Was Lennox Lewis a great champion ?

[butterfly1964]

anybody who votes no should be banned.

Olympic Gold Medal
3 Time World Champion
3rd all time in Title defenses behind Louis and Holmes


But yeah he wasn't great at all

Ali is third all-time in defenses dummy.

[Katz]

he is a great champ no doubt about it. he beat great names in boxing..

holyfield, tyson, wlad, tua

[PATO 1]

typical pac fan he didnt beat wlad u ******ed pinoy

[Boxing Analyst]

I think vitali.

[Katz]

lol... its Vitali...my mistake...

[neils7147933]

It depends how exclusive of a club you want to classify boxers as "great". He was certainly a legitimate champion with many defenses and a good resume. Probably a Top 20 or so heavyweight champ...

[MickyHatton]

It depends how exclusive of a club you want to classify boxers as "great". He was certainly a legitimate champion with many defenses and a good resume. Probably a Top 20 or so heavyweight champ...

Ok, then name all the champions who were better than him and state why you think they were!

Lewis was easily a top ten heavy, without doubt!!!

[Sir_Jose]

It never ceases to amaze me how on this site which is supposed to be about the followers of the sport of boxing discussing boxing that it could be debated that Lewis was or was not a great heavyweight?

He is easily a top ten heavyweight of all time and in my opinion sits around number 5.

Lets look at his record first, 41 wins (32 ko's) 2 Losses(both avenged) and 1 dubious draw, of these 19 were for World Titles of which 9 were for the undisputed championship!

In those fights he beat Holyfield, Tyson, Klitschko, Bruno, McCall, Mercer, Briggs, Golota, Morrison, Tucker, Grant, Tua, Rahman, Akinwande and Ruddock to name the probable best he fought! The only name not there to cement total domination is Bowe but he chose not to fight Lewis!

Put that against other 'great' champions records:

Rocky Marciano : Won 49 (43 Ko's) Losses 0, however he only fought for the world title 7 times (Although it was for the undisputed championship) of which he fought Walcott and Charles twice! But he is obviously a great heavyweight!

Joe Frazier : Won 32 (27 Ko's) Losses 4 and 1 draw, 7 (real) world title fights!

Sonny Liston : Won 50 (39 ko's) Losses 4, he fought for the world title 4 times(undisputed) but obviously met Ali!

Larry Holmes : Won 69 (44 Ko's) Losses 6, he fought for a world title 25 times but only twice for the undisputed championship!

Tunney : Just 3 undisputed World title fights.

Charles : 9 title fights.

Tyson : 16 World title fights 9 undisputed.

Holyfield : 17 World title fights 6 undisputed. 6 more at Cruiserweight.

Dempsey : 8 World title fights undisputed.

My point here is that Lewis's record stands up with almost any heavyweight ever with exception to perhaps Ali, Louis and maybe even Foreman due to the longevity of his career.

I am not detracting from the careers of these great fighters only pointing out that Lewis has to be regarded as one of them!

Many will argue that it was harder to win a title in the days of Louis and Dempsey and I agree however Lennox Lewis fought many good fighters and a few great ones along the way therefore he has to be regarded a one of the greats!

For me

Ali
Louis
Foreman
Dempsey
Lewis

Great post. Some of the stuff people say here is just plain ignorant, Just because a figher fought in the black and white era doesn't make him automatically better than todays fighters.

Lewis' resume stacks up better than pretty much everyone who ever fought in the division outside of about 3 guys. You'll see people name Sonny Liston as being better and stuff like that when any real fan can tell its just plain silly. They say he fought in a weak era, but in reality it was the second deepest era in the history of the division, no 2004 was not his era the 90's were.

[Likely_Lad]

It never ceases to amaze me how on this site which is supposed to be about the followers of the sport of boxing discussing boxing that it could be debated that Lewis was or was not a great heavyweight?

He is easily a top ten heavyweight of all time and in my opinion sits around number 5.

Lets look at his record first, 41 wins (32 ko's) 2 Losses(both avenged) and 1 dubious draw, of these 19 were for World Titles of which 9 were for the undisputed championship!

In those fights he beat Holyfield, Tyson, Klitschko, Bruno, McCall, Mercer, Briggs, Golota, Morrison, Tucker, Grant, Tua, Rahman, Akinwande and Ruddock to name the probable best he fought! The only name not there to cement total domination is Bowe but he chose not to fight Lewis!

Put that against other 'great' champions records:

Rocky Marciano : Won 49 (43 Ko's) Losses 0, however he only fought for the world title 7 times (Although it was for the undisputed championship) of which he fought Walcott and Charles twice! But he is obviously a great heavyweight!

Joe Frazier : Won 32 (27 Ko's) Losses 4 and 1 draw, 7 (real) world title fights!

Sonny Liston : Won 50 (39 ko's) Losses 4, he fought for the world title 4 times(undisputed) but obviously met Ali!

Larry Holmes : Won 69 (44 Ko's) Losses 6, he fought for a world title 25 times but only twice for the undisputed championship!

Tunney : Just 3 undisputed World title fights.

Charles : 9 title fights.

Tyson : 16 World title fights 9 undisputed.

Holyfield : 17 World title fights 6 undisputed. 6 more at Cruiserweight.

Dempsey : 8 World title fights undisputed.

My point here is that Lewis's record stands up with almost any heavyweight ever with exception to perhaps Ali, Louis and maybe even Foreman due to the longevity of his career.

I am not detracting from the careers of these great fighters only pointing out that Lewis has to be regarded as one of them!

Many will argue that it was harder to win a title in the days of Louis and Dempsey and I agree however Lennox Lewis fought many good fighters and a few great ones along the way therefore he has to be regarded a one of the greats!

For me

Ali
Louis
Foreman
Dempsey
Lewis

I see your point Micky, Lewis has to be regarded as one the greats, anyone who states otherwise is deluded surely?

His era was not a weak era, look at some of the fighters on his resume and you would wish most of them were still around today to bolster the division as it is!

OK, he did lose to McCall and Rahman but they were one shot stoppages, in the heavyweight division that can happen(there big boys)but it was as much down to Lewis not taking them seriously enough than it was to there ability, to prove the point he came back and beat them!

Many Lewis haters will say that he only beat Tyson because he was past his prime but so then was Lewis because he is older than Tyson?
Many always look for excuses rather than accepting that the better man won on the night, same goes for Holyfield etc etc etc.

Lennox Lewis was a great heavyweight champion, he was big, strong, skilled, great jab, superb right hand and awesome uppercut. He could box and fight and will be remembered by knowledgeable boxing fans as one of the greats of the sport.

He maybe was not charismatic enough or did not trash talk or bite people but he dominated the heavyweight division for the best part of ten years and that is not in dispute!

[deuce_drop]

lennox lewis is in the list of heavyweight greats, he avenged all of his defeats and dominated the division. he beat all top competition that was available and retired on a high note. there are a lot of things you can say about lennox lewis good and bad, but at the end of the day he was the one in the ring doing those things, not any of the nay sayers and critics.
quit hating on lennox, he did his thing and left the sport on top and left like a professional. he was nothing short of a professional in and out of the sport. which is more than anyone can say for more than half of the people in boxing.