I know there's a lot of interest in the lower weights, but the heavyweight situation is probably the direst it's been in its history at present.

With Lennox not only did he dominate almost exclusively, but he was also quite dull to watch and didn't attract much publicity.

I remember the mid 90s... the bouts between Chris Eubank/Nigel Benn would be shown on TV in bars, something that would never happen nowadays. We had Prince Naseem, and everyone was talking about Frank Bruno, no matter how useless he was. Everyone knew Frank wasn't a fraction of the boxer Lennox was, but he was loved in a way that Lennox never could be.

But it's not just with the UK scene... Tyson was electric at this time, and you had newer guys like Tony Tubbs to go along with Foreman and Holmes.

I just had a conversation with someone in my kitchen who was excitedly reeling off all these names and memories but had to be told who the current champs are.

I know there's a lot of interest in the lower weights, but the heavyweight situation is probably the direst it's been in its history at present.

With Lennox not only did he dominate almost exclusively, but he was also quite dull to watch and didn't attract much publicity.

I remember the mid 90s... the bouts between Chris Eubank/Nigel Benn would be shown on TV in bars, something that would never happen nowadays. We had Prince Naseem, and everyone was talking about Frank Bruno, no matter how useless he was. Everyone knew Frank wasn't a fraction of the boxer Lennox was, but he was loved in a way that Lennox never could be.

But it's not just with the UK scene... Tyson was electric at this time, and you had newer guys like Tony Tubbs to go along with Foreman and Holmes.

I just had a conversation with someone in my kitchen who was excitedly reeling off all these names and memories but had to be told who the current champs are.
not all of lennox's fights were dull. one of the best heavyweight fights was lewis vs. briggs that was amazing. also lewis rahman 1 and 2 were exciting, as was his blowouts of michael grant and golota

I know there's a lot of interest in the lower weights, but the heavyweight situation is probably the direst it's been in its history at present.

With Lennox not only did he dominate almost exclusively, but he was also quite dull to watch and didn't attract much publicity.

I remember the mid 90s... the bouts between Chris Eubank/Nigel Benn would be shown on TV in bars, something that would never happen nowadays. We had Prince Naseem, and everyone was talking about Frank Bruno, no matter how useless he was. Everyone knew Frank wasn't a fraction of the boxer Lennox was, but he was loved in a way that Lennox never could be.

But it's not just with the UK scene... Tyson was electric at this time, and you had newer guys like Tony Tubbs to go along with Foreman and Holmes.

I just had a conversation with someone in my kitchen who was excitedly reeling off all these names and memories but had to be told who the current champs are.


If any one man has killed boxing its Don King

Remember this - Lennox Lewis fought on Sky early in his career while it was still getting off the floor and later on PPV. Not only that, since he fought a lot in the States, most of his fights aired at like 4am here. Benn, Eubank, Naz, Bruno spent their best years fighting on free TV (Naz made his name before going to Sky once it was huge) as well as in prime time slots.

There has been a lot of champs recently who fight once a year some even less and in my opinion that hurts boxing. And yes Lewis was one of them.

If any one man has killed boxing its Don King

That is so true. Think about the fights we would be seeing if it wasnt for him. Hell, for all we know, we could have different champs right now.

Lewis did not ruin boxing.

Boxing only become a top teir sport when there is someone exciting that knocks guys out. It is just the way that it is.

Vitaly is starting to get some non boxing sports interest and if he had an arch rival like Lewis, boxing would be in the news more.

In america, sports fans put too much of their energy into Football Basketball and Baseball, and if there was an American Champion fighing on Network TV for free, it would get the fans interested.

Watching Lewis jab and win rounds is not going to put boxing on the next level. A Holyfeild Bowe 2 type fight with one Heavyweight Champion every 3-4 months will bring boxing to prosperity.

No its not because of Lewis, its because of Don King, corruption,
fixed fights, boring fighters like Byrd and Ruiz, to many belts,
championship fights to seldom, lazy boxers who showes upp out off shape, whining and excuses and the heavy divison which is supposed to be the big donut not good.

Yeah, but how is that different than the other team sports that I mentioned.

Lennox Lewis was always boring. I did enjoy his fight against Briggs, but that was is.


I wouldn't say that Don King has killed boxing, in fact, he is bringing us some of the better fights. The other promotions suck. Hopefully Golden Boy changes that.

