Showtime Boxing and Lennox Lewis in Twitter dispute over who the last undisputed HW champ was.

[Phisher]

Lewis is obviously right. The WBO title was not regarded as the fourth major belt at HW in the 90s. Nobody has ever claimed that Morrison, Hide, Bentt or Francesco fucking Damiani were legit champions.

I like Mauro, but this is an embarrassing way to shill for the Joshua/Parker fight.

 

[Seano]

Sounds like they're confusing lineal and undisputed.

 

[Philtard]

What are Showtime talking about?

What? Why? I don't understand.

 

[The Can Opener]

Mauro doesn't know shit about boxing.

He's good for the hype and puns and occasionally entertaining one-liners but facts are not something he needs to concern himself with. It's like Vana White trying to actually host the show. Nope. Just flip those letters.

 

[Phisher]

What are Showtime talking about?

What? Why? I don't understand.

Long story short: in the context of the Joshua/Parker pre-fight hype, Mauro has been claiming that there hasn't been an undisputed champ since Tyson. The Showtime crew backed him up by saying that the Lewis/Holyfield fights weren't really for the undisputed HW title because the WBO title wasn't on the line. That is patently false as nobody gave a shit about the WBO HW title until the early/mid-2000s.

ETA Mauro's assertion also ignores the fact that Holyfield and Bowe held the three major alphabet titles after Tyson as the titles weren't separated until Bowe vacated the WBC belt to avoid Lewis.

 

[Phisher]

Sounds like they're confusing lineal and undisputed.

Even that assertion is comically wrong. Lewis won the lineal title when he beat Briggs. The lineage wasn't broken until he retired, and it was considered reestablished by Wlad after he beat Chagaev.

 

[Seano]

Even that assertion is comically wrong. Lewis won the lineal title when he beat Briggs. The lineage wasn't broken until he retired, and it was considered reestablished by Wlad after he beat Chagaev.

A couple of the tweets loaded after I posted that.

 

[JayE]

Mauro doesn't know shit about boxing.

He's good for the hype and puns and occasionally entertaining one-liners but facts are not something he needs to concern himself with. It's like Vana White trying to actually host the show. Nope. Just flip those letters.

True, but there are plenty of people over there who do and they shouldn't have backed him up.

 

[Boxiana]

I read the headline as “Twister dispute”, which would have been more interesting.

 

[HardasNAILZ]

Boring shite.

Fuck Lennox Lewis.

 

[Jhonni5]

Boring shite.

Fuck Lennox Lewis.

What's your beef with Lewis?

 

[HardasNAILZ]

What's your beef with Lewis?

Can’t stand his self righteous shite on Twitter. And his Lennoxisms are the height of narcissism.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Mauro doesn't know shit about boxing.

He's good for the hype and puns and occasionally entertaining one-liners but facts are not something he needs to concern himself with. It's like Vana White trying to actually host the show. Nope. Just flip those letters.

Thing about Mauro was when he first started I actually kind of liked him, which was a first for me even being a longtime mma fan prior, b/c he seemed to know his place. He was there to call a boxing match and knew that he wasn't looked at as some iconic pbp guy like he's known for by some in the mma world. I think he did better when he stayed in his lane, and the fact that he didn't get too ahead of himself and kept more to the basics of calling the action, letting the other guys do their jobs and analyze that action was pleasantly surprising. At first.

Now he seems to have gotten top used to this gig and has gone back to screaming his ugly puns and yelling over ppl like there's nobody else at the table wth him and guys are slamming chairs and drop kicking each other in the ring. This is a prizefight not some backyard brawl shit. Mauro has soured like a bag of milk. If he just kept to the basics then I actually wouldn't mind him but he's went too mma persona on us like he was back in the day and it's hurting the whole commentary, imo.

Plus, why you making Lennox mad, Showtime? You know making Lennox mad usually gets you brain damage, right?

 

[Jonny Ninja]

Lewis is obviously right. The WBO title was not regarded as the fourth major belt at HW in the 90s. Nobody has ever claimed that Morrison, Hide, Bentt or Francesco fucking Damiani were legit champions.

I like Mauro, but this is an embarrassing way to shill for the Joshua/Parker fight.

I was a huge fan of Lennox but I disagree, the WBO was a recognised belt back then. I don't remember people saying Eubank or Calzaghe weren't champions because they held this belt. IMO Lennox was lineal but not unified. The IBO belt on the other hand is fckin worthless.

 

[ironfist05]

Sounds like they're confusing lineal and undisputed.

lewis was undisputed though, since the WBO was not recognized by the other bodies at the time

 

[Shoemaker]

Thing about Mauro was when he first started I actually kind of liked him, which was a first for me even being a longtime mma fan prior, b/c he seemed to know his place. He was there to call a boxing match and knew that he wasn't looked at as some iconic pbp guy like he's known for by some in the mma world. I think he did better when he stayed in his lane, and the fact that he didn't get too ahead of himself and kept more to the basics of calling the action, letting the other guys do their jobs and analyze that action was pleasantly surprising. At first.

Now he seems to have gotten top used to this gig and has gone back to screaming his ugly puns and yelling over ppl like there's nobody else at the table wth him and guys are slamming chairs and drop kicking each other in the ring. This is a prizefight not some backyard brawl shit. Mauro has soured like a bag of milk. If he just kept to the basics then I actually wouldn't mind him but he's went too mma persona on us like he was back in the day and it's hurting the whole commentary, imo.

