Why did "Lewis-Tua" of '00 fizzle in heat / action over its 12 rd limit? Your words.

I meant Holmes' title fights and Ali's title fights , not just that particular 1 fight. Ali-Norton 1-3 were boring to say the least , Holmes-Norton more of the same , Holmes-Cooney , Holmes-Spinks 1&2 , Spinks-Cooney and many more probably were disgusting fights. Even Ali-Frazier #2 and yet even more of their foul filled no contests , didn't even watch Norton-Young and Ali-Young , the golden era that it was .. about as bad as nowadays ..

 

Spinks-Cooney was the best of the fights I mentioned but still Cooney was **** , which makes it less educational than on paper.

 

Tua was overweight. Look at his weight in 1998 when he knocked out Rahman, then look at his weight for the Lennox fight. He weighed 21 pounds more for Lennox.

That's why Lennox fought him when he did. Lennox did that his whole career: cherrypicking big names when they were past their best. See Tyson, Tucker, McCall, Holyfield. Wlad refused to become a fat bum, so Lennox never fought him.

 

very good post , although Tua did not KO Rahman even not as illegally and prematurely as he got that "stoppage" over him.

Holyfield was 37 when he fought Lewis . Do you know where Marchegiano , Frazier , Ali , Dempsey , Tunney , Jack Johnson , Ezzard Charles and Joe Louis were at this age ?
Tucker was 35 when he fought Lewis , do you know where the names mentioned above were at this age ?
Yet Lewis failed at stopping each one of them , having 2 opportunities in Holyfield's case.
Weird you didn't wonder about the mentioning of Tyson and McCall as well , as they are the less obvious to the casual fan , with McCall being even lesser known.

 

So Lewis had a legitimate reason to fight Holyfield , but Tucker beat no1 after his loss to Tyson (and besides from Douglas , no1 b4) , Tucker did not deserve the gift he got vs Orlin Norris the first time , and I wonder about his other SD over McCall , just couldn't find it.

edit : oh , and btw , Holyfield was stopped 4 years prior to facing Lewis and was 3 years older and much smaller , so Lewis failing to stop him not once but twice , and actually Holyfield being competitive against him in at least 1 of their fights proves an obvious implication , same for Lewis failing to stop a 7 years older , always weaker (even in his prime) and drug abused Tucker

 

Casual fans gave Tyson a great chance because of the Lewis-Rahman I one-punch KO loss. They didn't respect Rahman as a fighter at all, & they assumed Tyson hit much harder than Hasim. Lets be honest though, this was Lennox's own fault for being untrained, lethargic & cocky against an opponent he badly underestimated. Despite his age, Lewis to me & many others looked on "Peak form" in Rahman II, which is not surprising considering he was a very late bloomer anyway & trained very hard to turn back the clock. Hell, it's obvious Lewis trained like a machine for the fight with Mr. Golden Goose too, due to the enormous respect he had for Tyson's power following the pervious years upset he suffered by Rahman. Lennox appeared to be at least extremely close to Peak regardless of being slightly physically past-prime, because his supreme conditioning (the total opposite of his opponent!), this was visible in the fight. When else to Lewis work so hard each round & show such superb stamina; only the '96 Mercer fight. The ageing process was ridiculously kind to Lewis when he trained with full dedication. Compare Lewis-Rahman II & Lewis-Tyson to Lewis-Rahman I & Lewis-Vitali, to see the massive difference serious conditioning efforts in training camp made.

FJ360, i believe you're British like me? Then you should recall that Tyson-Nielsen wasn't viewed or talked about by most mainstream/casual boxing fans. Any hardcore boxing fans who had seen that fight all agreed how dreadfully shitty, slow & shot Tyson looked against a blob. I wish Lewis-Tyson had happened 2 years earlier, as Mike was a many times more worthy a challenger than Botha who he brutally KO'd a year before Lewis did! Imagine that, Lennox would've had a non-shot Tyson on his record, in the decent condition (for someone who aged so badly) he was for the Golota fight. Plus we would've got to see 4 or 5 very competitive & thrilling rounds of war, rather of just 1.

 

from what I remember Tua wanted no part of Lennox after eating a few big right hands.

The Rahman fight in south africa wasnt a weight issue for Lewis but more of him taking it easy in camp and also not being prepared for the conditions in SA. Lews was gassed after 2 rounds.

 

This is pretty much the crux of why it was a snoozefest.

Lewis clearly hurt Tua early, then Tua went into hiding with his "Tentative Turtle-Shell Mode".

 

Tucker was durable vs Tyson 4 d same reason Smith , Green , Douglas , Lewis and McBride were durable against him as well (even Biggs was not a quick win 4 tyson) : they were just 2 big for him , for this reason (back to the topic) Lewis was 2 "durable" 4 Tua , and Valuev , Vitali & Bowe were so "durable".
But this reason did not hold for Tucker vs Lewis , not to mention the age gape and d drug abuse .

 

Nah Tua was the mandatory contender for Lewis. It wasnt Lewis fault that Tua became a fatass. Same with Tucker he was a mandatory for the title, Mcall too. Holyfield was to unify the dam titles. Tyson was a huge money fight but a total mismatch.

 

That's my point, the Super Brian Nielsen farce is a forgotten fight. Tyson had been inactive for a year, & he returns to fight a morbidly obese darts player... basically nobody in the UK gave a **** for good reason. Then Mike takes another year off & faces Lewis. What was the last Tyson fight ordinary people remember, prior to Lewis-Tyson? Like you said, it was the Francis fight in Manchester, which was 2½ years earlier! My best mates dad was there.