Oleksandr Usyk > Lennox Lewis

It's a poor example, Briedis is a fantastic boxer and was in his prime back then and Usyk didn't have his best night.

Bruno won 4 or 5 of the first 6 rounds vs Lewis.

Lewis got knocked out twice, Usyk hasn't ever been down.

There is no point comparing fighters like that, no matter what boxer you look at you'll always find a fight where they struggled.

 

1. 'During Lennox's career, all of Usyk's opponents would have been HWs' - you don't know this. Pure speculation imagined so you can avoid having to side-line most of Usyk's career when assessing this match-up. Some may have been (small) HWs others may have boiled down to 190. You don't know how many of these were bulked up by 21st century training methods.

2. Landing the majority of the jabs he threw - is a deliberately selective stat. Threw three, landed two? That stat only means anything if we have the numbers and LL's numbers too. Agree the fight was close, but the correct arm was raised. And as a general point - and not just cherry-picking bad nights at the office - LL's jab is widely regarded as one of the best HW jabs in the division's history.

3. You swerved the point. LL had 44 HW fights, not FOUR and, therefore, a much bigger sample survey which inevitably includes some off-night performances. Again you're playing with stats to paint a picture. How about 50% of Usyk's HW opponents were journeymen and he's only ever beaten one elite HW? An equally absurd repackaging of the available data.

4. 'Holyfield is nothing like Usyk'? How is Mercer like Usyk? Or Bruno? And yet you draw attention to them. Holyfield doesn't box like Usyk, yes. But he followed a similar career path in terms of moving up from CW. His is the best name you can pull from LL's fight record as a reasonable point of reference, especially as they are both highly regarded.

Like I say, the southpaw aspect stands out for me as the biggest issue for Lewis, alongside Usyk's conditioning and ring IQ...

 

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1. I mean, literally, going by the rules of Lennox's day- They were heavyweights. So I would argue they count as heavyweight wins for the context of analyzing Usyk vs Lennox.

2. Mercer landed an excellent 134 jabs vs Lennox, I have just looked it up. *Also, he apparently landed 60% of his jabs. Usyk has a better jab coming from tricky southpaw angles while being lighter on his feet. Yes, Lennox has a great jab. But is Usyk weak to jabs? No, he feeds off of them.

3. I didn't swerve the question, I explained that for the purpose of analyzing Usyk vs Lennox, Usyk's CW opponents would be considered HWs in Lennox's day. This means feel free to pick what CW performances make you think Lennox would give Usyk trouble. I don't think there is anything better than "Lennox was better than Briedis and Briedis gave Usyk trouble".

4. If I had to pick somebody Lennox fought to compare Usyk to, I would be hard pressed. I wouldn't pick Holyfield, but I'm not sure who I would end up picking.

 

Agree, it's hard to find a solid comparison in terms of skill set - so I'm settling on a fighter with the most similar career path to Usyk's who is also an ATG. It's not an illogical choice.

But I'm not gonna paint myself into Lewis' corner here. I think this is a great fantasy H2H. As of now, I favour him to impose his physicality in the way Joshua could not, because of his far better jab and movement compared to AJ's. He has a better gas tank too, although not as good as Usyk's. He was also much better at the jab and grab (and lean on) tactics Fury will likely deploy.

He would use his assets of size, strength and reach way better than Joshua did. Lewis did everything better than AJ - in most aspects A LOT better. And while I think Usyk handily won both fights, it would only take slightly better feet, a slightly better jab and slightly better ring IQ to make a big difference. And Lewis was way more than slightly better than Joshua.

Now, if Usyk beats Fury or pushes him to his limits in a loss, I'd be happy to revisit this view...

 

The Grant that fought Golota and Lewis is equal to Joshua and you have nothing to disprove me with.

Andy Ruiz would not beat Michael Grant

 

I believe Lewis was on a broadcast years back and said this - it may have been him saying "there's an old expression 'if you want to be champion for a while, don't fight southpaws' " which was a common philosophy decades ago due to the relative rarity of lefties. Promoters and top fighters openly avoided southpaws due to upset potential or a possible lack of interesting action for the fans. Googled around for Lewis' quote and couldn't find it.

 

bowe ans lewis were scheduled to fight 1994 but lewis got KTFO by a crackhead and the fight fell off

Bowe is better than lewis

 

Lewis is vastly overrated. Beating old men and avoided southpaws...

 

Bowe KO'd Lewis in the ametures.

Lewis was always second best

 

Honestly, WTF are you guys talking about? You don't know JACK **** about Lewis.

Lennox didn't fight OLD Heavyweights.

When Lewis fought
* Gary Mason, Mason was 28.
* Glen McCrory, McCrory was 27
* Ossie Ocasio, Ocasio was 34.
* Tyrell Biggs, Biggs was 31.
* Derek Williams, Williams was 27.
* Mike Dixon, Dixon was 27.
* Razor Ruddock, Ruddock was 28.
* Tony Tucker, Tucker was 34.
* Frank Bruno, Bruno was 31.
* Phil Jackson, Jackson was 29.
* Oliver McCall, McCall was 29.
* Lionel Butler, Butler was 27.
* Tommy Morrison, Morrison was 26.
* Ray Mercer, Mercer was 35.
* Henry Akinwande, Akinwande was 27.
* Andrew Golota, Golota was 29.
* Shannon Briggs, Briggs was 27.
* Zeljko Mavrovic, Mavrovic was 29.
* Evander Holyfield, Holyfield was 36 for the first fight and just turned 37 the second fight.
* Michael Grant, Grant was 27.
* Frans Botha, Botha was 31.
* David Tua, Tua was 28.
* Hasim Rahman, Rahman was 28 for the first fight and 29 for the second.
* Mike Tyson, Tyson was 35. (Lewis was 36.)
* Vitali Klitschko, Vitali was 31. (Lewis was 37.)

Look at Usyk.

Chazz Witherspoon is a journeyman who was 38 years old when Usyk fought him. And Chazz sucked in his prime. Derek Chisora was 36 and had nine losses. Bellew was a few weeks shy of 36. And you're bashing Lewis for fighting all-time-great heayweights like Tyson and Holyfield when they were 35 and 36?

REALLY?

Hell, Briedis and Huck and Glowacki were in their 30s, too. So is Joshua.

Who fought the "old guys?"

 

You believe it? It "may" have been him saying?

I don't recall Lewis ever saying that.

 

Prime Grant was a bum that got a gift decision against Jeff Wooden for Christ sake.

AJ would aniihilate Grant early and Wilder would do the same.