Who ranks higher as a heavyweight, Larry Holmes or Lennox Lewis?

I narrowly rate Holmes higher but it’s a close comparison.

 

Holmes. Reign and title defenses matter. And for Lewis beating every for he ever faced that gets a little overblown - Marciano did it, Tunney, Ingemar Johansson.

 

Weaver and Witherspoon weren't Tier A on account of being green. Weaver's resume was terrible at that point.

Weaver was coming off a 5-fight winning streak, including a TKO of contender Bernardo Mercado. After failing against Holmes, he went on a tear and captured the title from John Tate just a year after facing Holmes. Then, defended it twice (while all the other heavys at this time managed a single defense, if that) against Coetzee and Tillis. Hardly "green" at the time he faced Larry. As for Witherspoon, he was in the best shape of his career, and his effort mirrored that. In his proceeding fights, he beat Tillis and then Page for the title. Again, hardly "green" at the stage he faced Larry.

Ruddock and Golota were both regarded as major threats when Lewis fought them.

They may have been regarded as such, but Ruddock was no longer top-shelf after the 2 sustained, wicked beatings by Tyson which all but wrecked him by the time he faced Lewis. Afterwhich, he scored not a single notable win. With regards to Golota, he frequently became unhinged in his fights even prior to facing Lewis. Primarily the Bowe fights where he inflicted numerous low blows leading to his disqualification and against Samson Poua, where he resorted to biting his opponent. When he went into the Lewis fight he had just received a local anesthetic hours earlier. The symptoms reported by Golota are consistent with the adverse reactions from the drug leaving him in no condition to fight.

Lewis's wins over Tua, Grant, Rahman and Briggs were also significant. And Tyson was a top five heavyweight when Lewis beat him up whereas Ali shouldn't have even be licensed for the Holmes fight.

Tua turned up grossly overweight and unable to maintain any sustained movement and timing. The Grant win was impressive, that is if you take away the holding the opponent's head down for leverage while blasting him out. Should have been disqualified. Rahman was already Ko'd by Tua and Maskaev before he fought Lewis. And Rahman made his name strictly off of beating Lennox who showed up poorly conditioned and overconfident. Briggs? He just got spanked by a 48-year-old Foreman. Lastly, in which realm would you consider Mike Tyson a top 5 heavyweight going into the Lewis bout? He was fighting sporadically at this stage, on antidepressant medication at the time while overweight and out of shape.

Lewis also did something major that Holmes failed to even attempt which is unify.

In his book, "Blood Season: Mike Tyson and the World of Boxing" author Phil Berger accurately stated how with the exception of Holmes,
the other alphabet heavys lasted "as long as the cheapest perfumes." All of them were Larry Holmes leftovers. He either beat them soundly already or they would lose to his previous title challengers. And no, contrary to popular legend, I do not consider Holmes's victory of Witherspoon close at all. Easily 9 rounds to 3, or at best 8 - 4 in favor of Larry Holmes.

Holmes title challengers showed up in the best shape of their lives, many young, undefeated and hungry for victory. Not so with most of Lewis opponents.

 

Good post above. Not much to piggy back on.

In my opinion, Larry wins a close decision h2h. Larry was more active, moved better, and was able to get up from thunderous KD’s, which speaks of his chin. Lennox had a tendency to be stationary at times, and couldn’t outlast the bombs he took in his two losses. Not that I think Larry in his prime would knock Lewis out.

Either way, it would be a great fight.

 

That's is a breathtaking set of excuses.

Weaver was like 19-8 when he fought Holmes and his best win was Mercado. That's closer to trash than a tier A win.

Witherspoon was green. It's telling how you have to discuss what kind of shape he was in and wins that occured after almost beating Holmes to justify that he wasnt green. Those are no justifications at all.

Watch Ruddock's fights before Lewis. He looked great against Phil Jackson. The "Tyson ruined him" excuse is bull****.

As for Golota, I question your integrity as a human being if actually think a shot of anesthetic is why Golota was knocked to the canvas against Lewis and made that insane facial expression on the floor. The bottom line is that he was very highly regarded after the Bowe fights. It was almost even money.

Tua got outboxed because he fought Lennox Lewis.

Lewis did something Holmes never did when he beat Rahman and that's avenge a loss. Btw Rahman beat Sanders before fighting Lewis in a war.

Briggs beat Foreman and was a better lineal champion than the guy who Holmes gained lineage from.

