What is your opinion of Lennox Lewis?

[Dynamite Kid]

I dont get how anyone could think Lewis is Canadian, sure if he was born in Britain, then moved to Canada at an early age, say 2/3, then you could make a case, but the guy was born, and! raised in Britain till the age of 12 or 13, he was born in a British hospital, has a British birth certificate, learned to read and write in Britain etc etc, where he chooses to live now!, is irrelevant imo.

You dont choose your nationality, it chooses you.

[Chex31]

apart from his KO losses, Lewis didnt take much punishment in his career. true lasting damage doesnt generally come from one punch KOs on the chin, they come from accumulative damage. The only one punch KOs that have dangerous lasting effects is when the punch snaps the neck very badly, resulting in the brain getting whipped around in the skull. On the chin(Lewis's KO losses) sort of just 'turn out the lights', you can get over it relatively quickly.
Lewis really didnt absorb much accumulative damage in his career other than a handful of fights, so he was well preserved.

Tyson probably took more damage in the Holyfield and Douglas fights than Lewis did in his losses+the Mercer fight, but overall his problem wasnt really accumulated damage, more a change in his boxing lifestyle. after all, he was still a young fighter at his best, and unless young fighters immerse themselves in training, it wont come naturally to them in the fight due to lack of experience. Tyson was starting to go downhill about after he split with Rooney imo, not because Rooney was a legendary trainer or anything, but more because it showed that Tyson wasnt making boxing his #1 priority anymore. Rooney wasnt that great, but he did keep Tyson focused, and reinforced what Cus had built Tyson upon.

...right. point is, that Tyson's fall was much more do to lack of motivation, concentration and uneffective training style than age or damage. his life did get pretty hectic over the years, after all.

This, Lewis didnt really take any punishment in his career.
So he aged better then Bowe and Tyson who were in wars


Age doesn't really mean much when it comes to ones prime

[Joeyzagz]

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

Record
By record I mean Win/loss ratio and avenged losses. Gene Tunney, Marciano, Joe Louis, Ali and Lennox all have good heavyweight records. Tyson who never avenged a single defeat, most notably against fluke champ Douglas, has a not-so-good record.

Belts
There are more than 4 belts out there, and with the politics of boxing it is extremely difficult for one man to grab all of the major belts. Lennox held on to 3 of the 4 belts(WBC/IBF/IBO) for 3 years, and decided to take on the more exciting David Tua 37-1 (ranked #1 challenger overall in 2000), over the wba challenger John Ruiz who had 3 losses including a KO to David Tua.

I wont fault a 36 year old man for not chasing the different contenders of each sanctioning body. The fact is, Lennox was the first to unite the WBA/WBC/IBF in 7 years! A major accomplishment. No one has unified them since 1999, and as of today they are worn by 3 separate individuals.

[Joeyzagz]

The 1920's supported Dempsey's ducking of black fighters, 4 round contests and 3 year vacations where he got to keep his belt. Thats why Dempsey was not stripped.

[GJC]

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.

Always been my view of Lewis, I felt that his conversion to Englishness when he turned pro was borne of convenience rather than any patriotism.
Don't think I am alone in that amongst English people he certainly didn't inspire the support and affection that Bruno did.

[frankenfrank]

i think lewis was a great fighter but his losses really hurt him.they way he lost suggest there are alot of heavys who wouldve put him away.he also fought well past it versions of mike and evander,and really missed out on fighting the best americans.i think his best win was mercer but that win he got is arguable

The same can be said about everyone .
Without the Maskaev Losses , Rahman would have made my top20.

[frankenfrank]

the best wins over Lewis' career are Vitali, Holyfield and Golota imo. I mean, Golota was coming off his destruction of Bowe.

Without Golotta fouling , Bowe would have destroyed him in their fights.

although he had some bad losses, he did dominately avenge them not long after.

McCall was in no state to fight in their rematch. A drug test would have made
it NC as it should have been.

his win over a prime Vitali pretty much seals the deal to me that he is probably the 5th or so best heavyweight of all time, imo. Vitali went on to take over the division, and even today at an old age is owning the division alongside Wladimir.

those top wins plus his other respectable wins like Ruddock, Tucker, Mercer, Tua, Morrison, Bruno and Tyson cement him in my mind as one of the best heavyweights ever. top ten, at least.

The win over Vitaly is not a big win as it was by cuts , and lacked a rematch.

[frankenfrank]

Is it true that Lewis lost to Tim Littles in the amateurs ? or maybe it was another T. Littles ? geocities is gone now and I am not even sure I saw it there.

[Toney616]

Without Golotta fouling , Bowe would have destroyed him in their fights.

I have to disagree with this, Golota fought the fight of his life in both of his fights with Bowe. He was clearly ahead on the scorecards when he decided to foul his way to a loss both times.

McCall was in no state to fight in their rematch. A drug test would have made
it NC as it should have been.

True

The win over Vitaly is not a big win as it was by cuts , and lacked a rematch.

It is still a great win, you cant hold it against him because of how it ended. I also would of liked to see a rematch but things didnt play out that way unfortunately.

[Joeyzagz]

McCall was in no state to fight in their rematch. A drug test would have made it NC as it should have been.

Drug test was done, as it is for every fight and it came out negative. Mccal was frustrated after round 2 because Lennox wasnt lunging in like he did in their first fight and mccall tried to imitate the rope-a-dope to lure him in. Mccall basically quit when he realized he couldnt win just like Akinwande would do to Lennox a couple of years later.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/09/sp...e-actions.html

i think lewis was a great fighter but his losses really hurt him.they way he lost suggest there are alot of heavys who wouldve put him away.

Over 90% of the ATGs lost to another fighter and was never able to recover, Lennox is one of the elite few who defeated everyone he ever faced, and considering the huge guys he fought and their variety of skill sets, he has a decent chance beating the majority of ATGs.

There is only one guy Id be weary about Lennox facing, and its not who you think....