Was Lennox Lewis an underrated hard puncher?

I would be willing to bet that if you asked him...he probably considers himself a Jamaican

 

When did Marciano ,who you say hit harder than Lewis ko a ranked 238lbs heavyweight?

 

Two punches were thrown but the hook did nothing. It just set up the KO blow which was one single right hand.

 

I have him ranked in my top fifteen punchers between seven and eleven on my heavyweight list.

 

OP : Most agree his right hand was an absolute sledgehammer and jab a piston, I have only Foreman, Tyson, Liston, Louis and Shavers ahead of him for ATG HW power, Lennox hit extremely hard but not quite the freight train like power the guys above did.

 

WTF!

 

In fact Lennox was hit with multiple right hands in that fight and back of the head shots on the break. Earlier in the 5th rd he took a big right and just after that was hit with multiple jabs that drove him onto the ropes. I say he was groggy still which resulted in his being in that bad position and made the mistake of bouncing off the ropes with his feet crossed over with no balance as the punch landed.

 

Malinowski: More powerful than Lennox Lewis would you say?

Phil Jackson: "Yeah,

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. Yeah."

Malinowski: "What hand? Right hand?

Phil Jackson: "Both. Both. Put it this way...if it would have been him in there when his brother fought Lennox Lewis, I think he would have dropped Lennox Lewis. I honestly do. I think he would have dropped Lennox Lewis - if he would have been in the best of shape."

 

For whatever reasons, I feel like people logically rate him highly but they don't get excited about his power like they do with very borderline world class guys who either sniffed a title, won a poorly regarded title or had more gym story power than any actual results on film because they're sort of a fun mysterious non-entity. For a guy who bodied several name fighters, ripped off faces, gave us one of the most picture perfect images in the history of heavyweight KO's-the still image of Rock laying with the actual King crown on his head-it's weird that people will mention him when the champ's come up but they mostly don't seem interested in the power like they do other guys. Lewis may have had a weird temperament for a puncher because sometimes he almost seemed to need a guy to really hurt him to actually open up what he really had, but then he had those times where he was working on chin-checking a guy early and obliterating them. KO's you'd think would've left him with more fanfare and over-the-top fanboyist posts, but you really don't see it much around here. Maybe it's underrated, maybe it's just under-focused, man. I don't know.

 

... who was born in the UK, speaks with a British accent, and grew up in and fought in the olympics for Canada. I'd guess he has a bit of a more complex view of his heritage than just "I'm Jamaican".

 

Because he's a little unique. Usually a guy with that kind of power would rely on it more. Half the time, he almost seemed to use his power as a backup.

There's an alternative universe where he was an aggressive fast starter and is looked at differently.

 

His Parents are Jamaican immigrants…He’s a Rastafarian…his ring entrance always featured Reggae music …and two of his idols are Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali

 

Lewis had a right hand a bit more powerful than Iron Mike's (which means a cut below Wilder, Foreman, and Shavers...just eyeballing, I'm guessing about as powerful as the right that knocked the hell out of Gerrie in Coetzee-Weaver).

In a way, Lewis was like the super heavy Hearns as far as relative power goes.

He leaned on that power a lot early on, but Steward really helped him clean his act up and get much more well rounded, less reckless. Wilder could have REALLY used that.

 

I don't know much about chess but he's also an accomplished chess player. He likely has a high I.Q.

 

Children of immigrants have complex identities.

Anyway, this really isn't the forum to discuss that. My bad. Carry on gents.