Lewis as an amateur won Olympic gold defeating Riddick Bowe in the final.
As a pro Lewis was British, European and Commonwealth Champion. 3 times World HW champion. Two times World Linear Champion.
Lewis retired with a 41-2-1 (32) record, having defeated every fighter he faced.
Lennox has one of the greatest records for any HW in history.
How highly do you regard the East London Assasin?
HOF? ATG? Top 5 all time HW?
Watch that sixth round again.
Look at how tired Vitali was, how wide his mouth was, how much he was holding, how many of his punches were just arm punches.
Then look at the uppercut Lewis landed about 50 seconds into the round, the overhand right hand he landed the last 20 seconds, the way Vitali had to hold on for the remainder of the round, and the uppercut Lewis landed right before the bell.
lol,,,,the never ending vitali/lewis debacle. lewis did have a very good last round and was coming on strong and hurt vitali but he looked like he blew his wad in the process as the round ended. both fighters were dead tired and slumped onto there stools. I think both guys were very vulnerable to being ko'd in the next couple rounds had it not been stopped. lewis won fair and square tho and cemented his place as an atg. hes easily top 10 imo
He beat Holyfield convincingly
He only JUST beat MErcer.
The decision to stop the fight and award it to Lennox was a necessary decision BUT Vitali most definitely kicked his ass! And Lennox knew there was no way he could beat him in a rematch.
Watch that sixth round again.
Look at how tired Vitali was, how wide his mouth was, how much he was holding, how many of his punches were just arm punches.
Then look at the uppercut Lewis landed about 50 seconds into the round, the overhand right hand he landed the last 20 seconds, the way Vitali had to hold on for the remainder of the round, and the uppercut Lewis landed right before the bell.
Lewis was a Lion a ferocious champion and a born winner. Lewis, Tyson are the last true greats I intended to add Holyfield as he has a fantastic resume and he whupped Tyson but that man was a steroid cheat.
For a heavyweight? He absolutely was.
A lot of people seem to forget we are talking about heavyweights here. Actually I think with Lewis he had a problem with his legacy which we can call the George Bernard Shaw syndrome....Shaw famoulsy claimed the phrase via shakespear, that "youth is wasted on the young." A young Lewis fighting against the likes of Ruddock was indeed a pretty fair mover! later on a calculating, smart, efficient Lewis was quite adept at defending against the best of Briggs, sans the movement skills a young Lewis displayed! If you took all versions of this Lewis....the young athletic version, along with the older smarter version...Lewis was fantastic! He was fantastic anyway, he could always punch in combos, and always had good sense in the ring.
For a big man he always managed to fight at a good pace. I think his losses can be attributed to "tripping" i.e. not being able to start moving athletically at the beginning of the fight. He got caught by guys who could punch and get in quickly. Also his lack of aggression may have been attributable to the later version of Lewis pacing himself.
I evaluate every boxer without bias.
And I can assure you there is scarcely any HW with a resume anywhere nearly as good as Lewis's.
Unless of course you are rating bums and cruisers higher than unbeaten mountains of muscle like Grant and Golota, or dangerous opponents like Tyson etc. in which case I would call you a moron!
You could say I am biased against cruisers padding HW records
You could say I am biased against bums.
No you don't evaluate anything without bias junior....But just like a broken clock is right twice a day, there is in fact an element of truth to your feelings about Lennox Lewis. Many of the fighters he faced, prior to facing Lewis were in fact considered to be very strong contenders. Lewis exposed them. This was the case not only with Golata, Grant and Briggs but was very evident in opinions at the time regarding Razor Rudock.
It does in the heavyweight division! Can you think of a heavyweight with whatwould be considered a great Ko percentage who did so wearing opponent's down? I doubt it (I could be wrong on this).
I do think that the level of comp faced here is meaningful, i.e. Vitali kayooing a bunch of c level fighters is a relevant point, but Vitali does have a good punch.
Lewis does not have the movement and finesse of guys like Tyson and Hollyfield, but...he uses his size well and defends well. Watch him defend against Briggs for example...He was horrendous against Klitschko because he trained for shizzle to fight a scrub and took the fight at the last minute. I should clarify this last point: he was planing on fighting Kirk Johnson a feather fisted canuck with less head movement than a statue and a fat little physique....and wound up fighting Vitali
And still managed to win. Great fighter, that Lewis.
ko percentage doesn't mean you are a big puncher. calzaghe had a high ko percentage. fighting out of shape opponents plus having a style that consists of throwing a lot of slappy punches is a recipe for getting a lot of stoppages but getting stoppages and having power are 2 different things.
It does in the heavyweight division! Can you think of a heavyweight with whatwould be considered a great Ko percentage who did so wearing opponent's down? I doubt it (I could be wrong on this).
I do think that the level of comp faced here is meaningful, i.e. Vitali kayooing a bunch of c level fighters is a relevant point, but Vitali does have a good punch.
Lewis does not have the movement and finesse of guys like Tyson and Hollyfield, but...he uses his size well and defends well. Watch him defend against Briggs for example...He was horrendous against Klitschko because he trained for shizzle to fight a scrub and took the fight at the last minute. I should clarify this last point: he was planing on fighting Kirk Johnson a feather fisted canuck with less head movement than a statue and a fat little physique....and wound up fighting Vitali
He's probably a top 10 ATG in the division. I'd assume he is, but don't want to say I'm certain without actually looking.
H2H he's about as dangerous as there is. I doubt any HW can beat him easily, and he'd have a good chance against anyone.
Lennox is the strongest HW of all time. His resume isn't as stellar as you would assume normally, but he built himself a fine legacy. H2H he takes just about anybody, any day of the week.
in my opinion ali would have made a fool of him, too fast the footspeed and movement would outclass him , lewis looked good against some mediocre heavyweights but no one of real class , he also had fights where he looked very bad slow and lumbering with a suspect chin, an over the hill frank Bruno was even outboxing him at the beginning of there fight, just my opinion everyones entitled to a different one.
It wasn't.
He didn't.
He didn't.
He beat Holyfield convincingly
He only JUST beat MErcer.
The decision to stop the fight and award it to Lennox was a necessary decision BUT Vitali most definitely kicked his ass! And Lennox knew there was no way he could beat him in a rematch.
I may be in the minority but I never thought to highly of him, his jab wasn't exceptionally fast his footwork wasn't very nimble hes top 20 hw at best , if you listened to the british comentary when he fought it was terrible biased crap ,who did he fight in there prime ? holyfield rematch I thought was close enough that he could have lost , Tyson ? he was finished years before that fight , mercer also beat him, vitali kicked his ass and lewis was lucky the cut stopped the fight ,he was also an arrogant prick during the in ring interview after the vitali fight ,he was also a dirty sob his habit of holding behind the head and hitting as per grant fight was filthy, and the age old theory that greats dont get one punch koed by 2 journeymen fighters is relavent , it would be like ali getting one punched koed by wepner or dunn
Only Louis and Ali are greater
But no one fighter was better than Lennox Lewis. He could Box, move, knock you out, and if he made a mistake, hed beat u in the rematch. Simply the best.
l dont think lennox was that good a combination or body puncher but I agree with the rest. top 10 easily imo
It's HW boxing.
You don't need to be a body puncher OR combination puncher for success, you only need to do a few things well.
Only in lower divisions do you need a complete package.