Was Lennox Lewis a great champion ?

[Likely_Lad]

You can pick holes in many of the 'true greats' records if you look close enough but anyone who says that Lewis is not a true great is either ignorant or arrogant as he was easily the best heavyweight of his era, whether he would have beaten this fighter or lost to that fighter is irrelevant, judge him on who he fought and beat.

His only 2 losses were avenged, his only dubious draw was avenged, he never ducked anyone and retired as champion!

[hollister]

lewis won every round of both rahman fight except the one he got
stopped in

Well I guess I was wrong about the Mercer rematch, I stand corrected.
I know Lewis won the rounds, but can you really say he was dominant in those rounds?
Rahman was winning in both of the Maskaev fights, and still lost them both. Hell, Ali fought Quarry, Norton, Frazier, and Patterson all multiple times, and gave Quarry and Patterson another chance even though he beat them both conviningly in their first fights. Frazier gave Ali another fight after kicking his ass in the first fight, because they were truly competetive fighters that loved to fight and really cared about their image.
Even though Lewis most likely would have won the fights he didn't take, it made him look like a ***** for avoiding them, and makes his doubters that much more vocal when he tries to toot his own horn, which he often did. It's not that I hate him, but his arrogance and his seemingly half-heartedness toward the sport of boxing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Tong Po]

Lennox Lewis beat everybody he faced, and he didn't duck or avoid no-one. To say he did is a joke. After all, don't forget it was he who was being avoided so much on his way up to the top. What you're saying holds no water, it's like, why give a guy a rematch who you've already beaten, and you know and everybody else knows that if you fought him 100 times you'd beat him 100 times.

Lennox Lewis is a true great, and did not show no half-heartedness towards the sport of boxing. There you go again with your ludicrous accusations.

I am afraid Lennox will never get the credit he deserves.

[guru]

no, two reasons why: he was stripped of the WBA title and he DROPPED the IBF title. i understand he did so in order to pursue larger paydays, but seeking out the big money fights isnt what great champions do. great champions defend the title against ALL COMERS, something lewis had a problem with.

one time was not to defend against an unworthy ruiz, so that was the right call... ruiz did nothing to deserve a title shot and was only in that position because of king... so lewis dropping the WBA title in that instance was justified

[PATO 1]

shellroc has been exposed as a hater, and tyson wasnt the better fighter and didnt have the better record

[hollister]

Lennox Lewis beat everybody he faced, and he didn't duck or avoid no-one. To say he did is a joke. After all, don't forget it was he who was being avoided so much on his way up to the top. What you're saying holds no water, it's like, why give a guy a rematch who you've already beaten, and you know and everybody else knows that if you fought him 100 times you'd beat him 100 times.

Lennox Lewis is a true great, and did not show no half-heartedness towards the sport of boxing. There you go again with your ludicrous accusations.

I am afraid Lennox will never get the credit he deserves.

There I go again? lol
He was avoided by a couple of guys, but not "so much",
quite a few good fighters took fights with him, even if they were past it. I'm talking about the fights where he was in trouble, where it was evident that if he got caught he could have been stopped. That was the case in the Briggs fight, and you can't say that if he fought Rahman 100 times that everybody knows he would win 100 times, because they only fought twice and they EACH now own a one-punch KO victory over each other, he can't even say he got two out of three! lol
It's not like I'm saying he should have rematched the white buffalo or Golota or some fight where he just beat the hell out of his opponent from beginning to end. Look at Morales-Paquiao or Morales-Barrera, those guys love to fight, they love competition, they love the sport, and they want to beat each other badly enough to fight two or three times without bitching about "but I already fought that guy!" I just never cared for his arrogance or his attitude, it never seemed like boxing was all that important to him.

[K-DOGG]

Several reasons prevent Lewis from being considered an all time great in the court of public opinion. However, none of them are valid.

1. Lewis was boring. So what? What has boring got to do with being the best. Nowhere is it written that being an "exciting" fighter guarantees the mantle of "all-time-great" for being a thrill a second has never been a prerequisite for greatness. Jack Johnson was as dull as dishwater; but as effective a fighter as had ever been seen at the time. Nat Fleisher, the founder of Ring Magazine, went to his grave claiming that Jack Johnson was the greatest heavyweight who ever lived....and he saw Ali at his best. Lewis was a thinking man's fighter; he outsmarted his opponents and those who love the primal destruction of raw prize-fighting and pure slugging have a hard time appreciating Lewis's tactical take to the sport. He was a big guy who chose to use his physical skills the best way he saw fit. He probably could have been like George Foreman, if it were his temperment; but it wasn't. He wasn't as passionate as he was scientific; but I submit this is a reflection of his personality. Not everyone wants to drive an opponent's nose bone into his brain.

