The chinny Lennox Lewis myth

If you get knocked out with one punch from a cherrypick TWICE then you're chinny

 

I don't like the expressions chinny or glass jawed applied to any fighter. It's a complete lay man put down. It endorses a lack of understanding about knockout blows.

It's only a guy who never fought can say it. Obviously fighters themselves will resort to using these expression to make a point but the truth is a good punch will knock any one out. And everybody knows it.

It is all down to anticipation.

Obviously some guys are inherently strong and robust. So I prefer "fragile" Or not being strong enough as apposed to weak jawed, China chin, glass jaws or what ever crap used to write off a guy who makes a living taking blows.

Lennox Lewis got caught out. That's it. The guys doing it don't need to be great or lucky. He was a victim of Complacency twice. He took a good shot when he was paying attention.

 

not really

 

Yes really

 

I'm a big Lewis fan. But he was a little chinny for an ATG. I remember thinking after the first Rahman fight, "Holmes always got up." Lennox wouldn't have recovered if he'd been hit by the right hand Shavers hit Holmes with in their second fight. But then not very many guys would have.

Against both McCall I and Rahman I Lewis came in at then- career high weights. He wouldn't have been kayoed by Rahman if he'd taken Rahman seriously and come in in better condition. Not sure if that was the case with McCall.

Lewis is no Lorenzo Zanon, but he's no Ali or Holmes, either.

 

It's more to do with complacency. There is no such thing as "chinny".

Both times he was taken out by a great punch that he did not ride.


Lewis took a good shot quite well when he was paying attention.

 

Not forgetting the Holyfield bouts, Evander could bang and he landed some big shots against Lewis and even though he was hurt on occasions he kept fighting back.

 

Exactly. If you got Lewis on the canvas, the fight was over. Did he have the worst glass jaw of all time? No, but he didn't have an Ali or Holyfield level chin either.

H2H, this lack of ability to take a solid shot to the chin should always be factored in. Quite a few ATGs at their peak, including the two mentioned above, knock this guy out.

 

I agree with op, and one of his kos was premature. McCall didn't deck Lewis as bad as Cooper decked Ali. Would we be talking about Ali having a weak chin if that fight had been waived off? Lewis had a strong chin, crazy how myths develop.

 

He definitely decked Lewis as bad as Cooper decked Ali.

 

Lewis was hit THOUSANDS of times in his career. He went down TWO times. And one of those times, he was up at the count of six (against McCall) but it was waived off.

He fought the top punchers in the heavyweight division. Klitschko. Tyson. Tua. Mercer. Morrison. Ruddock. Mason. Bruno. Weaver. Briggs. And he beat everyone he faced as a pro.

Lewis had one of the better chins in history.

Lennox Lewis wasn't any chinnier than Larry Holmes.

Holmes got dropped by a single shot against Renaldo Snipes. He got up, had no balance, and crashed head first into the corner. If he hadn't hit the corner, he'd have gotten up and fallen down like Berbick against Tyson. Snipes' flooring of Holmes was no different than Lewis getting floored by McCall. Lewis just stumbled into the ref, whereas Holmes stumbled into the corner and was held up.

 

Um, not against Tyson he didn't. He got laid out.

 

And when exactly was Holmes knocked out cold like Lewis was against Rahman? It took a prime Tyson to do the job and he still needed 3 knockdowns to end it properly. Holmes took a huge right hand just like Lewis did against Rahman and still got up and fought valiantly for a minute.

Holmes took a better shot. How would Lewis react if he got hit by that Shavers bomb? Do you really think he'd get up, let alone win?

 

Sorry. Tyson, Tua, Morrison, Weaver never landed good shot on Lewis' chin. Never.

Ruddock hadn't landed a SINGLE shot on Lewis' chin.

Vitali wasn't a hard hitter, as well as Gary Mason.

Lewis definitely hadn't one of the best chins in history....

But his chin wasn't glass either, it was average for elite HW, good when compared to average HWs.

 

I have to disagree here.

He took some flush shots from Tua, and just shrugged them off.

Power alone will not get you far against Lewis.