Who can beat a prime Lennox Lewis?

[Benncollinsaad]

i remember some german guy with a mohawk...

a significantly smaller fighter than him & he almost beat lennox...

He was Croatian, Zeljko Mavrovich. Youre right, he did almost beat him. But he had not eaten properly before the fight and was weight drained so he couldn't hurt him enough. He had been so ****** to think macrobiotic food will help him beat Lewis!

[boxingbuff]

Most likely to beat him....

Muhammad Ali
Larry Holmes
Sonny Liston

Would probably beat him.....

Mike Tyson
George Forman
Joe Frazier

Have a 50/50 chance of beating him.......

Rid**** Bowe
Evander Holyfield
Joe Louis

[edgarg]

Lots of great heavyweight fighters from the past would have little trouble beating a prime Lennox Lewis, if Rahman & McCall could both put Lewis to sleep then Lewis against the greats of the past is quite easily sorted out.. The thing with Lennox Lewis is that he is idolized by British & Canadian fans, those fans are new to the sport of boxing and will claim that Lewis would beat almost any fighter in history even Muhammad Ali, they base their case on Lewis being "To Big" which is ridiculous... Through out his career Lewis was an oppotunist who never ever fought any of his opponents when that opponent was at the top of their game, Lewis always chose to fight fighters who had been exposed as "Not a Threat" and fighters who was on the downside of their careers..
Ruddock - Damaged Goods after 2 brutal beatings from Tyson
Tucker - recovering Junkie and shadow of former self
Butler - more defeats than wins on his record
Fortune - pathetic match-up
Jackson - Class C fighter unworthy of title fight
Bruno - on the slide and gave Lewis a lesson in jabbing & ringsmarts
Tua - Fattest man to ever fight for the title
Mavrovich - who?
Botha - Steroid abuser not worthy of title fight
Golota - Tranquilized by doctors in dressing room after taking panic attack
McCall - Only days out of Drug-Rehab and in no condition to box
Rahman - Bum unworthy of title shot yet poleaxes Lewis
Tyson - more than a decade past his best, shell of former great
Holyfield - Yrs past best and "Robbed" of decision in rematch
Grant - Exposed after being floored by Golota, undeserving of title shot
Morrison - HIV

All the above fighters was on the slide and chosen by Lewis so as to avoid all the top fighters who was at the top of their game from 92-2004 Lewis turned down fights with Rid**** Bowe in 93 & 95, Tyson in 96, Corrie Sanders in 96, Then undefeated WBO Champion Herbie Hide 94-96 Holmes in 93, Moorer in 95.. Lewis stood 1ins taller than Muhammad Ali with Ali fighting many fighters who measured up to Lewis in size and defeating them all as did Larry Holmes, Joe Louis, Dempsey & Marciano, if journeymen Rahman & McCall could put Lewis lights out then the ATGs would smash his lamp into a million pieces.. it is laughable to claim Lewis beats Foreman of 73 or Frazier of 67-71 when he struggled to beat an old Frank Bruno and was fortunate against Ray Mercer & an old Holyfield in their rematch.
Lennox Lewis was stripped of every version of the title for refusing to fight the No1 contenders in John Ruiz (WBA) Chris Byrd (IBF) Vitali Klitschko (WBC) with Lewis promising the boxing world he would face Vitali in a rematch yet dragging out his title reign for 18 months before announcing his retirement only days before he was due to be stripped... Lewis was also in the proccess of sueing Mike Tyson over Tyson not accepting their rematch clause even tho it was clear to every boxing fan worlwide that Mike Tyson was no longer a top flight fighter but a mere shell of the once great fighter he was 15yrs earlier... Lewis turned down the largest purse offer in pro sports history a staggering $35 million + PPV to fight newly crowned WBA champion and ex middleweight king Roy Jones jr.... regardless of who you think would have won that fight, Lennox Lewis never fancied his chances..... The above assesment of the oppotunist career of Lennox Lewis leaves a lot to be desired when the question is asked "How would Lewis do against the greats of the past" --- The answer is, Not very well

I think that this is the most succinct and well laid out set of reasons vis a vis Lennox Lewis. I have nothing to add, except that I fully agree with him. Lewis played the "advantage" game to it's fullest. Can anyone forget the hulking plodding fighter, hiding behind a protective rt hand poking out his left jab time after time after time......

And can anyone forget the way he fouled a victory over Michael Grant, by pulling his head down with one hand, and uppercutting with the other. You can see in other Lewis fights, that he does this often, sometimes for a few seconds, and sometimes more quickly, just for one or two uppercuts.

Assuming Lewis at his peak, andTyson at HIS peak. I think that Tyson would have half killed him. He had a very understated but excellent defence, was very fast, with devastating power and ACCURACY in both hands.

