The HW division today is as weak as it was in the Lennox Lewis era?

I don't dispute that he showed up for that fight. I thought he was gonna take the fight until he gassed out in the last few rounds. It was the best he had looked in a long time. But I still won't call that his prime. Ofcourse, with Mercer, its hard to pick out his prime. He started gaining weight and having major stamina issues as soon as he got to the elite level. As an up and comer, he was an iron chinned destroyer.

 

:yep

 

-Come on, old men getting title shots because of their name is nothing new. The 90s saw an ancient flabby Holmes make fools of supposed top contenders McCall and Mercer.

-Are we talking just the years, Lewis happend to be in a pro ring or the ones he dominated? If so, Byrd was around for most of them.

-Toney was the testing the HW waters a little before Holyfield. Was active against the same contenders under Lewis..like Rahman, Evander, Ruiz, and the like. Stretch? A hair maybe.

-Who captured the HW title when Roy Jones went back to LHW? Vitali.

-Herbie Hide got a title shot than! Against Bowe.

-Moorer was lineal which was than recognized as undisputed until Foreman started trashing all the titles.

 

Which "weaker" era? Please be specific...

 

Haha, its back to that old argument that no one wants to comment on, people dont realise top tens in the 90s looked like that! Obviously this top ten is not very accurate, lewis and bowe were obviously the top 2 hws in that list, but would hide, Akinwande, butler, gonzalez, holmes, be in a 2011 top ten ? No, of course not, I wouldnt even say moorer or foreman would be.

Lewis has fought more good opposition than vitali, and if you take a period of about ten years and look at the standard there the 90s does come of slightly better than the last 10 years, but it wasnt as strong as people think.
Lewis had a period at the top of about 10 years, 93-2003. so of course he will have a better list of good opposition than vitali who has a period at the top of about 7 years, if he could beat povetkin, helenius, haye and maybe 1 other who goes on to be successful in the next era his record is close.

 

so you're saying an era containing moorer, bowe, foreman, tyson, holyfield and lewis is weak? i hope you see how stupid that makes you sound.

 

Vitali Klitschko, you useless troll :deal

 

Just like with Joe Calzaghe :think

 

If your an American then this is hilarious.

 

You don't really follow boxing do you?

wait, don't answer that, i already know the answer.

Anyhow, allow me to educate you on the manner:

Wladimir fought Byrd TWICE. Yup, twice, not once, and no, I am not talking about the older version of Byrd that Wladimir knocked out, i am talking about prime beast of Byrd, with amazing reflexes, that was clowning all other heavies. You obviously haven't heard of that fight, www.boxrec.com should be your guide.

Mcline was a BEAST when he fought Wlad. He had it all: Size, power, US citizenship, pretty good skills and a great record. Wlad reduced the tower of a man to pulp.

Ibragimov was a very talented albeit small southpaw with knockout power, undefeated, with aparent dificulties with very tall opponents. Chagaev had hepatitis B but at the moment they fought he was an undefeated world champion and the only man to beat Valuev.

Barret was a beast when he fought Wlad. Actually, i think it was Wlad that broke him, and had he not been knocked down 5 times and later knocked out by Klitschko, he might have achieved greatness. He had the punch, the heart and he was american, the only 3 things you need to be considered great in USA. I think he had only one loss at that time, a narrow decision loss to undefeated Joe Mesi.

 

I personally don't think Vitali was at his prime, I believe he was a bit green and lacked experience. I think Vitali peaked around the time he fought Danny Williams.

And as to your point, Vitali is 40 and fighting, so 37 for Lennox who had the last 3 years of his career filled with easy fights should not have been a problem.

Besides, i did mention that Don Vito would need luck to make sure he doesn't cut

 

Watch the fights. Really, you should.

Some fighters get broken and never amount to greatness. Who would remember Wlad if he didn't gather his strength and courage and gave up after Purity?

 

Yes, but that was a flabby Larry Holmes. Not a flabby Oleg Maskaev, or a roided up asthmatic Shannon Briggs.

Byrd, I agree.

Toney, nah. He certainly wasn't around in Lewis' time, and when he did fight those guys, they were old and on the tail end of their career. Mind you, so was Toney....

Who captured the title after Roy? They gave it back to Ruiz remember (basically). Vitali has never had the WBA belt. And it was only available for Roy because Lewis was stripped of it for not fighting......Ruiz. Even though he offered to after the Grant fight.

Herbie Hide. can't we pretend that never happened? (Although IMO the WBO counted for **** all back then).

Moorer being lineal meaning undisputed is a stretch. Are you saying Briggs was undisputed champ? Dear God no.

 

Not really sure what that means.

Do you think a 38 year old Vitali could beat a 32 year old Vitali? I don't.

Do you think Lewis at 38,39 40 could beat the guys Vitali has beaten over the last 3 years?
Me too. He would have trounced them. Just like Vitali has.