Who has the better resume; Evander Holyfield or Lennox Lewis (in HW)?

Lewis has a better resume at Heavyweight IMO.

The 2 wins over Holyfield yes I consider it 2 wins because the draw was utterly bogus as everyone knows.

Is enough to give Lewis the edge over Holyfield in my view.

Not to mention Lewis has a considerable edge in world title wins 15 to 10.

Lewis missed out on a few names that Holyfield beat like Bowe, Moorer, Holmes, Foreman.

But Holyfield also missed out on a few names that Lewis beat aswell like Ruddock, Golota, Tua, Bruno.

Lewis's resume

Evander Holyfield x2
Mike Tyson
Vitali Klitschko
Razor Ruddock
Frank Bruno
Ray Mercer
Tommy Morrison
David Tua
Tony Tucker
Andrew Golota
Henry Akiwande
Michael Grant
Hasim Rahman
Oliver McCall
Shannon Briggs
Gary Mason
Tyrell Biggs
Mike Weaver
Francois Botha
Zejiko Mavrovic
Lionel Butler

16 wins over top 10 rated Heavyweights, 15 world title wins.


Evander Holyfield resume

Mike Tyson x2
Riddick Bowe
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Michael Moorer
Ray Mercer
Pinklon Thomas
Michael Dokes
Buster Douglas
John Ruiz
Hasim Rahman
Alex Stewart x2
Adilson Rodriguez
Vaughn Bean
Bert Cooper
James Tillis

13 wins over top 10 rated Heavyweights, 10 world title wins.

 

By a hairline margin I picked Lewis

 

This is brilliantly put and echoes my thoughts exactly.

 

Just to correct you a little bit: Holyfield has 11 Top 10 wins and Lewis has 14.

 

Lewis has a near perfect resume with two avenged losses.

Holyfield took all challenges, at their peak, and he rematched them. I think Lewis was managed very intelligently and got in far fewer brawls.

Holyfield fought the better fighters. Lewis beat a past-it version of Holyfield who had been on the slide for a minute and just looked bad against Vaughn Bean.

If you're looking purely upside, it's nearly equal. The downside of Evander's heavyweight run is the later stage, at his peak, it's tough to say who beats him if he is healthy. Or when he has been legitimately bested in his prime.

Now that I'm done with my excuse-making, I'll say Lennox has the better resume. He cleaned out the division and held the crown. That means something. Holyfield has the more memorable and better fights for me. Overall, though, Lennox from the Morrison fight in 96 thru the end of his career except for the Rahman loss was dominant. Lennox has a better resume at HW when you consider cleanliness and dominance but Holyfield has more exciting and important bouts. Very very close for me.

 

Thanks for laying this out.

On balance I think Lewis has a stronger heavyweight resume, particularly when you factor in his (generally regarded) superiority across their two fights. Holyfield was probably post-prime, but he uneven performance throughout his heavyweight run.

I think a lot of how you view Holyfield depends on how you rate the Tyson wins. I'm of the view that Tyson was several years past his prime, and as long as he was stripped of the mystique he was levels below his best. But I suppose you could argue based on the Bruno fights that '96 Tyson was broadly the same as '89 Tyson. If you take the Tyson wins down a notch, it's a patchy record that remains; 1-2 against Bowe, 1-1 against Moorer, 0-1-1 against Lewis.

Lewis avenged both defeats, and his resume is very deep without maybe having that career defining win (again depending on how you view Holyfield at that point in his career).

Like most heavies, there's different angles with which you can view their resumes, and a lot open to debate and disagreement.

 

Tough choice. I'll ignore statistics because they're not a good indicator.
Holyfield's best wins:
Bowe 2, Tyson 1, Douglas, Dokes, Moorer 2.
Lewis' best wins:
Ruddock, Holyfield 1, Rahman 2, Klitschko, Golota, Morrison.
Very even, but I don't think Lewis beat anyone better than Bowe in 1993 or in better style.
Worst losses:
Holyfield: Donald, Toney, Byrd, Ibragimov, all after their prime.
Lewis lost to better opponents in worse style: McCall and Rahman.
The downside is that both of these fights were in his prime or close to it. The direct fight belongs to Lewis, and that could be decisive. On the other hand, remember that Evander wasn't even close to his prime and lost very, very narrowly. Ruiz defeated him in the same way shortly after.

Holyfield had better wins, less embarrassing losses, and looked better in the ring. Lewis, however, has better stats, so while I think Holyfield's prime was better, Lennox's resume looks better. Holyfield burned out on the Bowe wars.