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Mercer had gone life and death with three journeymen in his last four fights before Lewis but he virtually fought Lewis to a draw. An old, worn Bruno outboxed Lewis over 7 rounds until his chin and gas tank inevitably failed him. Lewis was also blasted out in one punch by two fringe contenders, which has never happened to AJ. AJ lacks a name as good as Vitali Klitschko on his resume but even that has an asterisk next to it as Lewis was down by two rounds on the cards before it was stopped in the 6th on cuts. It was a tenacious performance from Lewis don't get me wrong but once again it underlined his vulnerability to being outboxed, even by men with significantly less reach.
In 20 years time boxing fans will have a more objective view of the current era. At the time Lewis was slated, just as Wlad, Fury and AJ have at times been slated. There is a tendency among fans to want to believe that the old eras of smaller heavyweights with fewer technological and scientific advantages at their disposal (as well as a smaller world population and political-geographic barriers) are better than the current crop: how many in the 90's would have favoured Lewis to beat Ali? Very few.
In my view this is absurd seeing as Ali had huge problems with or was beaten by chinny, featherfisted sub-cruiser journeymen Doug Jones and Henry Cooper, chinny half-blind midget featherfist cruiser Joe Frazier x3, chinny featherfist cruiser Ken Norton x3, featherfisted cruiser journeyman Jimmy Young and featherfisted cruiser bum Leon Spinks. Ali never fought anyone with remotely the combination of size, power, athleticism and skill that Lewis possessed and lost to far lesser opponents, yet 6'2, 200-220 lbs Ali and the slightly smaller Joe Louis are still considered to be better than the modern super-heavyweights who originated in the 90's and have dominated the heavyweight division ever since.
In 20 years time boxing fans will have a more objective view of the current era. At the time Lewis was slated, just as Wlad, Fury and AJ have at times been slated. There is a tendency among fans to want to believe that the old eras of smaller heavyweights with fewer technological and scientific advantages at their disposal (as well as a smaller world population and political-geographic barriers) are better than the current crop: how many in the 90's would have favoured Lewis to beat Ali? Very few.
In my view this is absurd seeing as Ali had huge problems with or was beaten by chinny, featherfisted sub-cruiser journeymen Doug Jones and Henry Cooper, chinny half-blind midget featherfist cruiser Joe Frazier x3, chinny featherfist cruiser Ken Norton x3, featherfisted cruiser journeyman Jimmy Young and featherfisted cruiser bum Leon Spinks. Ali never fought anyone with remotely the combination of size, power, athleticism and skill that Lewis possessed and lost to far lesser opponents, yet 6'2, 200-220 lbs Ali and the slightly smaller Joe Louis are still considered to be better than the modern super-heavyweights who originated in the 90's and have dominated the heavyweight division ever since.
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