I'll never understand how people can like team sports and not like boxing as much. team sports are a joke. the competition is nowhere near the level of boxing. boxing is actually real competition where the loser has as lot to lose. in team sports, the team loses, so what. basically, the same players return the next season. no real consequence to losing. can't believe people pay to watch that over something real like boxing

I'll never understand how people can like team sports and not like boxing as much. team sports are a joke. the competition is nowhere near the level of boxing. boxing is actually real competition where the loser has as lot to lose. in team sports, the team loses, so what. basically, the same players return the next season. no real consequence to losing. can't believe people pay to watch that over something real like boxing
Yeah its true. In no other sport than boxing can loss mean the end of your carreer.

boxing is given hardly any publicity anymore, compared to 60s,70s and 80s. Netball, bowls, tennis and Golf get more mainstream publicity. Promoters and boxing managers need to get the fans back to boxing. The big heavyweight fights recently held in madison square garden are a prime example of a good marketing of boxing, and putting on a show fans want to see.

i always enjoyed LL's fights he was a skilled big man. Like Holmes, plus when he fought u always knew there was a chance for an upset. His only problem was that he was so good, that he didn't make for competitive fights like Holyfield and ali, who had to go to war every fight in order to win.

what are you talking about.......dull? you are confusing his quiet personality with his fights. Not many Lewis fights were dull. It's not his fault he was so superior to the competition (when he was focussed)

Lewis didnt kill boxing but he certainly didnt make it any better.
Ppl still looked to the lower weights like they did in the 80's with Hagler/Hearns/Duran/Leonard.
I enjoyed Holyfield in the 90's.
I found him boring but thats just my opinion.

There has been a lot of champs recently who fight once a year some even less and in my opinion that hurts boxing. And yes Lewis was one of them.
this is very true, he did alot of damage to the division while he decided if he wanted to retire or not. the heavyweight division was a virtual closed shop during this period.
but when he was younger, ahh the memories of singing god save the queen when he beat ruddock in london in 92 still bring a tear to this old cynics eye!

Mason, Ruddock, Bruno, Morrison, Golota, Briggs, Grant, Botha, Rahman, Tyson, and Klitscho all ended with ko's or tko's and in my opinion they were very watchable. Lewis gets a hard time yet Holyfield who I like a lot didn't produced as many stoppages as Lewis did in the same time span yet would never be considered boring yet like Lewis he did have a few boring fights Holmes, Byrd, Bean, Moorer1, Stewart2.

yeah but towards the end of his career he had like one fight a year, and gave up most of the belts cos he only wanted to fight certain people, not his no1 contenders.

yeah but towards the end of his career he had like one fight a year, and gave up most of the belts cos he only wanted to fight certain people, not his no1 contenders.
Yeah but do you think fights against Byrd or Ruiz would have been exciting ? I don't.

yeah, you have a point, ha ha! but the fact remains he vacated rather than face them, i think at that stage in his career, chris byrd could have beat him, or at least made him look bad.

How can people say Lennox was dull and boring? He was one of the most skillful heavyweight fighters of the 90's, his talent for a big fighter was unbelievable. He was very intelligent and used to think before he acted.

yeah, you have a point, ha ha! but the fact remains he vacated rather than face them, i think at that stage in his career, chris byrd could have beat him, or at least made him look bad.
I thought Byrd had already proven that he had problems against big tall guys at that point. I think Lewis would win almost every round probably ko'ing though dependidng on how inspired he felt and lets face it after having beat Holyfield and Tyson Byrd wasn't likely to inspire. Lewis boresnore points victory.

Of course hoyfield didnt knock out as may ppl thats because he was a natural cruiserweight. Which only makes his achievments in the the HW division more remarkable.
Holyfield is the man for me.

Of course hoyfield didnt knock out as may ppl thats because he was a natural cruiserweight. Which only makes his achievments in the the HW division more remarkable.
Holyfield is the man for me.

Holyfield was a remarkable fighter, he was amazing. You deserve good karma :D

Of course hoyfield didnt knock out as may ppl thats because he was a natural cruiserweight. Which only makes his achievments in the the HW division more remarkable.
Holyfield is the man for me.
I like Holyfield more than Lewis but I was just saying that Lewis does get a hard time. Just because Holyfield came up from Cruiser doesn't mean he's entitled to a free pass. In my opinion he had a lot of great fights but so did Lewis. Both guys were also involved in a few bores though. True?

