Who was the Bigger Draw?? Naz or Lennox??

In the UK?

As far as I remember at the time, Lennox was never hugely popular in the UK, I guess the Bruno fan base never really took to him for a start.

I'd say Naz at the time, though myself, I was never a fan.

 

Look at the link below it is just after the Briggs fight and says at that time Lewis' career earnings were over the $50million mark, this was during Naz "Peak earning years" and before Lewis had his megafights with Holyfield and Tyson.
So there is a very simple comeback to your comment because you are wrong.

http://www.boxing-monthly.co.uk/content/9805/one.htm

I don't know how much Naz earned, but Lewis most probably earned more from his two fights with Holyfield and one with Tyson, than Naz earned in his whole career.

Naz was more popular and well known in the UK sure, but Lewis was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and by far the bigger draw everywhere else in the world.

 

Anyone got a link to PPV numbers??

 

No but I like your new pic.

 

I'm not wrong.

Have you read that article? There's a couple of interesting quotes in there:

Does that suggest that Lewis was a big draw over in the US? errrrmmm. Nope.

At the time of that article (1998) Naz WAS outearning Lewis, by a big, big margin. There's an article in The Independent from around the same time talking about it, but for some reason their archive is down.

On your second point about Lewis earning more from the Holyfield and Tyson fights... now that's a fair point, but... who was the draw in those fights? I'll give you a clue: Not Lewis. Tyson and Holyfield both outstrip Lewis massively on PPV figures.

On your final point about Lewis being undisputed heavyweight champion, Lewis was undisputed for all of 1 fight. Don King was right: Lewis couldn't draw flies.

So in summary: Lewis earned more overall than Naz but that's because he had a slightly longer career and a few fights against massive fighters who WERE big draws.

Naz earned more at his peak than Lewis and there's no doubting he was the draw, on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

LL never endeared himself to the public. Bruno on the other hand did. When they fought everyone was rooting for Bruno. No one really cared about the broody Lennox Lewis.