The Best Heavyweight Since Ali?

If the criteria is at their best, who was the best, its Tyson, head and shoulders above the rest. Id fancy head to head, a peak Tyson over anyone, Ali included.

If its things like longevity, and best wins etc, Id go for Holmes or Lewis.

 

Tyson was the very incarnation of ferocity in the latter half of the eighties. However, a past prime Holmes was probably his best win during that period.

Could this fierceness have been tempered by a peak Holmes; peak Lewis; peak Holyfield (and a Bowe who put his game face on)? I don't think it's a wild stretch of the imagination to think it could have been.

 

Lewis is the LUCKIEST Heavyweight of all time, no where near the best.

Some of you are WAY out.

He was lucky that his closest rivals like Tyson and Bowe self destructed. He was lucky to come out of the Mercer fight with a win. He was lucky that he faced an OLD version of Holyfield who threw 10 punches a rd rather then the 30 year old active Holyfield would have beaten him twice. He was lucky McCall self destructed during the rematch and finally he was lucky that he never faced Vitali Klitschko in a rematch as he knew he'd get knocked out.

 

I actually couldn't disagree with any of that.
Add in Bruno was boxing his ears off too.

 

larry holmes would beat lennox lewis up

 

Agreed about the Bruno fight.

Just getting back to the two Holyfield fights, Lewis did NOT win either of them in a dominating fashion.

Okay i would give Lewis the first fight but only by something like 116-112, the difference was really down to lack of activity from Holyfield and Lewis landing a few more punches per round.

Now their 2nd fight, i had as a draw or very close victory for Lewis something like 115-113. Lewis was actually lucky that this wasn't the first fight as no one would have argued about it being a draw.

Now just imagine if Lewis had faced the 30 year old Holyfield, a fighter who was stronger, sharper, fresher and importantly far more active during rounds and i have absolutely no hesitation that this version of Holyfield beats Lewis twice by 3 or 4 rds.

 

It's actually tough as my opinion on the era fluctuates and even my respect for the fighters' resumes sometimes change a little. A loose, relative order of:

Lennox
Holmes
---
Tyson
Holyfield
Wladimir
Bowe
Vitali
Old George (if we're ignoring everything pre-comeback)

 

Another way of putting this, of course, could be that Tyson is lucky he didn't have to face a peak Lewis (or Holyfield or Bowe), during his eighties pomp; Bowe was lucky he had a couple of belts to spare so he could give one up, in avoiding his mandatory - Lewis; Holyfield was lucky he had defeats to Bowe and Moorer to avenge, keeping him busy and delaying a fight with Lewis; McCall is lucky that Lewis gave him another title shot only to take pity on the sobbing, fluky nutbar and - finally - Vitali is lucky he had a face left, after Lewis ripped it up for him and, having earned all the money and achieved all he'd needed to, decided to retire and allowed Vitali to carve out his own sorry career.

 

Thank you !!! LL gets extremely overrated around here

 

Sorry but for me I felt Holy did enough to win the rematch there was nothing unanimous about the rematch lets get that clear ..

And against Mercer he wasn't ultimately handled LL survived that night with a close decision that could have went in Mercer's favor .



Rahman should,have never held a win over. Lewis and the McCall rematch was a farce so nothing was really proven there .

And no boxer is capable of not having a bad night but the guys that beat Lewis especially a guy like. Rahman would have never survived in the Holmes era ..Nor does he beat a younger Holyfield ..

 

No - It's not clear to me but, OK then, if we're going to make up fantasy results to create a bias - Lewis beat Holyfield by a wide UD in their first encounter and simply didn't try too hard in the rematch against a guy he felt he'd already conquered. He still won the second fight, while being complacent.

Mercer fought the fight of his life against Lewis and all credit to him but he couldn't push the envelope any further than he did. Though his out-jabbing of Lewis stood out, Mercer was just outgunned by Lewis powershots and, like it or not, he didn't do enough to convince the judges that he'd won. Holmes got the nod in a controversial decision against a relative novice in Witherspoon but I don't see you piping up about that one.

Forget McCall. He was a lucky also-ran, who landed a shot, thrown instinctively with his eyes shut. He did everything to avoid a rematch with Lewis, until he lost his title to Bruno. He knew he was never going to be able to repeat that fortuitous night in London; much like Rahman would never be able to repeat his perfect punch in South Africa. Both avenged, with nothing left to be discussed around these two.

I could as easily say with confidence that Lewis would never have allowed Spinks to outpoint him in a stinker, such was the first Holmes/Spinks bout.


If Bowe and Moorer could beat a prime Holyfield then so could Lewis. Overall, prime Lewis was bigger, stronger, and better technically than prime Holyfield.

 

the number of ppl who dksab is rapidly rising....45. smh.

 

don't be too hard on yourself mate im sure you know a few little things

maybe you could go watch some Beterbiev since you have never seen him before that could be a good start

 

I won't bad mouth any of them because they are all class acts,truly great fighters,it's not beyond the realms that any would beat the other,and if one did there's nothing to say he would be greater as fighters have bogey fighters.
But Tyson was phenomenal,a one of a kind.its easy to look at it now after it turned to **** for him,his life turned to **** and he was manipulated beyond belief,but at the time ppl thought he was unbeatable and with good reason.
No one could lay a glove on him,his defence was exceptional but ppl just make out like he was a slugger,tysons boxing IQ was second to none,hand speed second to none,Ali May have had a quicker 1-2 but no one could throw a combo as quick and double that up with lethal power in both hands.tyson for me all day

 

i know what i have seen....lennox get ktfo'd by two C class fighters in mccall and rahman. i also saw lennox get a gift decision against ray mercer. for a guy who's supposed to be the best since ali...i wonder why he never fought ruiz or byrd and chose to vacate instead. where i'm from...that's called a duck.