Ranking Floyd Patterson Above Lennox Lewis, Can It Be Justified?

[Kid McCoy]

you keep asking how patterson would do against Lewis opponents but refused to answer when i asked how Lewis would do against Ali & Liston... LOL

When I first brought that up you complained it wasn't a proper way of judging fighters. You could at least be consistent. I think Lewis would last more than two minutes with Liston and he'd give Ali a harder fight than Patterson did.

You didn't answer my question: when was the last time a fighter Floyd Patterson's size dominated the heavyweight division? Was he named Floyd Patterson?

You keep going on about Lewis being stripped of the title, yet flagrantly ignore Patterson not facing his top contenders. Worse still, you even tried to pass off those guys as more deserving. Floyd just didn't have an ABC board to strip him like Lewis was.

Lewis better than Patterson? Has better wins (and more of them) despite being avoided by several of the 90s champs, was the best heavyweight of his career and would win if they fought. The same boxing experts who you cited to prove Robinson was greater than Langford even agree with me...

[sonnyboyx2]

When I first brought that up you complained it wasn't a proper way of judging fighters. You could at least be consistent. I think Lewis would last more than two minutes with Liston and he'd give Ali a harder fight than Patterson did.

You didn't answer my question: when was the last time a fighter Floyd Patterson's size dominated the heavyweight division? Was he named Floyd Patterson?

You keep going on about Lewis being stripped of the title, yet flagrantly ignore Patterson not facing his top contenders. Worse still, you even tried to pass off those guys as more deserving. Floyd just didn't have an ABC board to strip him like Lewis was.

Lewis better than Patterson? Has better wins (and more of them) despite being avoided by several of the 90s champs, was the best heavyweight of his career and would win if they fought. The same boxing experts who you cited to prove Robinson was greater than Langford even agree with me...

what is this your 24th post on the topic and still no case made for Lewis

answer my question yes or no... do you think lewis would beat Liston & Ali

Robinson is far greater in every single aspect of the sport than Langford and to claim otherwise is kidding yourself

[sonnyboyx2]

Lewis only ever fought shot fighters, fighters who was years past their best, drug-addicts, steroid freaks and two fighters who was at the top of their game and both poleaxed Lewis... i will never forget the night Lewis brother had to help him down the ring steps at Wembley arena in 94 tears rolling down Lewis face and Lewis saying,"What happened, what happened"...Lewis was a bag of duff

[Scott9945]

yeah like he did against McCall & Rahman the only 2 fighters he ever faced who was at the top of their game yet still no more than journeymen... huge question marks over all Lewis opponents Tyson, Tua, Tucker, Akinwande, Briggs, Botha, Golota, Morrison i dont have to spell it out you already know what was wrong with them.. check boxrec your No1 site it may tell you on there. LOL

You are so ridiculously and irrationally biased there is no point in trying to reason with you. You can make "question marks" over almost anyone. I'm sure if I asked you what the issue with Morrison, you would bring up that he had HIV or something irrelevant like that. Huge question marks over Akinwande? Really? How about giving equal scrutiny to fraud contenders like Roy Harris, Pete Rademacher, etc?

Box-rec is a good quick reference to verify fights and dates. You can be certain that I have been a fan many years before the site even existed. Unfortunately at this point in my life I don't have the luxury of reviewing old fights just to win a boxing forum debate. I'm left to depend on facts, memory, and common sense. You'd do well to apply the last one to your rants more often.

[Kid McCoy]

what is this your 24th post on the topic and still no case made for Lewis

answer my question yes or no... do you think lewis would beat Liston & Ali

Robinson is far greater in every single aspect of the sport than Langford and to claim otherwise is kidding yourself

I've made my case and I answered your question pages back. It's obvious you only believe what fits with your preconceptions, one of which is an obvious dislike of Lewis, and you never let silly things like facts or objectivity get in the way. Who else could:

Rave about Phil Jackson and Lionel Butler but defend Patterson's fights with Rademacher, McNeeley and London.

Call Lewis out for who he ducked (even if he didn't) whilst pretending that Patterson did not avoid Machen and Folley.

Complain about Lewis fighting journeymen and then say he should have fought Herbie Hide and Lamon Brewster.

Rag on Lewis for facing old fighters like Tyson and Holyfield and simultaneously claim he should have faced even older fighters like Foreman, Witherspoon and Bonecrusher (strange you don't think Archie Moore was "old" at 43).

Think Lewis vacating his belt is ducking but Tyson and Bowe doing the same is not.

Claim Ruiz got to the WBA #1 position on merit.

[katsidis]

I can't believe people even have a case for Floyd in this argument.

[StarshipTrooper]

I can't believe people even have a case for Floyd in this argument.

I think part of the issue was early in the thread Patterson was kind of being dismissed as a bum (intimated in anycase). People were making it sound like Patterson didn't belong in the ring with Lewis which is just wrong. Was Patterson an ATG? No, but he was hardly a bum.....a near-great is appropriate which isn't exactly chump change. I'm thinking there's too much of an all-or-nothing mentality around here ie either you're an ATG or you're a bum, either you have one-punch KO power or you can't hit at all, ect. ect. ect.

Poet

[katsidis]

I think part of the issue was early in the thread Patterson was kind of being dismissed as a bum (intimated in anycase). People were making it sound like Patterson didn't belong in the ring with Lewis which is just wrong. Was Patterson an ATG? No, but he was hardly a bum.....a near-great is appropriate which isn't exactly chump change. I'm thinking there's too much of an all-or-nothing mentality around here ie either you're an ATG or you're a bum, either you have one-punch KO power or you can't hit at all, ect. ect. ect.

Poet

I get what your saying about the near great status etc. For me the deciding factor is that Patterson is not an ATG, Lewis is (atleast in my opinion anyway).

Also I agree with the "all or nothing" bit aswell. For example people now say that Vitali Klitschko Who has an 88.37 ko% cannot punch just because the referee didn't stop the fight against Briggs. People change their opinions of fighters too easily as well.

[StarshipTrooper]

I get what your saying about the near great status etc. For me the deciding factor is that Patterson is not an ATG, Lewis is (atleast in my opinion anyway).

Also I agree with the "all or nothing" bit aswell. For example people now say that Vitali Klitschko Who has an 88.37 ko% cannot punch just because the referee didn't stop the fight against Briggs. People change their opinions of fighters too easily as well.

I have Lewis ranked a near-great as well, rather than as an ATG. I do have him ranked higher than Patterson but not by as much as people are making the difference out to be.

I think it's pretty clear Vitali doesn't have one-punch KO power but that doesn't mean he's featherfisted. He's probably one rung below one-punch power as his KOs are coming mostly from accumulated punishment and opponents running up a white flag late in fights rather than by punches that put his opponents lights out. It's ludicrous to say he can't punch though: That's the all-or-nothing mentality speaking.

Poet

[katsidis]

I have Lewis ranked a near-great as well, rather than as an ATG. I do have him ranked higher than Patterson but not by as much as people are making the difference out to be.

I think it's pretty clear Vitali doesn't have one-punch KO power but that doesn't mean he's featherfisted. He's probably one rung below one-punch power as his KOs are coming mostly from accumulated punishment and opponents running up a white flag late in fights rather than by punches that put his opponents lights out. It's ludicrous to say he can't punch though: That's the all-or-nothing mentality speaking.

Poet

I consider Lewis to be ATG and if I had to make a list he would probably be top 5 but I'm not gonna lie, I love lennox lewis and that makes me a bit bias.