The case for Lennox Lewis being GOAT

I have Louis and Johnson ahead of Wills because I think overall they have better resumes with Louis displaying more dominance and excellence against his opposition.

You could certainly make a good case to have Wills ahead of Johnson. You can also make a good case to have Marciano ahead of Wills.

The 'experts' may not have been 'racists' as such but to claim they weren't racially biased is another matter, especially in those days. The 'experts' in Alis day didnt put him in the top10 if I remember correctly and he wasn't thought of highly until he beat Foreman.

 

Because hes uses a Floyd Patterson style jump in with a left hook and hop I'm not side stepped and clocked. If Firpo can knock you out the ring you've made a horrible mistake that an elite fighter would punnish you for. Now all fighters make mistakes but thats a pretty bad 1 AND HE MADE IT TWICE IN THAT FIGHT. Lewis leaped in against McCall but McCall needed a far better counter than Firpo would be able to provide. This isn't even looking at how Tunney managed to be able to counter Dempsey so dominantly.

 

Loads of fighters pressured RJJ unsuccessfully, he was so hard to hit cleanly in his prime. And if you apply too much pressure it leaves countering opportunities. And RJJ would punnish a man with

The point is RJJ doesn't get hit very often and Dempsey wouldn't be able to hit RJJ often. Gibbons isn't in RJJs league in terms of hitting and not getting hit.

Seriously if Walcott and Charles can win the early rounds against Marciano then RJJ would certainly win the early rounds against him and maybe the decision. And if Tunney can pull off a UD against Dempsey than why not the faster more elusive RJJ?

 

None of those fighters have RJJs combination of P4P speed & power.

Some may be better schooled (not all) but in terms of a boxing athlete RJJ is the best boxing has ever seen

 

Whenever you throw a punch it leaves you opponent to being hit. The wider and more foreful the punch the more space there is for a counter punch. Dempsey would just be far too aggressive and leave himself far too open to counters.

Whenever you move inside as a boxer you risk been hit. Dempsey was great at slipping the jab to get inside BUT Lennox would trebble his jab. Against a 84 inch reach and 6'5 HW who trebbles the jab it is far harder to get inside. It is also made harder by a tight defense and someone who can throw fast right hand counters or massive uppercuts on the inside like Lennox could do. Lennox would also be the far far stronger man and push Dempsey back whenever he tried to get inside.

The bottom line is Dempsey is going to be far more open to big punches than Lennox is due to his aggressive style leaving him wide open. Lennox will land his power shots, Dempsey won't, which spells Dempsey getting ko'd