2. He was stopped twice by "unrespectable" fighters while he was in his "prime". Well, first off, that's just not true. Lewis was knocked out at age 29 by Oliver McCall and while he might have been at his physical peak around age 29, he hadn't matured as a fighter into his "fighting prime", so to speak. He was still making very fundamental tactical mistakes when he fought McCall; and if you've seen the fight, you know that part of the reason he got caught was because his trainer at the time, Pepe Correa, gave him some really bad advice before the start of round two, essentially telling Lewis to take our McCall, who'd never been stopped and was still fresh. Lewis's other stoppage was to Hasim Rahman when he was 36 years old and out of shape due to not taking rahman seriously. He took his opponent for granted and he got caught; but came back months later and completely destroyed Rahman. The arguement here essentially boils down to this: an all time great should have an all-time great chin and Lewis doesn't, so he's not an all-time great. Personally, I think this philosophy is pure foolishness and prejudiced. Boxing is a learned artform, or science, depending upon your outlook; and how good you become is largely dependent upon how much you put into it.....the harder you train, the more you want to be the best, the better you beccome....provided you have a well-versed trainer, of course. True, some men are more physically gifted than others; but are these men "better", persay? They have greater advantages; but that does not make them better champions....it gives them a better chance to be greater champions, true; but how many mulit-talented athletes have you seen fall just short, or waste his potential completely? It's about want-to and dedication to one's sport. Rocky Marciano wasn't the most physically talented athlete by any stretch of the imagination; but he sure as hell "wanted it" more than most. Lewis did not have a glass jaw; but is was merely average. This is a physical trait; but somehow, after being knocked out on national televison by Oliver McCall, Lewis came back to dominate and beat the best in the division for the next ten years. How many fighters have you seen fall apart completely after their first knock-out defeat? There's the championship character....or "want-to", persay.

3. He's British.....aka "not" an American. Let's face it, this is where most of the bias comes from. Americans, by and large, love American fighters just like English fans love English fighters, Mexican fans love Mexican fighters, and on and on. But this big Brit came over here and did his thing his way, and in the end, was far better than Rid**** Bowe, who was "our guy" and he had the gall to beat Evander twice. Sure, Evander was old; but, look on the bright side, you can use that excues in an arguement when Brits or Lewis fans talk about how a prime Lewis would always beat a prime Holyfield. There's no way to know, for sure; but it's fun to argue. Thank God, Bowe ducked him, or we might acutally know the answer to that question, 'cause then, they would have fought back in 1993 or so.

4. His "level of competition" wasn't as good as some other champions Oh really? How the hell is his level of competition suppose to be beyond question when the best fighters in the world shamelessly ducked him? Lewis destroyed, absolutely destroyed Razor Ruddock in Two rouns after Mike Tyson had struggled for 19 rounds with the same man. (Mike softened him up.. ) That win earned him a shot at Rid**** Bowe; but "Big Daddy" decided to trash the WBC belt rather than face him. Mike Tyson did the same thing three years later. Lennox Lewis was Tyson's #1 contender after his win over Ray Mercer at MSG; but Mike decided to let the WBC belt go rather than face Lewis. Mike chose the "mighty" Bruce Seldon as his next opponent instead. While "that" Mike Tyson wasn't "the best" Mike Tyson, it's still the one who helped Evander Holyfield seal his place in the hearts and minds of fans by getting his ass kicked. Imagine if he'd faced Lewis instead. (If Lewis had won, Mike would have been "shot". )


Lennox Lewis is an all time great; his accomplishments speak for themselves. Critics can howl all they want; but its not going to change a thing.

[PATO 1]

^^^^^^^^ good post

If lewis had a glass jaw he wouldnt haVE took the punches ua,mercer,holyfield,bruno,briggs all landed flush

[Southpaw16]

no, two reasons why: he was stripped of the WBA title and he DROPPED the IBF title. i understand he did so in order to pursue larger paydays, but seeking out the big money fights isnt what great champions do. great champions defend the title against ALL COMERS, something lewis had a problem with.

im not saying lewis was a terrible champion, but saying he was a great champion is way out of line.

Give me a break. Dropping the alphabet belts if nothing else shows integrity. The reason why he dropped the IBF belt was because he didn't want to fight Chris Byrd, he wanted to have a fight with Vitaly Klitschko after he was done with Kirk Johnson, and of course we got to see Klitschko versus Lewis even sooner. These alphabet organisations are bull****, everybody knows that. They are what is wrong with boxing today, these idiots are the ones who forced a match between Mzonke Fana and Marco Antonio Barrera. They are also the reason why there is so many damn weight divisions, so that they can issue more title belts and collect more sanctioning fees.

[hollister]

I'm not going to quote that whole post, I'll just state my opinion. First, I never personally found him overly boring because I understood that he was trying to use his attributes to his advantage, but I know some people did.
Second, pick a prime already lol
I know that when he was at his best physically he was immature as a fighter, but you can't have it both ways. IMO it's just a shame that he wasn't a mature fighter by the time he peaked physically, he would have been that much better.
Yes, he was stopped by two fighters that many think should not have been able to stop him, but IMO it was the way he was stopped more than simply the fact that he lost that got everyone's attention. Even Wlad, who is basically known as glass Joe on this site has never been stopped in that fashion(dropped by one punch, couldn't continue at all),on top of that he didn't dominate in the Rahman rematch, it still looked as if anything could have happened and Lewis IMO didn't really look like he was in complete control of the fight, even though he was winning.
Lewis takes a punch very well on any part of the head except the chin, and even then he takes a pretty good shot, and even if his chin was glass I wouldn't care as long as he was able to keep from being hit on it. Louis didn't have the best chin, and he defended 25 times, right?
I don't have any problem with his resume and I don't think anyone should. I really think he's a great fighter, but when I think about great "champions" I also think about the fighter's temperment, whether or not they helped carry boxing, how much boxing seemed to mean to them, etc.
To me, he was a better fighter than a champion, and that has nothing to do with where he came from.
Now where's he from again? lol