Revisionist history regarding Lennox Lewis

Not for me, for every Ruddock and Golota there is a Mercer and Mavrovic, not to mention two bad ko losses. His whole rep is built around tko6. Tyson was a shell and Holyfield, who he could not even wobble over 24 rounds, also past prime.

 

But you forget the fact a deal was made between Holyfield, Bowe , Ruddock & Lennox. Bowe to meet Holyfield Ruddock to fight Lennox the next the two winners meet to decide the real champion. I was ridiculed when I forecast Lennox would destroy Ruddock which he did & Bowe beat Holyfield
Newman & BOwe blatantly renaged on Lennox, Had Vander beaten Bowe in that fight I'm certain he'd have been man enough to see the contract through
King knew Lennox could beat Tyson too hence the $4 mil to step aside & be next in line. King didn't want Lennox champ because Don had harassed Lennox constantly to sign with him. Lennox wisely told King to take a long walk off a short pier LOL

 

I think you are trying to hard to downplay his career here, which is probably a sign that he was as good as people thought or you wouldn't have to try so hard. There is a lot of revisionist history here.

First off, some of those guys he didn't fight because of their issues, not his. Douglas after beating Tyson ballooned into a 400 pound cream puff. He wasn't fit to fight anyone above club fighter level, Holyfield knocked him out and Holy was not a one punch knockout guy. We all know what happened with Rid**** Bowe. Rid**** Bowe ducked him when Rid**** was something. I see little indication Bowe would have given him any problems at all in the late 90's. Michael Moorer was never the same after the Foreman humiliation.

As for the Shannon Briggs fight, that was actually one of his better ones and to talk like that's a stain on his career is ridiculous. Briggs caught him with an off balance shot to the back of the head in the first round, hardly an almost win. Lennox utterly beat the **** out of the guy. Now granted, Briggs never had much of a defense, but he was tough as nails and hit like train. Its noteworthy Briggs was never stopped again after that fight, and was only stopped once before that which was probably a fluke. Vitali nor Foreman could stop Briggs in twelve rounds yet Lewis did it in five in Briggs' prime.

He destroyed Golota and Grant who prior to meeting Lewis were both considered up and coming greats. Neither was ever the same afterwards.

Mavrocic was an undefeated Croation known to be tough as nails. Lennox certainly did not look his best in that fight, but still controlled the fight with relative ease. Ray Mercer was a war no question about it. But I hardly think a great fighter isn't entitled to get in a close war once or twice in his career. Mercer was no slouch.

Holyfield was slightly past it, but still a very dangerous fighter. And I am far from certain you can argue Holyfield won either fight, if anything the draw was a robbery of Lewis, most people agree.

Tyson was shot to ****, no question about it.

You could even argue the stoppage to Oliver McCall was premature. And of course its noteworthy that Lewis easily avenged both his defeats.

I think in conclusion, you shouldn't have to try so hard to downplay a man's career and use revisionist history. If you do, chances are you are wrong.

 

Lennox Lewis beat every man he faced in the pro ring. How many fighters can sat that. He is the best since Ali by a mile

 

vitali was an emerging fighter at age 32?

HAHAHAHA. Are you claiming he was had some kind of learning difficulties.

 

its the only fight that figures on your radar, you mean

 

you don't know **** about what you are talking about. Bowe was legally obligated to fight Lewis when he beat Holyfield, and Lewis demolished Ruddock and he ducked so much that he killed his legacy.


Everyone knows that that it was agreed by all parties that the winner of the Bowe-Holyfield fight would fight the winner of the Lewis -Ruddock fight as the bout was an official WBC Final Eliminator.



Why would Lewis, who destroyed Ruddock not want to fight Bowe?

It's been documented over and over again that Bowe's manager felt that Lewis had his number, partly based on the Ruddock fight, and partly based on Lewis beating him in the olympics.



The fact of the matter is had Bowe won the fight against Lewis inside of ducking him, he would have been considered at least a top 5 ATG heavyweight having wins over prime Holyfield and prime Lewis. Instead he's an afterthought.

Nobody is talking about how great Bowe is, Lewis is considered top 5 by most and top 10 by almost everyone.

Tyson too was was suppose to fight Lewis and he too ducked and chose to fight Holyfield instead. (Look how well that worked out).

This is on wikipedia:

Lewis successfully sued to force Tyson to make a mandatory defence of the WBC title against him or force him to give up the title, winning a four million dollar settlement from promoter Don King. Rather than fight Lewis, Tyson relinquished the WBC title to fight Evander Holyfield.

So here you got someone suing another fighter to force a fight and we have an idiot like you saying he ducked him. :-(

 

No just you.
He was on the way up still, not on top. Or, did you not follow boxing then.

 

I'm calm, sorry if I over reacted. :good

Lewis took the $4M on the condition that should Tyson win, he would fight Lewis. Instead, as said above, Tyson chose to drop the WBC belt and fought Holyfield instead.

But when fighters are dropping belt not to fight a particular opponent, and that opponent is suing to get the fights, it's pretty nervy to spin it in the complete opposite direction.

 

edit

 

Interesting thread, some valid points made here.

I think Lewis is loved by many and hated by many so we have to find a more realistic look at him and his resume.

First of all, I think he was special HW - great size, reach, excellent power, very good speed, good enough chin despite all haters' talks about 'glass jaw', and very good skills (which significantly improved under Steward).

Secondly, I agree with your point that Lewis shouldn't be considered as dominant HW of 90's but rather one of the dominant along with Holyfield.

Prior to their fight Holy had faced better competition and had more money, fame and recognition than Lennox.

He was beating aged but still great superstars like Foreman and Holmes, fellow superstars Bowe and Tyson and other champions and beltholders like Douglas, Moorer, Mercer etc. Overall in 90-98 Holy scored 5 wins over HOFers.

Lewis in 90-98 faced very good opponents, too, but not HOF caliber.

BUT. That's not Lewis fault. Bowe's manager refused to fight Lennox in 93. Don King refused to make Tyson-Lewis in mid 90's.

Things changed in 99 when Lennox won 1st Holyfield fight (despite official 'draw'). It skyrocketed Lewis' popularity and fame.

As for Lewis' mediocre performances...well, everyone has it.

I don't think Mercer fight or Briggs fight were mediocre, Briggs only had early success and then got destroyed. And Mercer fight was great and exciting.

Bruno and McCall fights, yes. But they were before Steward, Lewis was still somewhat unpolished fighter at that time.

Overall, Lewis on his best day is a serious challenge to any HW in history, but his resume while very good isn't anywhere near to Louis or Ali so he shouldn't be even in the discussion for GOAT HW, that's between Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali.