What is your opinion of Lennox Lewis?

[Joeyzagz]

Lewis could and should have been fighting the top fighters from 92-2003 like Tyson 96, Bowe 93 & 95, Holyfield 94-96, Holmes 92-94, Foreman 94-95, Moorer, Hide 94-96, Sanders 94-99, Witherspoon 94-96, Ruiz 97-03, Byrd 99-03, Jones Jr. Wlad 98-03... instead Lewis fought a bunch of has-beens and tomato cans with none of them being at the `Top of their Game`... you have now switched your argument to a age-related one so as to justify your pathetic analysis that Lewis should be rated a Top 10 fighter, you need to face up to the facts of this guys career and realize that you are in the very small minority of boxing fans who hold the guy in such high esteem

Lennox is a Jamaican, who was born in the UK, and grew up in Canada. Its difficult to sell a man without a country to the public and politics kept him out of a lot of big fights in the early to mid 90's.

The truth is that the networks wanted to broadcast Tyson, Foreman, Bowe, and Holyfield. Lennox was the 5th wheel of this American club and the main guy being ducked at this time. He was high risk and low reward, which is why King and Newman avoided him.

Im not going to argue "Top of their game" because its all subjective and you can alter the conditions as you please. Theres only like 3 or 4 elite fighters per era, BUT for them to be acceptable to you, they have to be the right age, never knocked out, never knocked down, a certain # of fights, a healthy diet, no jail time, cant be European, brushes teeth in the morning, etc etc etc. Catching these elite few at the exact prime moment of their careers is like catching lightning in a bottle. Its a ridiculous standard and you will realize that every fighter has something wrong with them if you look hard enough...

[sonnyboyx2]

Lennox is a Jamaican, who was born in the UK, and grew up in Canada. Its difficult to sell a man without a country to the public and politics kept him out of a lot of big fights in the early to mid 90's.

The truth is that the networks wanted to broadcast Tyson, Foreman, Bowe, and Holyfield. Lennox was the 5th wheel of this American club and the main guy being ducked at this time. He was high risk and low reward, which is why King and Newman avoided him.

Im not going to argue "Top of their game" because its all subjective and you can alter the conditions as you please. Theres only like 3 or 4 elite fighters per era, BUT for them to be acceptable to you, they have to be the right age, never knocked out, never knocked down, a certain # of fights, a healthy diet, no jail time, cant be European, brushes teeth in the morning, etc etc etc. Catching these elite few at the exact prime moment of their careers is like catching lightning in a bottle. Its a ridiculous standard and you will realize that every fighter has something wrong with them if you look hard enough...

Lennox is a British/Canadian who lives in Canada while masquerading as a rastafarian in Jamaica (which is his prerogative).. IMO no fighter between 91-2003 "Ducked" Lewis, it was Lennox who done ALL the "Ducking"..i say this because it is now common knowledge that Lewis was offered on many occasions a career highest purse to fight various opponents during that time and turned down every single offer, so to claim that the top fighters avoided Lewis is "Pot-Smoking thinking".

Lewis does not measure-up to other ATG Heavyweights in many criteria.
1/. Chin
2/. Quality opposition - prime 4 prime
3/. skills
4/. ring generalship
5/. Jab/footwork

Now we can discuss this criteria at anytime you wish but this topic is "Was he one of the greatest heavyweights of all time?

Was he overrated?

How does he go against the ATG's?

you have given your opinion of Top 3... which you are entitled to your opinion.

i have given my opinion " No14 ATG`...which i am entitled too

if you wish to discuss pros and cons of the Top ATG Heavyweights then start a thread and we can all debate it as boxing fans.

[The_Demon]

Lewis >>>>> Tyson,Bowe

[musiol]

^^^This is the main reason why I rank Lennox so high. Lennox was considered prime throughout his career but guys like Bowe burn out at 28? When you say a 28 year old is past his prime, something is clearly wrong.

What exactly made Bowe shot in your mind?

hatton and cotto

[CarlosG815]

i think he was the best heavyweight in the 90s but i think ali and foreman would have whipped him. frazier possibly but i think he hit harder than ali so maybe not, 80s tyson i would have loved to see but i think the what if 80s tyson thing is done to death so thats it. btw i think he would have lost a rematch to klits but i know he lost that first fight.

Lewis isn't beating any ATG's. Not Ali, Frazier, Bowe, Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield, etc.. in their prime.

[Obama]

It seems only British people bother over rating Lewis. Considering they also believe Joe Calzaghe is an ATG, it's to be expected.

[NChristo]

It seems only British people bother over rating Lewis. Considering they also believe Joe Calzaghe is an ATG, it's to be expected.

Hey hey come now, don't stereotype a whole country because a few people say silly things. .

I see what you mean though, on Sonnyboys info it says that he is from Britain / UK, hes one of the people who hugely over rate Lewis and think of him as the best HW ever.

(Obvious sarcasm).

[Obama]

Definitely not a few homie...most think Joe is an ATG. Most. Joe couldn't pull 10% in any other nation, much less 50%+.

[Joeyzagz]

Lennox is a British/Canadian who lives in Canada while masquerading as a rastafarian in Jamaica (which is his prerogative)..

^^^This more than anything else will hurt Lennox Lewis in the longterm. He was never considered a true Brit, never accepted as a Canadian, and obviously not American. He is a man without a country, therefore he can only rely on his record and actual fight footage while guys like Tyson and Dempsey can coast on their personality and romantic articles from their home countries.

My criteria for ranking heavyweights is Record, Opposition, and Longevity, in that order: I have Ali And Joe ranked #1 and 2 as most reasonable people do. Foreman is ranked high on my list for
being great past age 32, Marciano is ranked high on my list for
defeating everyone he ever faced. Lennox accomplished both of these things, and has more title defenses than both guys put together.

The cherry on top is Lennox surviving the dominant champ of the next era....Marciano never fought Patterson or Liston, Liston lost to Ali, Ali lost to Holmes, Holmes lost to Tyson, etc etc. What Lennox was able to do to Vitali, becomes more amazing everyday as none of the current contenders have been able to hit Vitali flush as consistently as Lennox did at age 37.

Lennox is also the last true undisputed Heavyweight champion, I can go on and on, but it all boils down to your personal criteria in the end. No two posters will weight criteria exactly the same. Lennox is #3 on my list, I imagine yours is different, but thats what makes this site interesting.

[sonnyboyx2]

^^^This more than anything else will hurt Lennox Lewis in the longterm. He was never considered a true Brit, never accepted as a Canadian, and obviously not American. He is a man without a country, therefore he can only rely on his record and actual fight footage while guys like Tyson and Dempsey can coast on their personality and romantic articles from their home countries.

My criteria for ranking heavyweights is Record, Opposition, and Longevity, in that order: I have Ali And Joe ranked #1 and 2 as most reasonable people do. Foreman is ranked high on my list for
being great past age 32, Marciano is ranked high on my list for
defeating everyone he ever faced. Lennox accomplished both of these things, and has more title defenses than both guys put together.

The cherry on top is Lennox surviving the dominant champ of the next era....Marciano never fought Patterson or Liston, Liston lost to Ali, Ali lost to Holmes, Holmes lost to Tyson, etc etc. What Lennox was able to do to Vitali, becomes more amazing everyday as none of the current contenders have been able to hit Vitali flush as consistently as Lennox did at age 37.

Lennox is also the last true undisputed Heavyweight champion, I can go on and on, but it all boils down to your personal criteria in the end. No two posters will weight criteria exactly the same. Lennox is #3 on my list, I imagine yours is different, but thats what makes this site interesting.

you live in a `fairytale world` reciting captions from Emanuel Stewart & Lennox Lewis.. "a man without a country" etc .... Lewis is a Canadian which is were he lives now and has done since he was 12yrs of age.

you say you rank a fighter on `Record, Opposition, and Longevity, in that order: yet Lewis record consists of tomato cans, has-beens, journeymen and 2 former champions who was more than a decade past their best you simply cannot claim it to be any other way.

Lewis longevity lasted all of one fight as undisputed champion and the vast majority of ringside reporters thought that Lewis was a very fortunate winner, that fight was his return fight with Holyfield.. Lewis then refused to fight the No1 contenders so was stripped of every version of that title over the next 3yrs... or we can look at Lewis taking a belt out of the garbage can back in 93 then losing it to a journeymen in 2rds.... Lewis was never ever a dominant undisputed champion like Dempsey, Frazier, Ali, Louis, Johnson, Marciano, Bowe or Liston because as i said above Lewis was stripped of his undisputed title after refusing to fight the top contenders which is why Lewis can never ever be ranked as an ATG heavyweight..

Why is it that what i have stated you cannot seem to accept about it yet you never address what i say, you never address the fact that he was stripped of those belts, you never address the fact that he turned down career highest paydays against all the top fighters in the 1990s.. all you ever do is come out with this idiotic claim that he defeated ever man he got in the ring with, yet so did Calzaghe and it is universally agreed that Calzaghe fought virtually mo-one of worth throughout his entire career just like Sven Otke .... yet you have the gaul to rubbish the careers of every ATG heavyweight in history and insist that they would be easy fights for Lennox Lewis the same Lewis who was `wiped-out` by two mediocre journeymen

i am finished debating with you as i feel you are a fantasist who is completely deluded