(PRIME) Lennox Lewis vs. (PRIME) Wladimir Klitschko

IMO peak Lennox Lewis is the year 2000; Michael Grant fight (I know Wlad is not the same as Grant, but...). I just don't know which version of Wlad would be able to beat this Lennox. The fight would begin with a mutual interrogation, but Lewis' experience would take the lead more and more as the fight wore on. I think that the fight would not have ended, but that Lewis would have managed to find Wlad's glass chin in the second half of the fight.
Lennox Lewis wins by late TKO.

 

Lennox Lewis by KO inside of 6 rounds.

 

I've always fancied Wlad due to his better technical skills and more advanced understanding of the game. That said there will be folks who reckon Lewis manages to turn it into a dogfight which I think would suit him. I'm not sure he can ... but I'm not certain he can't either. These are both Steward fighters so it'll be interesting to see the clones eyeing each other out.

 

Whilst a great fighter, Wlad is facing one of the greatest, hard hitting heavy s of the past 40 years.
I see him stopping Wlad early.

 

Lewis by late rounds ko,too tough for Wlad.

 

I think Lennox had more in his repertoire than Wlad, so Lennox wins by mid to late round stoppage i would say.

Question is who would have the Godfather of Detroit Boxing in their corner?

 

Peak Lennox takes him out. Just too good.

 

Imo Wlad is massively overrated. Especially H2H. His boxing "greatness" benefits mightily from fighting a weak and restricted resume of smaller men that he was allowed to lay his body over their back until they were so exhausted they could barely stand. Then he might KO them. As soon as he started matching opponents that were too tall for him to apply that strategy, he lost.

In this fantasy matchup I can envision a scenario where an able, yet suicidally arrogant LL hangs out consuming the good ganj and stout beer amd pizza all of fight week and then Wlad KOs his sloppy, hung over, arrogant ass after about 8 rounds.

A 6 week camp later, Lennox comes back and KOs Wlad in 4 or less. There is no rematch. Vitali steps up, but the result is TKO6.

Lennox Lewis is the last truly great heavyweight. We await his successor with less and less hope each year that passes.

 

I think prime versions of Lewis and Wlad were roughly equal in height, reach, physical strength, distance control/footwork, long range boxing skills, punch power, defensive inside fighting (i.e. clinch to neutralise the opponent) and stamina.

I think Lewis had the superior chin, durability and offensive inside skills (Lewis's uppercut & greater willingness to engage, being the clear differentiators here).

A jab & move, long range boxing match would be evenly contested, and whilst both had the power to KO each other, Lewis's advantages above mean I'd favour him to win around 7 out of 10.

 

Lennox tko6

But seriously Lennox was much better on the inside, much tougher and rougher and was just as good on the outside (I personally say he was far better but I digress).

 

We agree on the majority of things, but I'd like to explore further your view that Lewis and Wlad were "roughly equal" in footwork and which fights would best demonstrate comparable footwork - and, also ask how you think they compare in offensive "inside fighting", as well as all-round defense, punch variety (armory), punch selection and the level of opposition against which all the skills mentioned thus far were demonstrated.

And, could I just clarify that by "7 out of 10" you mean seven out of ten times they fought each other?

 

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In most cases, everyone would say Lewis would win, but also this fight would be very difficult to predict, both extremely big and massive fighters and it would be a fight in which one clean punch could decide the outcome, but I would still choose Lewis because he took more risks...

 

Sure.

