How good was Lennox Lewis?

I just dont know how I feel about people ranking him because "he could beat anyone on any day" when that is speculation talk.

I thought speculation talk was frowned upon.

wlad>lennox
 
Barely beat tony tucker, struggled with frank Bruno, almost got ktfo'd by Shannon Briggs, ducked bowe, waited until tyson was injured before fighting him, waited until Holyfield was swallowed in child support debt...cheated in 88 Olympics.

Lennox Lewis = ultimate can and cherry picker.

I'm sure most here will agree with me.

I can't believe I was actually halfway through writing a reply to this before realising I was being trolled. I think it's time I stepped away from the computer and went outside.
 
I can't believe I was actually halfway through writing a reply to this before realising I was being trolled. I think it's time I stepped away from the computer and went outside.

Tbf in all what he said one thing that really seems apparent is how underrated Tony Tucker was. Always in Tyson discussions he gets thrown in there as someone Tyosn struggled against and is held to the same status and Bonecrusher Smith while Toney Tucker even up to the lewis fight was a very good fighter and has wins over Oliver McCall and an in shape buster Douglas (Douglas when he was actually in shape was also much better than he is given credit at least before he gassed)
 
Top 5 HW of all time. There's not much to dispute this. Lewis was great.
 
One of the bests ever. Really. He was maybe the last great HW champion (and olympic gold medalist.) In his age the HW division was strong. Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Moorer and so on.
 
I think he's in the top 5 heavyweights of all time, a rare combination of size and talent.

But while it's obviously the most celebrated and glorified, I don't think the heavyweight division is really the deepest division as far as talent goes (when looking at ATGs). Lennox was 41-2-1, having been knocked out by 2 relatively unheralded guys in his prime years, and having his signature victories over aged opponents, and is still almost universally considered a top 5 heavyweight ever and considered top 3 by many.
 
certainly the last great hw champ. i would put him a notch below ali, louis and than depending how im feeling on the day maybe johnson, and foreman.
 
Top 5 ATG HW. Arguably top 3. Fought everyone who would fight him and beat most of the big names of his era.

IMO he was barely (if) the 2nd best true giant (6'5" &^) in HW boxing.

If this was the UFC forum however, many would be complaining that his 84 inch reach was unfair, and he was below average without it.

He did lose his only two fights to his opponents that had at least 82" reach. (Where he only had a 2" reach advantage. (McCall & Rahman).

Overall he was 2 - 2 against Boxers that had no more than 2 inch reach disadvantage on him since he first took the WBC title.
 
Who do you think is the most?

Wlad

certainly the last great hw champ.

Case in point.



WLad? WHAT, great? He got stopped 3 times! Yea so, and Lennox did too. I am not saying Wlad is better, but to say Lewis is great is simply ignorant.

Wlad was also a gold medalist, has a longer reign, more defenses, almost 25 more wins, and higher KO%.
 
Did Stewart ever comment on how he saw a Wlad vs Lewis match playing out?
 
I just dont know how I feel about people ranking him because "he could beat anyone on any day" when that is speculation talk.

I thought speculation talk was frowned upon.

wlad>lennox

Yeah I hear you I also don't really like to do hypotheticals. But Lennox was a monster with a fruity little bun in his hair. It's gotta suck to get whooped by a man with a bun in his hair
 
Wlad



Case in point.



WLad? WHAT, great? He got stopped 3 times! Yea so, and Lennox did too. I am not saying Wlad is better, but to say Lewis is great is simply ignorant.

Wlad was also a gold medalist, has a longer reign, more defenses, almost 25 more wins, and higher KO%.

Wlad is awesome, sucks for him they are fighting in such a thin heavyweight division these days
 
Wlad is awesome, sucks for him they are fighting in such a thin heavyweight division these days

Meh, people underrate this division and overrate others.

People say, oh, a lot of American athletes don't do boxing now because of other sports, which is partially part of the problem. The other problem is that they ignore that during the 50s-90s, half the world wasn't allowed to be professional.
 
Yeah I basically agree with most people here, Lewis never was very charismatic or had a lot of tabloid hype attached to him and a lot of the time he was pretty cautious and patient in the way he fought, none of which really helped his popularity. But he is still 42-2-1 (32 KOs), didn't duck anyone as far as I know and his only two losses were where he was being reckless, and he rematched and stopped them both. He beat Klitschko, Holyfield and Tyson. Definitely one of the best ever.

He has 9 defences of the belt, which puts him joint 6th with Klitschko, Tyson and Frazier
 
I'm not convinced that Wlad would be great in any other era of HWs aside from this one.
 
Meh, people underrate this division and overrate others.

People say, oh, a lot of American athletes don't do boxing now because of other sports, which is partially part of the problem. The other problem is that they ignore that during the 50s-90s, half the world wasn't allowed to be professional.

I think most heavy weight eras were weak except in Ali's era.
In my opinion, this era right now is one of the worst, however it does look like it is getting better with new contenders.

And when was the last time we saw kliterotti matched with someone and said, "damn that's a tough one, I don't know who will win."

Kliterotti is an amazing fighter. I just wish he had some competition so we could see the best brought out in him.
 
who knows how Lennox would have handled a prime Tyson or a prime Holyfield. Some people still think he lost the second Holyfield fight and that was a 36 year old holyfield. Tyson in his prime could have checked that chin too, at the very least.
 
I think the heavyweight division during his time as a pro was pretty steep compared to the decades preceding and following it.

I think he is easily a top 10 hw goat. His grabbing and leaning could be a bit annoying at times, but overall he easily belongs among the other ATG's of heavyweight boxing.

I did a quick search and saw this write-up on him. I think it makes some good points:

http://www.boxing247.com/weblog/news.php?p=8605&more=1

Just don't ask Larry Holmes about Lennox Lewis' jab lol
 
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