Who do you believe is / was the best Heavyweight - Lennox Lewis or Vitali Klitschko ?

Tell me this is just that you're not familiar with Lewis' opposition?

 

Vitali has won 11 World title fights since Lewis's victory over him. You're not going to tell me Lewis's victory over past it legends from the 80's Holyfield and Tyson or the joke fighter Golota are better are you?

 

I do not hold it against him, I said he used common sense!

 

Calzaghe won 22 world title fights.

He's still not better than Hagler, who only won 13.

 

Anyone who votes vitali is NOT a boxing fan.

 

But that was not his decision to make. The referee decided he was unable to continue. Against Byrd his fate was in his own hands, and he choose to retire.

If he had sucked it up against Byrd and still lost due to the referee or doctor stopping the fight, then it would just gone down as an unlucky defeat.

 

Duran's act against Leonard cost him greatness at the time. But redemption came years later against the Cuevas', Moore's, Hagler's and Barkley's....

Chavez will always now be hurt for quitting. But not for the example given, when the Mexican actually sucked it up for many rounds. The first de la Hoya fight really hurt him, when he knew he was in no condition to fight and just took the money and defeat. Also the Randall fights showed him up a little.

And as you pointed out Benn had already shown amazing bravery in the McClellan fights before stepping in the ring with Collins. And although Benn did indeed quit TWICE against Collins, the fact it was his last bouts and he was clearly past his best, makes the defeats fade more easily.

As cynical as we boxing fans tend to be, we are pretty sentimental. Although I am old enough to only see Ali against Holmes and Berbick, it is not the fights I talk about, because Ali proved long before that how special he was.

If Vitali had stopped Lewis, if he had turned around a fight he was losing, if he had sucked up an injury to go the distance, then he would get the benefit of the doubt concerning the first Byrd fight.

 

Are you telling me that those guys are better than Lewis' wins?

Come on...

Ruddock, Tucker, Tua, Mercer, Morrisson, Briggs (who Vitali faced a worse version of), Rahman, Botha...

Compared to Gomez, Peter, Arreola, Sosnowski, Adamek, Johnson, Sanders...

Seriously, there's no ****ing comparison. Lewis is just better as a fighter and on paper too.

 

shame vitali took nearly 4 yrs off.

could have added to his legacy over that time.

and of course he won't box his brother to see who is better.

least with lennox we knew he was top dog.

and he didn't go into semi retirement for 4 yrs. :yep

and lennox beat vitali at 37.

i do rate vitali highly though.

but barring a great rival emerging soon he'll always be behind lennox. :hi:

 

Your response has absolutely nothing to do with what you just replied to. :huh

I've no idea why you replied that to this statement.

 

You are suggesting that Vitali's 11 wins since the Lewis loss are better than Lennox's resume.

 

Also, 'World title' fights mean nothing unless you are the no.1 in the division. It's about quality of opposition, the WBC strap don't help Vitali out. His opposition is just poor if we're comparing him to genuine ATG HWs regardless of how many 'defences' he's made. Lewis is arguably a top 5 GOAT @ HW.