With the division in utter dispair I have come to miss the man that for a decade I absolutely hated. I still think he was a good heavyweight champ and not great but I think he had some qualities and skills that were better than almost all heavyweight champs before him.

1)His jab was amazing and he used it too control fights and protect himself from big punchers...who's jab was better in HW history...maybe LArry Holmes and thats it!

2)His beautiful right hand...not the right he kept throwing against VK, that was ugly...the right that I am talking about hit Rahman and ended him, it hit Ruddock and crippled him and it hit Botha and proped him up again to be hit yet again. When LL had his right working like he did against Tyson and many others he did not have to throw it visciously, he just threw it. In my mind it maybe the most devastating punch in HW history.

3)LL's Brain...many champs have a brain the size of a pea...but not Lennox, he is probably as smart as any HW champ ever. After the loss to McCall he listened to people around him and put on 20 pounds of muscle because he needed it and he could carry it well. I am a bit puzzled as to why on a few occassions he did enter fights out of shape but hey he is a human and it shows you that no matter how good you are if you don't train you can easily be beaten. If Riddick Bowe had LL's mind he may have gone a lot further in his career-too me there are not many HW boxers that hold a candle to LL in the brains department and I think that brain of his deserves a lot of credit for his success.

His chin will always be the deciding factor for me on his place in history, he fought scared against the worst of opponents and the best because he was always hiding the one glaring weakness that did bite him a couple times.

What are some other great attributes that set LL apart?

lmao lewis the smartest heavyweight ever? u got to be joking? who smiles and rahman then gets planted that aloen makes him a moron. vitali and ali r wayyyyyyyyyyyy smarter then lewis just look at the way vitali fights and its plain obvious. and im sure u r jokign when u say the lewis right hand is the best punch in heavyweight history i laugh at u sir and i think u desevre soem bad karma

How is Vitali smarter than Lewis? When Vitali has a resume that is even half of what Lewis' is then you can compare.

Lewis was very smart in the ring when he was on his game he was one of the best technical boxers the division had ever seen.

The only straight right hand I would put over Lewis is probably Joe Louis, but other than that there is really no one else.

I think what he meant is that when focused he's very smart. But it is a bit of a contradiction that he could be clever and still lose focus.

what does records have anythign to do with ring smarts? has vitali ever played or goofed off? no he hasnt

Vitali's most intelligent moment was when he faced his brother's conqueror, the fast-handed and hard-hitting Corrie Sanders. Vitali's brilliant plan was to stick his chin right in the air and leave his arms wide apart. A master stategist.

Thanks for the thread, Scap, it was a good read, which is rare on here these days. Maybe I'm spending too much time on this forum, but it'd be nice to read threads without morons (yes, sturm, this means you) flaming it all the time.

vitali has KO'd or TKO'd every oppenet he faced except timo hoffman and his 2 loses and with the way vitali boxs he breakes down his oppnets that sounds like a great technical boxer to me.

btw didnt lewis do the same thing agasint rahman in there first fight? can u tell me what happened? and didnt vitali become heavyweight champ of the world by doign that? what happened to lewis? he became a former champ hahahah

Vitali has KO'd or TKO'd every opponent he faced except Timo Hoffman and his 2 losses; and with the way vitali boxes, he breaks down his opponents. That sounds like a great technical boxer to me.

quoting me cause im right? why thank u

Btw didn't Lewis do the same thing against Rahman in their first fight? Can u tell me what happened - and didn't Vitali become heavyweight champ of the world by doing that? What happened to Lewis? He became a former champ! Ha ha ha

quoting me cause im right? why thank u
Spelling lesson.

i know :( why did u just quote me but not type anything? mockign me cause u think im in idiot?

I think what he meant is that when focused he's very smart. But it is a bit of a contradiction that he could be clever and still lose focus.

there iws no doubt that there is a bit of a contradiction in what I said...LEwis was a very smart fighter yet a couple of times he came into a fight a little to full of himself and a little to out of shape...

Im not willing to throw what I believe to be one of his biggest assests out the window because he looked past a couple of opponents...it has happened to just about every fighter that comes down the pike...

But make no mistake about it Lewis had brains and he used them for the most part very effectively.

Scap, I applaud you for trying to be balanced - i.e. starting a thread to debate why LL wasn't great but then recognizing that he did have some great qualities in this thread. Good one.

I agree that Lewis right hand and jab were great weapons. I also think that he was a smart fighter, and he moved very well for a big man. But when you get right down to it, I don't think any of his technical skills were exceptional in and of themselves - what set him apart was he had good skills and he was 6'5", 245. It may be quite a while before we see someone with that same combination of size and skill again.

i know :( why did u just quote me but not type anything? mockign me cause u think im in idiot?Nah, but you make your points less persuasive if you resort to abuse and bad punctuation.

Nah, but you make your points less persuasive if you resort to abuse and bad punctuation.


spellign shouldnt have anything to do with it lol ;) and may i ask how i make my points less persuasive?