Starting To Think Lennox Lewis Is The Most Complete and Best Heavyweight H2H

His shameful ducking of Sweet Pea is well documented.

 

Yeah, I guess he did suck pretty hard. (Or so McCall says:heynohomo)

 

Well, actually, I guess homo. Because I meant it as like a double entendre thing.

 

Fantastic work :good

 

Quarry and Young would kick his ass just on that irrelevance alone. :yep

 

Easily! hahaha

 

Oh, someone earlier in this thread mentioned "some guy named Mavrovic" that Lewis went 12 rounds with, citing it along with the Holyfield fights an example of Lewis looking ordinary against guys with just a dash of agility and boxing skill.

First of all, Holyfield had more than a dash of both.

Second, the Mavrovic fight showed two things. 1) ZM is a guy it's a shame we didn't get to see more of. He was already a few months shy of 30 when he suffered that first loss and had only been a pro for five years. He lacked a signature win in that time but had been dominating 2nd/3rd tier contender wannabes and taking the trash out bright and early. If he'd been developed in the West and turned pro younger rather than chasing a second Olympics opportunity, he could well have been a bigger name of the decade. 2) Lewis had this unexpectedly tough and able guy to deal with. This is sandwiched between the other two times he took unheralded opponents too lightly (and in those cases was unlucky enough to pay for it). So it isn't as though the lesson had been totally learned yet (be "on" - always). Before he knew it, he was dragged into a real fight by someone who clearly knew how to fight - and what was his response? He dug down and he fought back, and he won. That's what champions do. That's what extraordinary fighters do. Citing this fight as an example of Lewis looking "ordinary" actually backfires - it's an example of him clawing his way through adversity when some might have curled up in a ball (which would make it very easy to point to a pattern of mental crumbling in conjunction with his two extant losses).

 

IMO, ZM gave Lewis a hell of a fight. I never saw the dude again, but he almost pulled off the upset.

The Scoring was on a par with the scoring of Lewis-Holyfield 1.


Tom Kaczmarek 119-109; Franco Ciminale 117-111; Bob Logist 117-112

I remember scoring it to Lewis, by a whisker.

Great performance by Lewis who was probably not expecting such a wild evening.

Great fight. Often overlooked.

 

Probably not. Too much difference in speed, both hand and foot.

I would always have favoured Lewis over Mike, both at the top of their game.
The qualities you mentioned earlier (jab, power, range and size) tip the scales.
However, he could be caught with something big from tyson and it could end badly.

I'd give Lewis the edge, 51/49

 

After having spent so long in the sport (including as an amateur) and coming up bitterly short three times in ten years (twice at the Olympics and then in his world title bid) he didn't have the passion for it anymore. He did have a few more fights lined up at the end of the decade, all waylaid by injury (interestingly, Oleg Maskaev was a late replacement for him against Rahman the 1st time). He officially retired due to "undisclosed illness". He stopped eating meat, lost 40 pounds, and became a successful journalist and green-foods manufacturer. :conf

 

Too bad.

He certainly had promise.

 

On point #3, the prime Al was not tested, unless you' consider Chavalo a test. Lewis would have bounced Chavalo around the ring for a few rounds and either taken him out or force a mercy stoppage.

I have always viewed Lewis as a top 5 ATG heavyweight, and head to head monster. The thing on Lewis is, he is more prone being upset vs. good punchers than most ATG's.

 

I disagree that he's the most complete but there's an argument that he's the best, mainly due to his size though.