It was a good career and one he should get credit for. But we have to be careful when giving this guy favorable odds against great champions. While the wins you listed were certainly admirable, they need to be looked at more closely.. Tex Cobb was no longer a contender when Douglas beat him and was never that good to begin with. Oliver McCall was a 13-2 nobody who was still a good five years away from having any real impact on the division and Douglas didn't look that good against him anyway.. Berbick was still tough and respectable but noticeably past it... And everybody and their brother was beating Greg Page between 1984-1987, including David bey, mark wills and an old joe Bugner.. The Tyson fight was a collosal victory that should be credited to him. But as I posted above, it had its own details worth examining. What Douglas needed to do to eliminate all questions concerning his abilities, was to follow up after that Tyson Win buy giving a good show against Holyfield along with winning some of his earlier fights against guys like Tucker and Ferguson. Had he shown himself to be more consistently good and against guys who "weren't" washed up or in poor form, he wouldn't be questioned as much today..
:deal Not a Lewis fan but unless he was woefully overconfident ala' Rahman and McCall then this would have been a fairly plain sailing fight for him, Douglas was very inconsistent at best and had 1 night where he excelled whereas Lewis had many great nights and that's the difference, Lewis was consistently good for the best part of a decade and i think you would have to favour him over Douglas who simply had too many woeful showings.Lewis KO4 Buster......
I think Lewis is getting his ears boxed off here. If Buster is in great shape and focused he will outbox Lewis. However, when Lewis gets outclassed technically he resorts to his punching power and physical strength. So, there will be a moment when Douglass gets hurt. Can Douglass rebound and get the win? Douglass SD after some dicey moments.
If anyone could turn up like Tyson did vs Douglas, it would be Lewis. What if Lewis turns up overconfident and Douglas shows up like he did in Tokyo? Lewis will be in deep trouble.
Douglas could certainly replicate the Rahman victory. Rahman never needed to get out of second gear that night, he just jabbed and plodded forward until Lewis dropped his hands and then he banged him. So yes an unmotivated Lewis probably gets knocked out, but then in the rematch a motivated Lewis destroys him.
Better chin? I don't think so, Douglas had a woeful chin and ticker to boot. He was known for swallowing it and had been knocked out on numerous occasions. We all know why he beat Tyson and i'm not even going to bother explaining it. Buster had fast hands and a good jab but i think he would have struggled with Lewis' strength and power, despite out boxing the Brit in the early stages he runs into trouble after a couple of rounds and is stopped. Lewis KO 4 Douglas.
Typically speaking, lennox would dominate Douglass, but if buster came in like he did against Tyson then lennox is getting caught rocked and dropped before the 5th
Something similar to the Michael Grant fight for Lewis he will know what the best Douglas brings.. Jumps on him and irons him out early
I think prime for prime Lewis was better. However, the Buster Douglas that beat Tyson, although a one off type of performance, would beat Lennox Lewis. I never saw a fight where Lewis looked as good as Douglas did the night he fought Tyson.
Buster had a decent set of whiskers and ticker, at least in the Tyson fight.. He recovered from a powerful Tyson shot that knocked him down, to rise and win the fight. Otherwise, he did show a weak ticker but not a "woefull chin." For example, He gassed against Tucker. He took some good shots earlier in the fight, but basically quit when he got tired. He basically quit more than anything when dropped by Holyfield - he wasn't completely out of it and on ***** street like Lennox was against McCall and Rahman.
