Which of these heavyweights could take the right hand Lennox Lewis

Ok, assuming they take it like Rahman, square-on, stiff, open and flush and dont roll with it, maybe they all suffer the same fate,
But none of them would take it like that.

 

Tyson continually took Ruddocks left hooks flush on the chin & never budged

 

But it's a punch you see coming from a mile away. All pre-fight preparations are to deal with the left hand of Ruddock. He hardly had the best handspeed and he dips to throw it. Then, he drops his hand to get more power on it. That's not hit with a shot you don't see coming.

A Tyson example of that is the bodyshot from Holyfield that dropped him when he squared up or the final left that Douglas threw as Mike was retreating.

 

That shot was a pure bomb. I think Ali, Tyson, Holyfield, Mercer, and Foreman could have taken it and continued, but their feet had better be set right, otherwise they are going down.

 

Did Lewis take advantage of that chin and land his free shots..I mean really teeing off on it? The answer, if you look at the fight, is no.

 

That punch Lewis landed on Rahman would have ko'ed any fighter...again, this not some superhero power that those fighters listed have.

 

What about the punch that Rahman landed on Lewis in the first fight ?

Again, I doubt any of them would just stand there all open and cross-footed waiting to get KO'd like Lewis did, (they were better than that), but if we assume they do then could they take that shot ?

 

That's probably true...it was a hell of a punch, with all of Lewis' 240+ pounds behind it. It was thrown with maximum leverage, and Rahman was caught flush, on the end of the punch.
If anyone got up after that, I would have been seriously impressed. Even if that someone did, they'd be hanging onto consciousness by a thread and ready to be taken.

 

That's the draw of the heavyweights. A genuine trained heavyweight landing a perfect shot like that is going to floor a lot of guys. You don't need to be as heavy or skilled as Lewis to do so.

Either the opponent is going down/out, or they're going to be pretty damn stunned by it and open for a follow-up. Clean heavyweight punches like that are normally fight-enders either which way.

I can't imagine how much a punch like that could hurt and hopefully I never will. The only wish is that it either knocks you spark out or kinda 'short circuits' your nervous system and you don't feel it as much...as you lie there groaning.

We can joke about heavyweights like Zuri Lawrence with no kayos, but if your average joe was picking a fight with him at a bar, Zuri would be quite capable of knocking him into next week.

 

It is as much to do with what their opponent does of course. Rahman genuinely did not see that punch coming, as indeed Lewis didnt' when he first fought Rahman and McCall.

Mercer is a good example. In his fight against Lewis he knew to expect big shots and took some very hefty ones, including a right hand late on (9th round?) that if not quite the 'Rahman killer' was in that same ballpark and withstood it. When he fought Holyfield, he was in a situation where his opponent was not considered a big puncher and coming to the end of that 8th round was winning the fight against a Holyfield possibly on the verge of a cut stoppage. One quick left hook on the inside rattled Ray's brain and lead to the knockdown, against what he would've expected or been prepared for.

 

I think a lot of the better fighters had the ability to take a good shot. Getting hit was not the key to victory. Taking a beating is not what makes a great champion. Skill defense, are far more important, and the ability to take a big shot which inevitabley happens on the elite level, is part of what makes a great champion.
The real question is could Lennox Lewis take his own righthand in a fight? Probably not, and part of the reason I dont rank him so highly. He never faced a great fighter in their respective prime, and was knocked out by two righthands that were thrown by mediocre fighters.

 

I disagree with that interpretation. I doubt Mercer ever under-estimated Holyfield's punching power. It's easy for journalists to talk about Holyfield not being a big puncher, but Mercer knew he was going in there with a man who could hit, the best fighter he'd yet faced and a man who could pour it on with venom and accuracy. As you said it your previous post, all these heavyweights hit hard, and the elite ones are all capable of knockout power.
If anything it was Mercer being prepared for Holyfield's punching power and pressure that caused him to go down and buy himself some time when hurt, instead of staying up and being wiped out by the onslaught.

 

None. All would have at least been knocked down. Lewis was a murderous puncher and it was one of his best flush shots ... the only one with a shot is Mercer. The question is could, not would , correct ?

 

Thing is, If Mercer doesn't take that knee, at worst he draws that fight. He knew he was in the driving seat, he's always had huge faith in his chin, and he knew that momentum was important.

If he was so prepared for Holyfield's power, why did he get caught like that and more importantly why did he have absolutely no plan for the eventuality apart from flail about then take a knee? Either he had no plan, or he got rocked a lot harder than he expected Holy to be capable of and took the knee in a mild panic. He'd been under a lot worse barrages in his career to that point and not done the same. I can't believe the plan was "if I take a big shot I'll do right down to a knee", not for a guy like Mercer.

Holy can hit, but still you'd have been hard pressed finding anyone at the time thinking he could, with one single punch, shake up Mercer so badly that even a follow-up combo that didn't land with any authority would be able to put him down. Yet it did.

 

I think anyone would have been knocked down in that position. The key factor is that, due to an unreliable chin and poor conditioning, Lewis wasn't able to get up.