In america, sports fans put too much of their energy into Football Basketball and Baseball, and if there was an American Champion fighing on Network TV for free, it would get the fans interested.

Great point. If big name champs like, Hopkins,RJJ,De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Byrd fought on national tv( not pay per view) there would be more of an interest in the sport. I'm also a huge hoops and football fan and I can see all the big games for free. Keyword here is free! Lennox Lewis has nothing to do with Americans being less interested in the sport. :mad:

Since Lewis has retired I have come to respect what he was more. having to sit thru ruiz or kirk johnson fights you kinda wish he would come outta retirement for a while

if there was an American Champion fighing on Network TV for free, it would get the fans interested.Is the "American" bit significant?

Anorak. If he fights like an American ie Holyfield Tyson.....it don't matter where he comes from.

I know there's a lot of interest in the lower weights, but the heavyweight situation is probably the direst it's been in its history at present.

With Lennox not only did he dominate almost exclusively, but he was also quite dull to watch and didn't attract much publicity.

I remember the mid 90s... the bouts between Chris Eubank/Nigel Benn would be shown on TV in bars, something that would never happen nowadays. We had Prince Naseem, and everyone was talking about Frank Bruno, no matter how useless he was. Everyone knew Frank wasn't a fraction of the boxer Lennox was, but he was loved in a way that Lennox never could be.

But it's not just with the UK scene... Tyson was electric at this time, and you had newer guys like Tony Tubbs to go along with Foreman and Holmes.

I just had a conversation with someone in my kitchen who was excitedly reeling off all these names and memories but had to be told who the current champs are.



I would say its Don King who is killing interest in boxing not Lewis

I would have to agree i think its don king and his bs ways thats brought boxing down. But on the other hand Lewis was boring and its probably a good thing he doesn't come out of retirement.

Lewis was certainly an incredibly boring champion, I'll give you that.

Lewis just lacked the personality for people to care if he won or not. Most huge matches turn into stories. Even Wvladmir has a more interesting story than Lewis.

Even Wvladmir has a more interesting story than Lewis.

Don't talk ****. What a stupid thing to say

um.

sorry to break it to you bro, but my theory to why boxing lost popularity, is the invention of eeg/ekg/mri technology.

Lewis was certainly an incredibly boring champion, I'll give you that.

I don't agree. I thought Lewis fights were events, and I would never miss them. Maybe the outcomes were at times boring, but I thought he was a great Champ to have. Hell, look at all the talk he gets during retirement. He stirs up the emotion whether you like or dislike him. With everyone complaining about the Heavyweight division, I would think Lenny would be missed by everyone.

No its not because of Lewis, its because of Don King, corruption,
fixed fights, boring fighters like Byrd and Ruiz, to many belts,
championship fights to seldom, lazy boxers who showes upp out off shape, whining and excuses and the heavy divison which is supposed to be the big donut not good.

Total agree. The only thing Lewis did was retire at the height of his career. When the average people where starting to notice him as the pro boxer.

I don't agree. I thought Lewis fights were events, and I would never miss them. Maybe the outcomes were at times boring, but I thought he was a great Champ to have. Hell, look at all the talk he gets during retirement. He stirs up the emotion whether you like or dislike him. With everyone complaining about the Heavyweight division, I would think Lenny would be missed by everyone.

He was a great Champ, shame people don't appreciate what we had :cool:

He was a good champ innded but, he wasnt entertainning enough.

Bully`s sell better.

And he retired before he``s jobb with VK was done.

Yeah, I do think the fall of boxing hype has sorta revolved around Lewis. I mean, i was wondering this myself. It was always so widley talked about when the heavywieght championship was up for grabs. Now, no one seems to care at all. It's kinda sad that the heavyweight devision has fallen so badly. We need to see some spark there.

the bouts between Chris Eubank/Nigel Benn would be shown on TV in bars, something that would never happen nowadays.

