fighting Tyson either when he could collect cash for NOT doing so!!

Watch the fight - it was a close decision that could have gone either way. ANd many ringside observers thought Evander knicked it. Don't forget he had Moorer on the canvas in the second round, too!! Quite unlike Lewis' situation against McCall and Rahman, huh?

Riddick Bowe, however much of an underchiever he may have beocme, was the most highly regarded of these guys in the early 90s. In 1993 a victory over Bowe was a BIG deal - particularly considering the size disadvtanges Holyfield faced.

McCall was forced into that fight by King and his need for money. It was an utter travesty that he was even allowed to compete in that condition. No comission should have licenced him fresh out of rehb like that.

I don't "hate" Lewis, I just think he is grossly overated by many fans. And to say that Holyfield "struggled" against Moorer is a complete misrepresentation of that fight - which was a COMPETITIVE match that many thought Evander won. Hardly a "blemish." And Bowe's subsequent decline and performances against Golota just might have something to do with what the fights with Holyfield took out of him. Pretty impressive, I'd say - and yet another reason why Evander is the BEST HW of the era!!!!

 

Lewis beat every man he faced as a professional prize fighter. Which heavyweight besides Rocky Marciano and Gene Tunney can boast that? There can be little doubt that Lewis heavyweight wins easily exceed that of Marciano’s and Tunney's. Lewis had more title defenses than Marciano and Tunney combined. Lewis is not overrated. Overrated goes to fighters who lost too often, look mediocre on film, and avoided the best competition and champion.

 

Uhhh, I dunno, Riddick Bowe?

On Lennox's behalf, I do admire his comportment in defeat. Like Tommy Hearns (and regrettably, unlike Holmes), he conducted himself with class and dignity, and did avenge his defeats. It's not as if he was an obnoxiously sore loser making pervasive excuses for his failures.

My criticisms of Lewis are not character assassinations. I simply don't believe he merits the exhaulted position among the all time greats that his most ardent boosters argue he deserves. Nor is it his fault that Big Daddy refused to defend his undisputed championship against Lennox, splintering the title which Tyson had run the gamut to unify. (This was a match I'm confident Bowe would have prevailed in, with a competent referee and judges officiating.)

Fat, bloated partial LH champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad didn't take a backwards step against peak conditioned adonis Renaldo Snipes, who despite outweighing Eddie by nearly 25 pounds, wasn't even able to tickle the much smaller man. If anybody should have been able to successfully ambush his way to an upset title win, it should have been Mr. Snipes against Holmes. Yet, when Snipes surprised Holmes with the perfectly executed right of a lifetime, Larry, unlike Lewis against Rachman and McCall, got up, dusted himself off, and proceeded to win the remainder of the KD round and match, finally stopping Snipes. That's what really sets Larry apart from Lennox, the upsets which did not happen.

The judges could just as easily have erroneously ruled against Lennox in his two matches against Holyfield, as they actually did against Larry in his back-to-back set against Mike Spinks. But over 23 consecutive title fights covering a span of nine calendar years, the odds are that Larry should have been laid out in defeat at least once, by being caught off guard by a surprise kayo from a lightly regarded easy title defense. It never happened, and in fact, Larry was laid out only once, coming off an extended layoff at an advanced age, against an opponent with a fearful reputation, at the height of his powers.

A strong argument can be made that the only two authentic defeats of Larry's career were against a peak Tyson (a match where Larry was far better than most of peak Tyson's opponents were), and a peak Holyfield (again, with a far more impressive performance than most of peak Evander's opposition was able to manage)

Contrast that with Lennox's two early stoppage losses to McCall and Rachman. I don't understand how anybody could make a valid argument that Lewis was superior to Holmes. They both had controversial decision wins, and two decisive losses, but Lennox sustained his in mid career, both by kayo, once by clean knockout, and he will never be able to match Larry's longevity.

The argument that Holmes never officially unified the title is a feeble red herring. He posted wins over more than one eventual holder of a paper alternative to the true title, and in Larry's case, the boxer made the title, not the other way around. The enormity of his prestige and acceptance is what secured the IBF as the third major governing body in boxing. Other organizations like the WBO are lesser recognized sanctioning entities because they don't have a Holmes to endow them with immediate prestige and legitimacy.

 

Moehamed alie...............

 

To make that strong argument you'd have to argue that Holmes beat Spinks the first time around. That would really be a stretch. He should've won the second one, but the first one......

 

Neither is Joe Frazier or George Foreman.

 

I could think of better descriptions

 

Riddick Bowe.

 

Mercer almost always carried a little extra fat. It was natural for him, some fighters just always have some baby fat around their midsection like Povetkin, it doesn't mean that they are out of shape.

Mercer FOUGHT the better fight against Lewis because he knew Lewis was a tough and dangerous fighter.

 

Won the title three times. Fought the best quality opposition of any heavyweight in history. Twice won the title when he was a massive underdog against fearsome punchers. Liston and Foreman. And won the title for a third time at the age of 36 against a much younger opponent.

Ali was the greatest heavyweight of all time. I don't think Joe Louis comes close even though he reigned for longer. Ali's quality of oppostion combined with his three title wins, and having good wins when past his prime are simply too much for anyone else to make an arguement.