Who is the greatest HW of the last 25 years?

Not for me no. He still looked sloppy and wobbly at that point in his career. It was only after Manny got involved that he looked 'prime' for me

 

Since when is Oliver MCcall a bum? Sure, Lennox shouldnt have lost in that fashion, but he avenged it, and holding one loss against someone is ridiculous, coming from the man who previously said its stupid to just look at one part of a fighters career on judging greatness.

I quote you "because its nonsense to rate a guy based on a particular part of their carreer when were talking about greatness"

Therefore your contradicting yourself when referring to lennox losing to Mccall and using that as an indictment to him being ranked lower than holmes, who lost 6 times after 83, which is the starting point of this case

 

I second those sentiments, overlooked that part of the intial post in my response

 

For the life of me I cant see how anyone, looking at the facts etc with a good set of commen sense specs on cant pick LL as the number 1! Holmes was past his best 25 yrs ago, Tyson didnt sustain his reign of terror, and Holyfield, although excellent, wasnt on the level of LL for me, he lost to Bowe twice, Moorer, Ruiz etc Sure, he was an ex cruiser punching above his weight you can say, and Lewis fought him past his prime, but LL ranks for me numero uno, no question about it

 

Right there with you peter, I can see how people could argue Tyson head to head but not just on a normal comparison - longevity must be considered. Holmes I agree with you and Holyfield the same.

As I said earlier though, alot rate Holyfield higher than me - but I dont think his 4 years between stepping up to heavy and then getting beat by Bowe can really establish him as a top heavy. Loss to Moorer and then not being able to beat Lewis (Lewis was robbed in the first one too!) also affects his legitimacy as a great heavy too.

Ruiz loss - Holyfield was already on the slide so I dont look at that too much.

 

:good Agree ^, Id actually favour prime LL over Prime Tyson, but thats another thread entirely LL has all the ingredients to be considered the number one in this instance, where do you rank LL ATG at HW?

 

I don't know there were pretty good HW.

1) Bowe
2) Tyson
3) Lewis
4) Holyfield

I'm gonna go with Lewis, this is if we exclude Holmes.

 

It is another thread but I probably agree!

I've got Lewis at #3 behind Ali and Louis but with the disclaimer that my pre-war knowledge isnt good enough. Example - Dempsey/Johnson/Tunney etc my knowledge is limited!

 

Contrary to what many have posted, it's not "easily" lewis, although he might get the nod due to his body of work from approx 96 to 03 which was very good (albeit his opposition wasn't all that good). juiced up holy did some great things and arguably has the best overall wins in the time period (peak Bowe and a good version of Tyson). Tyson's opposition is not as good as Lewis' but it ain't by all that much, but Tyson arguably beat no top contenders after ruddock (altho he beat his share of contenders and fringe contenders up to the early 2000's). Holmes's best work was longer than 25 years ago, but he had very good wins after 83 and even beat contenders and had some good fights well into his 40's. I'd say it's close and arguments can be made for everyone (but the weakest for Larry b/c of his best years being older than 25 years ago). You can argue Holy for his signature wins, Tyson for his destruction of guys and continued viability years after abandoning most of his skills and after a long prison term. Like I said you can give the "nod" to Lewis because of his long reign, but he has some serious knocks including mccall and rahman and as stated his opppostion being not that much better than tyson's.

 

Even though he sounds like a sissy, I'll say Lennox

 

Lewis in my opinion, however I couldn't argue at anyone of the others, it's a real pick your pesonal favorite.

 

It's Holyfield.

 

lennox lewis for me , he was better than holmes even when holmes was prime!!!!!

my favourite though was holyfield!!!!

 

really wanted to vote for tyson but just couldn't its lewis