The best Lennox Lewis vs The best Evander Holyfield: Who wins?

Excellent post. I've asked the same questions many times too.

 

Two comments.

One is I don't thnk the popular opinion is based on a whim at all. I just think the majority of posters who have saw both fighters fight, believe Lewis would win. I'm one of those posters and I've been watching boxing for about 30 years.

But I do agree that Holyfield is a legit heavyweight for the reasons you pointed out. And if pressed, I will even admit that Holyfield had both a better career and is a better p4p fighter than Lewis.

He's just not a better heavyweight, given all of Lewis' attributes.

 

I think a Prime Holyfield vs a Prime Lewis is a good fight some what of a chess match in spots where Lewis boxes and uses his jab, But Holyfield will get inside of that jab and make it a dog fight on the inside, I think its a close fight until the championship rounds of which Evander will be in high gear and more than likely stop Lewis

 

Lewis was an eqsuisite boxer. He would beat a best Holyfield on a big night. He had the temprement, skills, size and trainer (at his best - MS) to win.
The question is...

Where does Lewis rank in HW all time list - I go no.9.

 

evander holyfield..........lennox is lucky to have fought a 37 yr old holy who fought in spurts..........93 version of holy would beat 1999 version of lennox......by tko or on points:smoke

 

Oh ****, what a joke this post is atsch rubbish!

 

I don't see how Holyfield wins.
Holyfield likes to rumble, Lewis can rumble when needed, but against Holyfield, Lewis would keep the smaller man on the end of his jab. If Holy did get in rumbling range, he would find himself wraped up, leaned on and uppercutted by one of the most powerful, 6'5 245lbers ever.
A younger Holyfield would definately try to press the action more, resulting in him getting jabbed at more, leaned on more, and uppercutted more. Holy might even get dropped like he did vs that bum Riddick.
Lewis wins in pretty much the same fashion that he did when they fought.

 

Jeez, Lewis is ridiculously overrated on this site! A prime Holyfield would pressure, pressure, pressure him, and probably take advantage of his shaky whiskers and score a late TKO. If a past-prime Evander could arguably do enough to win their second fight - quite a few ringside journalists scored for him - a prime Evander would win much more clearly.

 

He didn't do enough to arugably win thier second fight.
Someone PLEASE come up with a reasonable score card that shows how Holy won Lewis-Holy 2.

A prime Holyfield was a cruiser weight. Heavyweight Holyfield went the distance with 40+ year old geezers, couldn't take advatage opf Moorer's shaky chin in their first fight. He lost 2 out of 3 with some chump named Bowe.
Of course, Holyfield put on some great performaces as well. His win over the still formidable Iron Mike proved that he could push around wrestle and headbut a smaller man.
It's a style thing, Lewis is big, he's tactal, and he's helluva strong. If it was so easy to beat him, more people would have done it. Pressure alone is not going to outdo Lennox Lewis. Lewis had an amazimg ability to make people fight his fight. That's the mark of a great ring general.
Holyfield had grit and courage, and tenacity, but I don't see Lewis falling for that, I don't see Holy being able to draw Lewis off his game plan.

 

Holyfield made a career at HW out fighting, and beating, bigger guys. You might think much of Bowe, but that's not the way he was viewed by knowlegable observers back in the early 90s, trust me. Most thought that the Bowe was the MOST talented of the four - and make no mistake about it, back then he was lumped right in with those guys. At his peak, Bowe was a formitable fighter And Holyfield outworked and beat him when he was in the heart of his prime, and fought competively with him on two other occassions.

He also took on other larger fighters - you may deride Foreman, but there is a reason he's called Big George. And Holyfield handled him. Dokes wasn't exactly small - Holyfield beat him up and knocked him out. Lewis certainly would have had the size advantage, but Holyfield proved again and again that he could overcome these disadvantages.

And what about Lewis's flaws - and I'm not just talking about his chin, either. Lewis had a tendency to coast a bit in some fights - particularly where he had a size advantage and would attempt to keep the other guy away simply by jabbing. Holyfield could take advantage of that with his superior workrate and tenacity - work his way inside and tee off. Lewis also - particularly before Manny got ahold of him - didn't have the greatest defense, or footwork. If this fight were to happen in the early 90s, I'd give Evander an even bigger advantage, because of that.

People often look, I think, at some of Lewis's better performances and think simply because he beat those guys impressively, he'd beat anybody. Who on his resume is really the equal of a PRIME Evander Holyfield??

 

Still waiting for a Holy supporter to tell me which 7 rounds Holyfield "arguably" won to "arguably" win the second fight :yep

 

You can't just conveniently remove Lewis's power from the equation. Unless you want to take Holyfield's speed and combos out of the combination as they're offset by Lewis's jab and defense.

If Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer could outbox "prime" Holyfield then Lewis surely could too

And please don't tell me you just called Holyfield a defensive tactician

 

Good question.

This is a tossup and no shame in thinking a good big man beats a good small man but I seriously would not sleep on a prime real deal. I don't think Lewis fought anybody comparible to what a prime Holy would be.