Plus, why you making Lennox mad, Showtime? You know making Lennox mad usually gets you brain damage, right?

His voice always rubbed me the wrong way. I don't believe that's the natural sound of his voice. It sounds over-exaggerated, like a monster-truck show announcer.

 

[Phisher]

I was a huge fan of Lennox but I disagree, the WBO was a recognised belt back then. I don't remember people saying Eubank or Calzaghe weren't champions because they held this belt. IMO Lennox was lineal but not unified. The IBO belt on the other hand is fckin worthless.

Absolute rubbish. We're talking about the 90s. The WBO was not truly recognized as the fourth major alphabet title until 2004 when the WBC ended its boycott and started listing WBO champs in its rankings, and the WBA and IBF eventually followed suit.

Everyone in the sport considered Lennox the undisputed champ after the two Holyfield fights. The WBO champ at the time, Vitali Klitschko, wasn't even in the conversation. In fact, he was still considered a prospect after he beat Hide for the WBO belt.

Do you EVER hear anybody refer to Herbie Hide, Michael Bentt, Tommy Morrison, Henry Akinwande or Francesco Damiani as “former HW champs”? I sure as hell don't.

Ever hear anybody refer to Artur Grigorian as one of the greatest LWs ever for his long WBO title reign? I never have.

It's true that some longtime WBO champions legitimized themselves, but that was because they beat major alphabet title holders and a long list of quality contenders in their divisions.

Dariusz Michalczewski won the lineal title and the WBA and IBF belts when he beat Virgil Hill.

Naz beat all of the alphabet beltholders and won the lineal title at Featherweight during his championship run. He would have been the unified champ at FW if he'd dropped the WBO belt. The reason that he wasn't was that the other sanctioning bodies didn't want to legitimize the WBO by allowing their champs to unify with the WBO titles at the time.

Calzaghe unified the division and established lineage in the mid-2000s. Nobody considered him a legitimate champ in the early years of his title reign. In fact, there were still respected boxing pundits questioning whether he was actually elite until he humiliated Lacy because he was constantly fighting down to the level of his opposition.

Oh and I never heard anybody refer to a Eubank as legit champ in the 90s. Maybe that's what the called him in the UK media, but those WBO titles at MW and SMW were trash when held them. The guy had some decent wins in his career, but he never had a legit claim to being the best fighter in any division that he fought in.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

His voice always rubbed me the wrong way. I don't believe that's the natural sound of his voice. It sounds like over-exaggerated, like a monster-truck show announcer.

I agree a lot of these guys fake their commentating voices, Mauro being one of them. Legit lol at "a monster truck show announcer" btw, that couldn't be more on point.

 

[Jonny Ninja]

Absolute rubbish. We're talking about the 90s. The WBO was not truly recognized as the fourth major alphabet title until 2004 when the WBC ended its boycott and started listing WBO champs in its rankings, and the WBA and IBF eventually followed suit.

Everyone in the sport considered Lennox the undisputed champ after the two Holyfield fights. The WBO champ at the time, Vitali Klitschko, wasn't even in the conversation. In fact, he was still considered a prospect after he beat Hide for the WBO belt.

Do you EVER hear anybody refer to Herbie Hide, Michael Bentt, Tommy Morrison, Henry Akinwande or Francesco Damiani and former HW champs? I sure as hell don't.

Ever hear anybody refer to Artur Grigorian as one of the greatest LWs ever for his long WBO title reign? I never have.

It's true that some longtime WBO champions legitimized themselves, but that was because they beat major alphabet title holders and a long list of quality contenders in their divisions.

Dariusz Michalczewski won the lineal title and the WBA and IBF belts when he beat Virgil Hill.

Naz beat all of the alphabet beltholders and won the lineal title at Featherweight during his championship run. He would have been the unified champ at FW if he'd dropped the WBO belt. The reason that he wasn't was that the other sanctioning bodies didn't want to legitimize the WBO by allowing their champs to unify with the WBO titles at the time.

Calzaghe unified the division and established lineage in the mid-2000s. Nobody considered him a legitimate champ in the early years of his title reign. In fact, there were still respected boxing pundits questioning whether he was actually elite until he humiliated Lacy because he was constantly fighting down to the level of his opposition.

Oh and I never heard anybody refer to a Eubank as legit champ in the 90s. Maybe that's what the called him in the UK media, but those WBO titles at MW and SMW were trash when held them. The guy had some decent wins in his career, but he never had a legit claim to being the best fighter in any division that he fought in.

So your saying calzaghe wasn’t a world champ until he beat Lacey! And you keep saying nobody considered him a champ until he unified. Everyone I know did! It’s just your opinion. Plenty of fans considered him Champion. Just because you and your mates didn’t doesn’t make it fact you muppet

 

[ironfist05]

So your saying calzaghe wasn’t a world champ until he beat Lacey! And you keep saying nobody considered him a champ until he unified. Everyone I know did! It’s just your opinion. Plenty of fans considered him Champion. Just because you and your mates didn’t doesn’t make it fact you muppet

I think with the WBO belt at the time, it was more who held the belt than the fact that they held hte WBO belt that made them non-credible. Sure there were Calzaghe's and Hamed's, but there were a lot of below average guys with belts too.

I mean, Joshua, Lara and GGG are all IBO champions right now. Those are legitimate champions too have, but nobody is calling the IBO a major belt.