What would Ruiz and Byrd have added to Lewis' resume?

In the long run Ruiz would have been a better addition to his record than Grant.

He would've been laughed out of town for fighting Chris Byrd . Manny said Byrd wasn't good enough to be brought in for sparring.
That win would've done absolutely nothing for him.

 

Rummy,

Unproven and ranked means little. USA boxing was in decline at this point and Grant was viewed as a very marketable hope. He did not deserve the rank. Hindsight proves it!

Like I said Grant had mediocre skills, lacked a killer instinct, and had a soft chin. This was proven before he fought Lewis.

Ruiz had a much better career in comparison to Grant. He also called Lennox a girl and was ready to fight him. Lewis took an easier path, and bombed Grant out, with some questionable tactics, such as holding Grant's head and then uppercutting it.

Lewis for all his skills was never good at controlling the tempo of his fights, so I think he struggles a bit more vs Byrd.

 

If there was one thing Lewis was very good at it was controlling the tempo of his fights, normally courtesy of a big right hand in the early rounds to keep the opponent honest.

See Tyson, Tua fights and Holyfield to a lesser extent.

 

Yes but nobody had hindsight in 1999 did they?

Once again, your using the benefit in hindsight.

Who was John Ruiz in 99?

A guy that got planked by David Tua in 19 seconds.

Nobody knew Ruiz would go on to have the career he did.

 

He's a joke, just a hater.atsch

 

That's why its called hindsight but I wouldn't bother explaining it to him, he's definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

He keeps asking me why Tyson 'ducked' Witherspoon and Mcall while deliberately ignoring the fact that Tyson took the titles from the guys who beat these two.

 

I selected the "Mild" legacy boost option. While I don't think that either of them would have added much glitter to his already spectacular resume, it always looks good when you have a few additional top raters on there.

 

Vitali is the GOAT.

Look at his resume, go through it with a fine comb and you wont find a single nit.

 

Exactly. Grant was a 30-0 professional who had beaten a string of tough high risk - low reward opponents and showed heart in coming back to win against Golata. Ruiz had already lost three professional fights and had beaten nobody of note prior to the timing of the Lewis vs Grant fight.. Couple that with the fact that Grant was a 6'7", 250 lbs challenger with lots of power and undefeated and given how Mendoza holds these things in high regard, imagine what his view would be today if Lewis had fought Ruiz instead of someone of that description.

 

Mendozas just twists whatever he can to make said fighter look bad.

He can criticise Lewis for missing out Byrd.

But forgets/ignores who Byrd beat.

We can write an encyclopedia on the number of guys Vitali just so happened to miss.

Do you know Vitali was meant to face Razor Ruddock in 2000? The fight fell through.

Talk about pulling someone out of the morgue.

 

His opposition was pretty dire prior to facing Lewis.

 

Ruiz was regarded as having one of the most undeserved ratings ever when Lewis fought Grant.

 

What???? Tua was slow, and didn't put forth much effort. Tyson had about one round in him when he fought Lewis, and that round was a wild one. Controlling the tempo here was very easy. You gave poor examples.

Vs Holyfield, Lewis was very timid at times. Hardly controlling the tempo. Your version of controlling the tempo differs from mine.

 

Tua tried to walk Lewis down for about four rounds. He was doing okay but completely packed it in. I don't think he liked the power.

Tyson was different. He didn't fear Lewis' power as much. He looked dissuaded after landing some good punches in the third round to little effect while getting cut and having his **** cardio come into play.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk