When exactly did Lennox Lewis fully get his respect as an ATG?

After the Tyson fight the Tyson people realized that regarding Lennox as the best fighter of the era was now the pro Tyson position. Regardless of the excuses they made and still make for the Lennox loss those excuses work better the better the Lennox actually was.

I wasn't there but I would imagine a fair contingent of those witholding Lennox's flowers were Mike Tyson fans. Who believed Tyson was really the best fighter. Since Lennox had never foughtf Bowe or old George and struggled with Bruno and Briggs one could craft this into a narrative that a big puncher of Tyson's caliber was Lennox's kryptonite.

 

Lewis was expected to win. Tyson was given a great chance by many beforehand, including me, but it wasn't that glorious for Lewis because it was obvious after two rounds that Tyson wasn't his old self.

 

Thr Holyfield fights basically got him there and the Rahman rematch reinforced it. The Vitali fight was sloppy EVT loss against a guy of unknown potential, so that didn't earn him much respect until later, especially since he ducked the rematch and that part needed to be forgotten.

 

After he dispatched Razor Ruddock like no one ever did or no one ever would.

 

As to how the majority perceived Lewis, for me personally, it’s difficult to pin point an exact hard and fast point in time when due respect for Lewis began to outweigh the discredit from naysayers.

I would say that full and due respect didn’t come until after retirement which is often the case though Lewis might’ve garnered the least respect for an extended period during his active career.

Fair or not, my reading and hearing during his career accented on claims of Lewis being too cautious and perhaps not the bearer of the greatest of chins - some possibly feeling vindicated in that belief by the McCall and Hasim KO losses - but the reality was they were big KO shots that Lewis shouldn’t have allowed himself to be caught by in the first place - and Lewis reversed those losses after all.

I would guess the Rahman rematch had to have flipped many peoples views well into the positive on Lewis

Finally, of course prejudices were held against Lewis by a good number of US pundits and boxing fans which served to see Lewis unjustly underrated for a protracted period.

 

Lewis was at a disadvantage automatically by not being American in a US dominated scene. A lot of the media focus was on guys like Bowe, Tyson, Holy etc.
He would build momentum, only for that momentum to be derailed by McCall, and then Rahman, even though those losses (esp Rahman) obviously had extenuating circumstances.
It always seemed to me like any respect was grudgingly given; Holy was seen as past it, Grant overrated. His style was seen as somewhat negative and his chin often labelled bad. Heading into the Rahman 2 rematch the number of organisations and fans writing him off was insane. And after the Vitali fight he was viewed in many quarters as a coward for retiring! He barely ever scraped into the top 10 p4p lists.
I think by the end of his career Lewis had gained a grudging respect as a top HW fighter. But it was only after retirement that he started being universally, widely recognised as a top ATG. Don't get me wrong - there were sections of fans, like myself, who rated him highly throughout. But he definitely faced a lot of negativity and unfair criticism. The fact he got his flowers so quickly after retirement was nice to see - and a sign of how good was all along.

 

1992-Champion
1997-World class heavyweight
1999- seen as the best heavyweight in the world
2002 -All time great status essentially secured.
2003-People began to see realise just how good Lennox is.

 

Around 10 years after his retirement.

 

He didn't knock him out though. Stopped on cuts

 

He had a good few years of continuous comeback rumours ($100 million was his price), until everyone truly recognised his retirement. As mentioned, we were well into the Wlad by era then, so the 90's tinted glasses were rightfully out.