is Lennox Lewis overrated on boxing forums

[billeau2]

grant was considered a bigger and more dangerous opponent for lewis than ruiz without a doubt but that golota fight kinda hurt the perception of grant as having much of a chance against lewis imo from what I remember. grant was decked in the 2nd round and looked out of it but mr mental midget golota did what he does best when grant wouldnt stay down. he quit after taking some descent shots instead of toughing it out. grant showed heart in that fight but it defintely didnt make his chances of upsetting lewis look very good considering the number lennox did on golota in one round. I remember feeling sure that lennox would finish what golota couldnt do. it was a fairly big fight tho but I honestly dont believe many people who know boxing thought grant had much of a chance

In those days the general public in America was much more involved, aside from the Latin community the public could not be characterized as generally being very knowledgable about boxing. The general perception, sans knowledgable people, was that Grant was going to teach Lewis a lesson. The best indicator for this fight would probably be the odds....I don't remember them but I would luv to have a look at them.

[LacedUp]

Co-sign.


Well I've just read them (fairly quickly), but couldn't find anything supporting your claim. Maybe you'd be so kind as to direct me to the relevant article?

It said in one of the articles that Akinwande was the mandatory. Also it was over that Lewis was taken to court in the first place.

It says although Lewis had agreed to fulfill has mandatory after Grant, that was not accepted by King who demanded Lewis be stripped for not fulfilling his contractual agreement - or something like that.

I'm on my phone so can't be bothered checking. But that's how it was. There's no sensible argument from any angle that Lewis ducked Ruiz or Byrd to take on 1) the #2 official contender - 6'7 undefeated 250lb power puncher or 2) giving up his belt to fight Mike Tyson - the fight EVERYONE was asking for.

Remember, Lewis stated Tyson would probably be his last fight also.

[billeau2]

Grant was down twice in the first round against Golota. The fight proved Grant was a hype-job. Lewis sat ringside and could see first hand that he had nothing to beat fighting Grant. The bottom line is Lewis ducked John Ruiz & Chris Byrd when they was at "The top of their Game"... Both Ruiz & Byrd are superior fighters in every way than what Rahman & McCall are, who both poleaxed Lewis..A boxer sets out as a professional, to reach the very top of his profession. Which is to win the world championship. What Lennox Lewis done, was deny Ruiz & Byrd their rightful opportunity to reach the very top of their profession. The only reason that can be rightfully leveled at why Lennox Lewis done that, is that he simply did not fancy the job. He was not confident he could beat those two fighters. To claim the boxing world was demanding Lewis fight Michael Grant is fanciful, it's ridiculous. Throughout boxing history fight fans have always wanted to see "The Best fight The Best" which is the Champion fight his No1 contender.This is why we have Mandatory challengers. Lewis tried and succeeded in belittling John Ruiz & Chris Byrd. He belittled him by calling him, Johnny Louise`. But Ruiz & Byrd proved completely the opposite. They went on to be Champions and beat top fighters, beating them far easier than how Lennox Lewis beat those same fighters (if Lewis actually beat them at all). Lewis and his team knew how good Ruiz & Byrd were, they knew how difficult fights against those two No1 contenders would be. So they dumped the championship belts and fought two exposed bums instead. Lewis abrogated his responsibility as champion!

So Golata also exposed Bowe? First of all back then Golata was crackin. And if Lewis was looking for easy pickins why did he subsequently fight Golata? So the dynamic duo of byrd and ruiz was more compelling than that of grant and golata?

[LacedUp]

So Golata also exposed Bowe? First of all back then Golata was crackin. And if Lewis was looking for easy pickins why did he subsequently fight Golata? So the dynamic duo of byrd and ruiz was more compelling than that of grant and golata?

It's simply idiotic.

He's already been exposed in this and other threads.

[IronDanHamza]

"Top of their game"

You've proven that you don't Know anything about the situation or boxing in general.

Why keep making yourself look bad?

And yeah, we all know the mandatory challengers are always the best. Especially since Ruiz wasn't even ranked in any credible top 10 ranking in 2000 other than WBAs crooked rankings who also had 'King' Henri Akinwande as their original mandatory.

Hey, don't go bad mouthing "Prime Akinwande"!!

[KnockoutNed]

We are still waiting on Sonny to substantiate his claim that Ruiz was getting the better of Lewis in sparring.

I've already posted a link that indicates that all he did in those sparring sessions was run and hold.

[K-DOGG]

I really don't know how anyone can overrated Lennox Lewis. He was ducked by virtually everybody on the way up, in particular, Rid**** Bowe and Mike Tyson, as there is evidence of this: Bowe trashing the WBC belt when Lennox was the mandatory and Tyson facing Bruce Seldon for the WBA belt rather than face Lewis to make his mandatory defense.

Lewis beat every viable contender available with the exception of Ruiz and Byrd, of which neither would have been a draw and, quite likely, both would have been defeated rather handily.

He fought and defeated the best in arguably the second best era in heavyweight history.

If anything, he is usually characteristically vastly underrated in spite of all of his accomplishments.

[sonnyboyx2]

We are still waiting on Sonny to substantiate his claim that Ruiz was getting the better of Lewis in sparring.

I've already posted a link that indicates that all he did in those sparring sessions was run and hold.

i have already told you were to go look...maybe you could answer all those questions i asked of you which you avoided... like how come Lewis was poleaxed by two journeymen in McCall & Rahman??

[sonnyboyx2]

So Golata also exposed Bowe? First of all back then Golata was crackin. And if Lewis was looking for easy pickins why did he subsequently fight Golata? So the dynamic duo of byrd and ruiz was more compelling than that of grant and golata?

Most certainly.. Ruiz & Byrd was vastly superior fighters than Grant & Golota. both of whom had been exposed. Golota had not fought a single fighter who was ranked in the Top 30, his fouling against Rid**** Bowe should have seen him banned from the sport. Bowe was a shell of his former self and looked in terrible shape. his speech was slurred and it was shocking how much he had declined. Grant was unworthy of any Top 10 ranking.

http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-1...ht-lewis-first

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/13/sports/sp-19075

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/lennox-le...6#.VRLUq47P61s

http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-0...d-wba-rankings

There is any amout of evidence to back up that Lewis avoided John Ruiz.. Well Done to Don King is what i say.

[LacedUp]

Most certainly.. Ruiz & Byrd was vastly superior fighters than Grant & Golota. both of whom had been exposed. Golota had not fought a single fighter who was ranked in the Top 30, his fouling against Rid**** Bowe should have seen him banned from the sport. Bowe was a shell of his former self and looked in terrible shape. his speech was slurred and it was shocking how much he had declined. Grant was unworthy of any Top 10 ranking.

http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-1...ht-lewis-first

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/13/sports/sp-19075

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/lennox-le...6#.VRLUq47P61s

http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-0...d-wba-rankings

There is any amout of evidence to back up that Lewis avoided John Ruiz.. Well Done to Don King is what i say.

There is no evidence at all. You clearly wasn't following boxing at the time and was just exposed as having a pathetic agenda.

And now you're just ducking me. You didn't even respond to all the evidence I brought proving Ruiz wasn't even in the equation when Lewis had first signed to fight Grant

Let it go mate. Just focus on current boxing.