What does everyone think of this Wladimir Klitschko-Lennox Lewis article

I have always maintainted that Vladimir is essentially another Lewis, although a inferior version at that. Physically and stylistically they are the same fighter; Lewis however was quicker and more fluid.

Lewis will go down in history as an all-time great. Vlad -- assuming he remains successful for the rest of his career -- will probably rate no better than a near-great.

My post isn't meant as a knock on Vlad, either. I've always thought he was excellent and I've always been one of his biggest fans.

 

They are similar. Lewis fought better name opponents though. However Wlad has a few more prime years left.

I would say Lewis is greater for now, and likely for the future, but its not a sure thing.

 

I thought the article was a pretty accurate reflection of the two fighters. I think we all, or at least the majority of us, would be happy if Wlad were to prove us wrong and become more aggressive and take control of fights in a more meaningful way. But unfortunately I don't think it's in his DNA. I don't know if you can overcome the fear to getting hurt when you get wacked or not, once it's instilled in you.

 

If you take a snap shot of their career at age 30 and freeze time, Wlad has accomplished more than Lewis has. I have done the comparisons and it is true. In defense of Lewis, Wlad turned pro at a younger age. In defense of Wlad, his age ( 22 ) and in-experience ( having never gone past 8 rounds ) cost him his first defeat vs Purity.

In a pure boxing sense, I believe the Ibragimov who meet Wlad had more than the Tyson who meet Lewis.

In a pure boxing sense, I believe the Povetkin Wlad might fight next will prove to have more than the Holyfield who meet Lewis.

Assuming Wlad defeats Thompson, then Povetkin, and unifies another belt vs the winner of Chagaev vs Valuev, all he has to do is keeping winning to move closer to Lewis. I suppose Wlad if he is solely interested in a legacy can beat Rahman, and Ruiz. Remember Lewis dropped belts to avoid making fights with Byrd and Ruiz. Wlad has already destroyed Byrd. Boxing fans will give the man who rids of with Ruiz a proverbial high five.

To sum it up, if Wlad beats:

Povetkin
The winner of Chagaev vs Valuev.
The winner of Rhaman vs Toney
Ruiz

AND a few alphabet mandatory’s; he is in Lewis' league of accomplishments.

This is asking a lot, but barring an injury I think Wlad has a real shot of doing this.

 

I really think the reason Lewis didn't fight Byrd or Ruiz is because no one would have turned up to watch, and I don't blame them.

 

If anything, the win is overrated by most.

If Tyson had a chance, is was in the first 1-3 rounds, and to be honest it wasn't much more than a puncher's chance to begin with.

Tyson was ranked because he was Tyson - his name carried prestige and people remembered him how he was, and he was relatively active if not exactly fighting stiff opposition. Some thought he could still knock Lewis out.
This was the same situation as with Ali, who many thought could still beat Holmes. His 'name' tended to blur the rather obvious.
I think Tyson's record post Lewis - one win in three against mediocre opposition - tells us everything about his prowess at this stage of his career.
The betting odds mean little to me. I'm sure the betting odds were manipulated to encourage betting and maintain interest in this fight.

So for me, I place as much importance on this win for Lewis as I do Holmes' victory over Ali, which isn't much in all honesty.

I know in hindsight the fight's result seems cut and dried, but it wasn't. Tyson did have a chance early, and some experts did believe Tyson could win. In that sense, I agree with you.
But with the benefit of hindsight I think it's rather obvious now his window of opportunity for victory was very small.

 

Still, it didn't give Lewis the right to pick and choose.

 

Boxing is a business, Lewis could fight who he wanted, neither Byrd or Ruiz would be any sort of threat to Lewis.

 

It's hardly the point though. If others did it to Lennox, they were accused of ducking. If Lennox does it, boxing is a business.
Odd that.

 

No in all cases.

My understanding is that Bowe had a signed contract to fight the winner of Ruddock-Lewis. It's one thing to not want to fight several fights, some of them mediocre to maintain belts, but that's business, but once contacts are signed, that's a whole different ball game, you're then legally obliged to fight. Nor do I ever recall anyone thinking Lewis wasn't a worthy mandatory. Ruiz on the other hand is a different story, he lost to a blown up light heavyweight and has never really looked anything special even when he wins. His 19 sec blow out by Tua, whom Lewis easily beat probably didn't help with the perception of his worthiness.

 

Klitschko will never catch Lewis, the gulf in quality of opposition is quite wide and there's no'one around or as far as I know on the way up for Klitschko to beat in order to match it. Tucker, Bruno, Mercer, Mason, Ruddock, Vitali are all at the very very least equal with Wlad's best opponents and they're not Lewis' best wins.

 

Nice post

With regards to Bowe, the reason he gets crap for ducking Lewis is that he took less money to fight people clearly below Lewis in skill. At the time it wasn't at all clear that Ruiz and Byrd were better.