Tyson finished 2001 as the number 2 contender at heavyweight in the Ring and fought Lewis six months later.

Lewis unified and Holmes opted to never attempt unification. You're flat out lying as Tyson beat an assortment of fighters that were not Holmes' leftovers including laying out Holmes himself, Holmes' conqueror, Spinks, and Holmes' boogeyman, Thomas. If you'd like to discuss Tyson's resume in comparison to Holmes', I suggest you refer to this thread: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/mike-tyson-had-a-better-career-than-larry-holmes.669560/

 

Witherspoon was green against Holmes but fought by far the best fight of his career.

 

Saying Witherspoon was "green" when he fought Holmes would make sense if he won and lost to top competition immediately following their fight. He didn't show progression, he was at his best starting with Holmes and all those quality subsequent wins bear this out.

Phil Jackson was a blown-up cruiser who beat absolutely no one of note leading up to his fight with Ruddock. He put up a pathetic, non-effort. Ruddock couldn't lose if he tried.

As for Golota. Who cares how "highly regarded" he was at the time. The anesthetic he was administered right before the fight caused serious consequences. Lidocaine is a very powerful painkiller. After the fight, Golota suffered a seizure and stopped breathing, and then revived by CPR while being rushed to the hospital. A seizure is one of the serious side effects of the drug. Along with breathing difficulties, feeling faint, lightheaded, and increased likelihood of falling. I would say that the injection prior to the fight contributed to Golota's early demise.

Tua was at his best 20-plus pounds lighter. He entered the ring in poor physical condition looking like a tea kettle. Andy Ruiz really let himself go too when rematched with AJ. He could not move and keep up any intensity.

Briggs "beat" Foreman. No, he got the decision...a bogus one at that. He never beat George. You and everyone else (except those blind judges) know it. If George were the "Mummy"...Briggs looked like a frightened archaeologist stumbling around the ruins of Egypt.

Tyson may have been the number 2 contender at the time. However, he fought just twice in 2 years! And he looked lackluster 10 months earlier vs the Danish Joke "Brian "Super" Obese Nielsen. Tyson was done when he fought Lewis.

As for Lennox doing something Holmes never did by avenging a loss...Well, Holmes never lost! At least not until he was on the other side of 35. Whereas, Lewis was stopped twice while in his prime. It was Lewis who could never do what Holmes could...pick himself off the canvas and win!

 

Witherspoon was green for the Holmes fight and out of shape and more experienced in subsequent fights. You seem to have issues understanding that concept.

Golota must have gone on to have a lidocaine shot before Brewster did the same thing to him as Lewis. Funny how that works.

Ruddock also beat Page, a guy who Holmes avoided. I think Jackson made it in the top ten around that time. As for Holmes, he was busy losing to a light heavyweight rather than beating the **** out of cruiserweights. Ok, I’m kind of lying,…Holmes fought a bunch of cruiserweights during his career.

Tua was fine. He started off well and went into a shell after tasting Lewis’ power.

Tyson’s blowouts of Nielson, Savarese and Golota were fairly impressive. Lewis was the only guy to get a similar result against Andy and the others had never been handled like that.

Perhaps Holmes would’ve avenged a loss if he fought the best of his era or at least granted rematches to the guys he narrowly beat. And he failed in his single attempt at revenge.

Briggs—Foreman: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/foreman-briggs-the-robbery-that-wasnt.663374/

 

I think Larry's win over Mercer clinches it for me, because it's close. But that fight tips the balance.
He actually did better against Mercer than Lennox did, too.

 

Jorge Luis Gonzales

 

I wouldn’t rate Jessie Ferguson and Tim Witherspoon over Lewis.

 

The two punches that KO'd Lewis might have not even knocked Larry down. If they did, he'd have got up, then battered them for that ****. It's difficult to choose between the two in a list of who is better, but in terms of chin, Larry rates much higher. Just like Lewis does on power. Hell, if you could give Larry's chin, durability, and recovery abilities to Lewis... yikes. Or, if you could give Lewis's right to Larry...

 

So you're implying that Mercer wasn't hard to beat?

 

Holmes but not by much. The embarrassing KO defeats are the difference.

 

I’m implying that Mercer was a hot and cold fighter and that he was a more complete product against Holyfield and Lewis in the mid 90s than he was for Larry. Larry needed a solid 90s title run to rank above Lewis, not just a win over Mercer.

Vitali was a better win than any Holmes has and Lewis pulled it off while 38 and faded.