There's plenty of bars that televise the PPV fights- you just gotta goto the bars that charge 6.50 for a drink, ;-(

Boxing in general has vastly declined in the upper weight divisions. Lewis wasn´t always a boring fighter but his fights were b'c the guys he was defending the title against were not true championship calibre fighters (save a couple) . . .the division became truly horrible in the 90s and Lewis was the last guy who managed to rise above the garbage . .

Lewis was a "hot or cold" fighter. Against an opponent with a vulnerable chin or psyche (Grant, Golota, Rahman in the second fight, etc) he would come out like an animal, throwing big punches with impressive quickness (for his size). Against dangerous and durable opponents like Tyson and Tua however, he played it extremely safe. His "rumble" against Tua was probably the dullest heavyweight title fight I've personally watched.

Overall, taking into account the good and the bad, he was more exciting than a lot of heavyweights. The fact that he was one of a handful of men over 6'4" who had the right mix of championship qualities, and therefore was one of the few "superheavyweights" that actually delivered what was promised by promoters (Grant and Whittaker come to mind as examples of those who didnt) he has my respect.

As far as his personality is concerned, as well as his court room antics (suing Mike Tyson because Mike didn't want to get his ass kicked in an immediate rematch) he's probably my least favorite contemporary heavyweight.

Anyone who believes that a fighters attitude and personality don't have an effect on boxing fans' perception of said fighter are only kidding themselves.

i think lennox was a good fighter and a true champ. He did not kill boxing he ruled it. Dont blame lennox for dull fights as you can only fight whats in front of you. Which at his time was nothing more than amatures.

Boxing in general has vastly declined in the upper weight divisions. Lewis wasn´t always a boring fighter but his fights were b'c the guys he was defending the title against were not true championship calibre fighters (save a couple) . . .the division became truly horrible in the 90s and Lewis was the last guy who managed to rise above the garbage . .

The division became garbage in the 90's? Are you kidding me, it's the only division compared to the 70's and one of the most exciting at that.

Lewis
Tyson
Holyfield
Bowe
Morrison
Foreman
Holmes
Golota
Bruno
Ruddock
Moorer
Botha
Briggs
Tucker


All these fighters were top calibre at the time, and very exciting to watch.

the division became truly horrible in the 90s and Lewis was the last guy who managed to rise above the garbage . .

WTF are you talking about?

The division became garbage in the 90's? Are you kidding me, it's the only division compared to the 70's and one of the most exciting at that.

Lewis
Tyson
Holyfield
Bowe
Morrison
Foreman
Holmes
Golota
Bruno
Ruddock
Moorer
Botha
Briggs
Tucker


All these fighters were top calibre at the time, and very exciting to watch.

Tucker? He was a washed up coke fiend in the 90s.

I actually think the division was fairly strong from 1990-1998. Lewis ruled from 1998-2002, which we got contenders like

Shannon Briggs
Frans Botha
Hasim Rahman
Michael Grant
a shot Mike Tyson
an obese puncher named David Tua

Yes, in the late 90s through today, the division became truly awful into what it is today. Lewis ´reigned´ over a trule weak division.

Lewis is one of the best 4 heavyweights of all time. By leaving the sport, he killed the heavyweight division; he did, however, leave it open for my boys Rahman and Toney to take over.

How can 1 guy kill boxing?

The problem with Lennox Lewis was he wasn't a polarizing figure in the mold of say Ali or Tyson, nor a beloved one, like say Marciano, nor a sinister one, like Foreman I. He was a guy who was intelligent and pretty well-spoken, but when he talked trash he often came off as some sort of pissy prissy British schoolboy wannabe. As a result, no one really understood or related to him, much less loved/feared/loathed him. When you add the fact he was a non-American, his media quotient totaled to somewhere below zero.

I don't know if you can "blame" him for the decline of interest in the HW's, but he certainly didn't help it much either.

this thread is getting old

the heavy weight division
started loosing followers after the
Tyson Holyfield fiasco,
after that people started taking the division as a joke,
it didnt help that now days most of the true heavyweights
are soo slow and there is not a true champion.

that and the fact that there is absolutely no consistency whatsoever in the division. I think Chris Byrd actually has more straight wins than any of the other long-term heavyweights right now. That is sad.

that and the fact that there is absolutely no consistency whatsoever in the division. I think Chris Byrd actually has more straight wins than any of the other long-term heavyweights right now. That is sad.

Yeah the heavyweigths need
another Ali or Tyson