[edgarg]

Lots of great heavyweight fighters from the past would have little trouble beating a prime Lennox Lewis, if Rahman & McCall could both put Lewis to sleep then Lewis against the greats of the past is quite easily sorted out.. The thing with Lennox Lewis is that he is idolized by British & Canadian fans, those fans are new to the sport of boxing and will claim that Lewis would beat almost any fighter in history even Muhammad Ali, they base their case on Lewis being "To Big" which is ridiculous... Through out his career Lewis was an oppotunist who never ever fought any of his opponents when that opponent was at the top of their game, Lewis always chose to fight fighters who had been exposed as "Not a Threat" and fighters who was on the downside of their careers..
Ruddock - Damaged Goods after 2 brutal beatings from Tyson
Tucker - recovering Junkie and shadow of former self
Butler - more defeats than wins on his record
Fortune - pathetic match-up
Jackson - Class C fighter unworthy of title fight
Bruno - on the slide and gave Lewis a lesson in jabbing & ringsmarts
Tua - Fattest man to ever fight for the title
Mavrovich - who?
Botha - Steroid abuser not worthy of title fight
Golota - Tranquilized by doctors in dressing room after taking panic attack
McCall - Only days out of Drug-Rehab and in no condition to box
Rahman - Bum unworthy of title shot yet poleaxes Lewis
Tyson - more than a decade past his best, shell of former great
Holyfield - Yrs past best and "Robbed" of decision in rematch
Grant - Exposed after being floored by Golota, undeserving of title shot
Morrison - HIV

All the above fighters was on the slide and chosen by Lewis so as to avoid all the top fighters who was at the top of their game from 92-2004 Lewis turned down fights with Rid**** Bowe in 93 & 95, Tyson in 96, Corrie Sanders in 96, Then undefeated WBO Champion Herbie Hide 94-96 Holmes in 93, Moorer in 95.. Lewis stood 1ins taller than Muhammad Ali with Ali fighting many fighters who measured up to Lewis in size and defeating them all as did Larry Holmes, Joe Louis, Dempsey & Marciano, if journeymen Rahman & McCall could put Lewis lights out then the ATGs would smash his lamp into a million pieces.. it is laughable to claim Lewis beats Foreman of 73 or Frazier of 67-71 when he struggled to beat an old Frank Bruno and was fortunate against Ray Mercer & an old Holyfield in their rematch.
Lennox Lewis was stripped of every version of the title for refusing to fight the No1 contenders in John Ruiz (WBA) Chris Byrd (IBF) Vitali Klitschko (WBC) with Lewis promising the boxing world he would face Vitali in a rematch yet dragging out his title reign for 18 months before announcing his retirement only days before he was due to be stripped... Lewis was also in the proccess of sueing Mike Tyson over Tyson not accepting their rematch clause even tho it was clear to every boxing fan worlwide that Mike Tyson was no longer a top flight fighter but a mere shell of the once great fighter he was 15yrs earlier... Lewis turned down the largest purse offer in pro sports history a staggering $35 million + PPV to fight newly crowned WBA champion and ex middleweight king Roy Jones jr.... regardless of who you think would have won that fight, Lennox Lewis never fancied his chances..... The above assesment of the oppotunist career of Lennox Lewis leaves a lot to be desired when the question is asked "How would Lewis do against the greats of the past" --- The answer is, Not very well

It seems, when looked at, that several champions have undeserved "glory'.

MY favourite is Rocky Marciano, some of whose opponent almosyt had to be propped against the ropes , in case they fell over without being hit.

Not one live body in his whole career. The giveaway, apart from that, is to look at the opponents, HIS opponents fought before they fought Marciano You'll be shocked
Not to mention that Rocky was a solid well muscled man of 27-28, and a few of his best opponents, were only kids, tall, weedy, with good records against the most atrocious bunch of stiffs I've ever seen. OBVIOUSLY, built up to fight Marciano,. There must have been HUGE money won/lost on his fights.

You just have to see that, in his "famous" fights, against the "OVER-THE-HILL" gang [Savold, Walcott, Louis, Charles, Moore] they had so much regressed from their best, that they had come down to Rocky's level, and make competitive oponents.

And............consider that just about all the trainers, managers, some promoters (his anyway) were "connected". It was the Senate investigations as well as Cus D'Amato's hatred of them, which began the Mob loosening control.

[blacklodge]

I think there are potentially dozens of heavyweights who could beat Lewis. The locks in my opinion are
Ali (too fast, too greatest)
Holmes (try a chess match with Holmes? Good luck with that)
Liston (love to see those dreads rockin' after getting hit with Liston's jab all night)
Foreman (his cattle herding punches would be knocking the awkward Lewis all over the ring)
The too big arguement kind of washes away when you look at how Ray Mercer gave LL serious problems (and may have deserved the decision), and when Holyfield jabbed him, Holyfield controled the action. Just like all of Holyfileld's other losses to that point and a few afterward, he abandoned his underrated jab (and double and triple jab) and played to Lewis strengths. He could have turned all those Ls to Ws had he jabbed.
But, despite the criticisms of Lewis, and there are many, I still think he probably just creeps into the top 10 heavyweights. I think his opposition, while not outstanding by any means, is better than some of you are giving him credit for (calling McCall and Rahman "journeymen" is not accurate at all). Also, regardless of what was privately negotiated, the public display of Rid**** Bowe dumping the WBC belt in the garbage instead of defending against Lewis is more historically notable. I think they both ducked each other, personally.

[BEEHOP]

Definitley not Vitali Klitschko...


That's for sure.

[Adamantium]

Sonny Liston
Prime Tyson
Larry Holmes
Rid**** Bowe
Prime Holyfield

[nachorjj]

Ali
Fraizer
Foreman
Prime Tyson
and I give a litle chance Roy Jones Jr a very litle chance