• Footwork - roughly equal in effectiveness, rather than gait/form. From memory, 1 fight each where they displayed effective footwork, Tua for Lewis & Haye for Wlad. Lewis probably had the easier task from a footwork perspective, in these 2 x fights, given the even greater disparity in height & reach, and the fact that Tua's feet were slower than Haye's. That said, Lewis made this an easy fight through use of his feet, he controlled the distance & made sure that the vast majority of the fight was spent with Tua at a proximity to him that was right on the end of his fully extended jab, whilst he was out of Tua's punching range. I was so impressed with the intelligent way Wlad used his feet vs Haye. Going into the fight, as I was considering what the strategy of each guy should be, I was conflicted as to how Wlad should approach the fight. His 2 x clear advantages were - 1) Height and reach; and 2) Stamina (Wlad's improved post his initial 3 defeats & Haye was an explosive, high-twitch muscle fibre athlete, built for short explosive bursts). I couldn't think of a strategy Wlad could adopt to simultaneously harness these two advantages. To my mind, to exploit 1) he needed to box a low-output fight, safely at distance, whereas to take advantage of 2) he needed to box a busy fight, forcing Haye to work at a pace higher than he'd ideally like to. It wasn't until I witnessed Wlad's approach, that I realised it was possible, and that impressed me. He executed a strategy I couldn't even conceive of. Watch him from the moment of the opening bell, to the start of each round and after each clinch - he proactively moves forward, immediately and quickly, and adopts a distance relative to Haye, where Haye is within range of his fully extended jab, meaning Haye is never comfortable and always working, always under mental pressure, whilst ensuring he (Wlad) is just out of Haye's punching range, so David had to take a step forwards to get into range and then punch. When Haye takes a step back or to the side, Wlad mirrors it, he maintains his position relative to Haye, so Haye can't rest for a second, he has to be switched on for every second within the 36-minutes of the fight. When Haye takes a step forward, Wlad mirrors it with an equal step back to, again, maintain that exact distance, or if Haye gets a jump on him & he can't, he steps forwards and clinches. Both Lewis & Wlad effectively won these respective fights against world class HWs through intelligent use of footwork alone (admittedly by utilising their advantages in height & reach).

• Offensive infighting - you'll be pleased to read this won't require such a lengthy explanation. As I said, Lewis is clearly superior, primarily because Wlad didn't have, or at least didn't deploy, any. His inside game was limited to defence, specifically to nullify his opponent by clinching. Lewis wasn't a great infighter, technically I'd say other big men such as Bowe or Fury were superior, but he was dangerous inside with the right uppercut, Grant & Vitali being the 2 x first obvious examples that spring to mind, that alone makes his offensive infighting better than Wlad's.

• Defence - I don't think either demonstrated particularly multi-faceted defences. Both primarily relied on distance control when facing shorter, less rangy opponents, which was the case for them more often than not. Once a fighter had breached their punching range, both could clinch, the only way I see them differing is Wlad did so exclusively, whereas Lewis could cover up and look for opportunities to counter, as well.

• Punch variety - Both had great jabs. Both had great straight rights, Lewis possibly the better, particularly in the sense he could throw with an arc/as a "roundhouse" right, see the KO in Rahman 2. Wlad had the better left hook & Lewis the better right uppercut.

• Quality of opposition - Firstly, this impacts more on where I rank these 2 (Lewis # 4 all time at HW, Wlad # 7), rather than how I'd see a H2H contest between their prime versions going. However, as you've asked, it's a clear advantage to Lewis. The sheer dominance & consistency of Wlad during his prime, in the 23-fight win streak over an 11-year period, post the Brewster loss & up until his defeat to Fury, impresses me hugely, which is why I rank him higher than most, at 11. I've noticed I tend to rank fighters who are generally perceived to be dominant over weak eras, higher than most. I have Perez #3 at Fly, Zarate #4 at BW, Foster #7 at LHW & Louis #1 at HW, for example, all of whom I've read others say dominated weak eras. I accept that in each instance there have been stronger eras, but I balance this in my own thinking with the fact that the opposition of utterly dominant champions is likely underrated because the dominant champion was so good, no one else had the chance to emerge. All that said, Lewis beat the higher quality of HWs, imo. Slightly past prime Holyfied, Vitali, Ruddock, Golata, Tucker, Mercer, Tua, Briggs, Bruno, Morrison, Grant, Akinwande, Mason, shot Tyson & revenge wins over McCall/Rahman, are clearly superior to Povetkin, Peter x 2, Haye, Chageav, Byrd x 2, Thompson x 2, Chambers, Ibragimov, past prime Mercer, Pulev, Brewster & past prime Rahman, even though I think some underrate that 2nd batch of wins.

• 7 out of 10 - Yes, if they fought 10 times, prime for prime, I'd estimate Lewis would win 7. In other words, I'd make Lewis favourite to the tune of around 70%/30%.