The case for Lennox Lewis being GOAT

Rahman and McCall also managed to land power shots. Lewis was also very cautious

 

Was Lewis in his prime when he fought most of these men? I believe he was anywhere between 35-38 years of age for the Tua, Tyson, and Klitshco fights. Dempsey was retired by age 32 for Christ's sakes.

 

Why is it beyone belief who did marciano or dempsey fight that was as quick or as strong for his weight as a prime roy jones, roy was hardly ever hit in his prime so why couldn't he outbox

 

And u r comparing Willard and Fripo in terms of skill to Dempsey?

 

It is a big deal because Tunney was a former light heavyweight and even as a lightheavyweight he did not hit hard.


You say "it happened to him only once, not twice" about the Flynn KO.
But mind you, Dempsey retired at the age of 33. Lewis retired at the age of 37, and his last opponent was not a former light heavyweight but a 6'7 250lb fast, iron chinned man who had won 31 of his 33 fights by KO. And he didn't get knocked down nor lost 9 out of 10 rounds like Dempsey did against Tunney, when he was 33.

No, i don't think Dempsey punches near as hard as Lewis does. It's like saying Julian Jackson punched as hard as Marciano did. When you have two great punchers, those 50 lbs of natural muscle is definitly gonna make a difference. Lewis proved his punch against skilled 230+lb fighters throughout his entire career, Dempsey proved it against two big unskilled, old oafs.

The same holds for the punch-resistance department. Dempsey's best punchers are a joke. Lewis faced something like 12 punchers, each of which was a harder puncher than Dempsey's top1 puncher faced. No comparison.

Again, it's like saying Tunney has a better chin than Ali because Hagler was never floored, while overlooking the size difference of themselfes and their opponents. It's no secret that when moving up, most fighters all of a sudden get durability problems which they never showed at lower weights.

Willards, of course. Would rather be a p4p great puncher at 150lb or at 185lb? Or at 185lb or at 245lb? A no-brainer.

Yes, that was true back in the day when a 6'2 205lb fighter like Jack Johnson was called a "giant". When people were naturally very small and because there were only a few in multiple thousands, you were left with talentless big oafs. Since people naturally get bigger, there are 200+++lb men without losing something. Stop living in the past.

0. He never fought 10 and 4-round jokes for the heavyweight championship of the world, though.

And this is relevant to my argument...... how? I merely stated that there have been several fighters over 210lb succesful at 15 rounds, so it's simply not true that Dempsey was 185-192lb because of the 15 round limit.

I don't. Rahman is nothing great but his skills far, far exceed Firpo's.

On top of that, let's look at the circumstances.

Dempsey was knocked down twice. Once out of the ring and helped back into the ring by thirds. Could he have made it back on his own? Maybe, maybe not. Official rules state he should've been disqualified.
What would've happened had the referee who stopped Lewis when he was up after 6 seconds and clearly ready to continue, evident from the fact that he had a "what the ****?"-expression when the referee stopped it?
He would've waved the fight off when Dempsey layed outside the ring.

If you for some reason consider the wild swinging Firpo more skillful than Rahman, then we can look at accomplishments. Rahman still outclasses Firpo in that department.

You're reaching straws again. How is it relevant that Ali was under 200lbs before he naturally filled out? I never said that Dempsey was a lightheavyweight because he was at that weight before he had filled out. Dempsey still weighed 190lb at the end of his career.

Fact remains that there have been several natural 210+lb fighters that fought 15 rounds, so the reason that Dempsey was around 190lb for the fighting distance is simply not true.

By the way, Byrd left his training camp against Klitschko at 203lb and lifted/ate himself up to 213lb after that.
And how can you call Foreman a lean 210 pounder?? He never fought at that weight, he was 217lb at his lightest and carried 230lb without much problems. You are clearly looking at things through a wishful-that-they-were-smaller glasses.

In 16 pages, no one has said a single word about Peter, Maskaev and Ibragimov. You are the one that brings it up. Let's stay on the topic, Peter etc have nothing to do with this Dempsey/Lewis discussion.

 

By the way, this is the second thread about Lewis that reached 15+ pages within no time. Interesting.

 

He is not ever knocking Dempsey out, Lewis may but not Jones, not in a million years

 

These threads wouldn't have to stretch so long if only certain posters used a little common sense. I mean, picking Dempsey over Lewis???

 

Chris, cAn uy please tell me how Vitaly was fast and even though he won so many ko's, what exactly were his top flight comp?

Dempsey was knocked down for a couple of seconds, Louis was stunned by Conn, Marciano down against Moore for a few seconds, Cooper at 185 lb flooring Ali, it happened but they also got up or recovered to win.(except Dempsey vs Tunney in which Dempsey managed to last the distance) And in neither of the fights he was down did Lewis manage to get up to win the fight. Anyone can be crticised in that way.