Oliver McCall's fight with Oleg Maskaev was a joke,Maskaev shouldn't have been in the ring with him in the first place and Maskaev was nowhere near the rankings in the first place so the win doesn't mean anything
And he beat Akinwande in 2001,And considering this thread is related to the 1990's no such argument can be made
Which was the 1990's was it not? And he achieved notable victories and title wins throughout the decade
Only a few. His fight with Mercer can't really be called a believable victory. And he didn't fight a prime Holyfield. Or Tyson, but that happened in 2002. He was given the WBC title twice, first by Bowe then by Tyson. He did make many defences the second time, but mainly against second rate opposition. Golota was sedated with lydocaine when Lewis ko'd him. Thats why I don't like or respect Lewis, he was so damn LUCKY!
Lets take a look at the men he fought in his longest title reign. First of all, a mentally wrecked McCall. Then Akinwande, who was disqualified as you already mentioned and managed to put him down in the third round. Lewis did catch him with many good shots however. Then came the aforementioned Golota incident. Then Shannon Briggs. We all know Briggs was nothing but a big puncher. He had very little skill and no defence. And yet he had Lewis in big trouble in the first round, but didn't know how to finish him. Then came Mavrovic, who was on a macrobiotic diet (!) before the bout and fought at his lowest weight. He had a few good rounds in that fight, but was ultimately too weakened to make a real impact on Lewis.
And then the two Holyfield fights, the first one erroneously declared a draw and the second one erroneously declared a Lewis victory. So came Michael Grant, one of the most overhyped fighters ever. Then Botha, better boxer than Grant but too small and with terrible movement. And then Tua, who had a 8 inch height disadvantage but still managed to shake Lewis a couple times.
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