Is Lennox Lewis The Greatest HW Of All Time?

[Steak]

It's kind of funny when people use the 'he only beat lousy old men' argument while defending Lennox Lewis whose two best wins come over lousy old men, Holyfield and Tyson.

And you do know that the heavyweight limit in Johnson's time was 175 lbs, don't start comparing the heavyweights of that day to the heavyweights of today. It's all about achievements and both Lewis and Johnson had plenty of them.

I put both Johnson and Lewis in the top 5, both are atleast top 10.

Tyson and Holyfield were both in better shape then Jeffries, who had been out of boxing for like what,....6 years or something?

and why not compare heavyweights of today to heavyweights of before? If you have a crap heavyweight division in one era, the ruler of that division isnt going to get a lot of credit. If most the Heavyweight challengers of the day arent even bigger than super middleweights, I wouldnt consider it an incredibly strong division.

Lennox was beating up guys like Bruno, Ruddock, Holyfield, Tyson, Morrison, Tucker, McCall, Golota, Tua and more and retired having beaten everyone he had ever faced.
Jack Johnson fought 170lbers, a long retired Jeffries, Fireman Flynn, and some bum that somehow got a title shot named Frank Moran. the only guy that looks like he was any good was Al Kaufman. then Jack loses to an extremely uncoordinated Jess Willard who gets blown away by Dempsey. he was the only healthy big guy fighting in a smaller people's division

[robjr]

I have read a lot of your posts, and you my friend, know nothing about boxing.

other way around..

[TheGreatA]

Tyson and Holyfield were both in better shape then Jeffries, who had been out of boxing for like what,....6 years or something?

and why not compare heavyweights of today to heavyweights of before? If you have a crap heavyweight division in one era, the ruler of that division isnt going to get a lot of credit. If most the Heavyweight challengers of the day arent even bigger than super middleweights, I wouldnt consider it an incredibly strong division.

Lennox was beating up guys like Bruno, Ruddock, Holyfield, Tyson, Morrison, Tucker, McCall, Golota, Tua and more and retired having beaten everyone he had ever faced.
Jack Johnson fought 170lbers, a long retired Jeffries, Fireman Flynn, and some bum that somehow got a title shot named Frank Moran. the only guy that looks like he was any good was Al Kaufman. then Jack loses to an extremely uncoordinated Jess Willard who gets blown away by Dempsey. he was the only healthy big guy fighting in a smaller people's division

What you don't understand is that even the biggest heavyweights of that era were something like 200 pounds, there were some very big guys like Willard and later Carnera but those two were expections.

'The Galveston Giant' Jack Johnson at 205-210 lbs was a big heavyweight back in the day just like Lewis at 230-250 lbs was in this day. They both fought similar sized competition too but mostly fighters who they fought were smaller than they were.

Jeffries was totally past his best I agree but Tyson (36, 235 lbs, in his prime 215 lbs) and Holyfield (37, 215 lbs) were both old and much smaller than Lewis and you criticize Johnson for fighting smaller and older guys.

You have to put it into perspective and not really compare fighters of that era head to head but compare their achievements. Johnson had a 7 year reign as the world champion, he beat all of the eras best (whether they were too old or small in your opinion) and he had a huge impact on the sport

When Johnson finally lost to the much bigger Willard he was 37, 20 lbs heavier than in his prime and hadn't fought very actively in 5 years (except the occasional title defense or two). Johnson also outboxed Willard for 26 rounds until he was finally fatigued enough for Willard to land the KO punch. Johnson didn't lose another match until he was 48.
He went unbeaten for 10 years from 1905 to 1915.

That has to count for something.

I rate both Lewis and Johnson as top 5 heavyweights.

[McGoorty]

A lot of people highly rate Lewis.
And when it comes to head to head fights, a lot think he would beat Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Bowe ,Holyfield AND Tyson.

Does that make him the best heavyweight of all time.
At 6'5 and 240 pds, formidable strength, power, boxer and thinker.
Whats your verdict?

No LENNOX is'nt the best ever but I think he's the best ever over 6ft. 5in.,.... There should be 3 classes of heavyweights, CRUISER, HEAVY and MASTODON, it's not fair to compare small men to big men, after all an Elephant would win a fight with ANY boxer by FIRST ROUND KAYO. GENE TUNNEY was really a Cruiserweight.