How popular is Lewis in Great Britain?

Lexus · Post by **Lexus** » 24 Jan 2005, 12:55

What's the general opinion of him?

THEBUTCH · Post by **THEBUTCH** » 24 Jan 2005, 13:04

I'm British and my opinion of Lewis as a boxer was he was the very best of his era. Beat every man put in front on him and I rate him no less for having two attempts at it on three occasions.

bigped · Post by **bigped** » 24 Jan 2005, 13:05

just today watched loads of old lewis vids, fights, hes one of my favs evere.

Lexus · Post by **Lexus** » 24 Jan 2005, 13:05

I meant is he popular, like Frank Bruno for instance?

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 24 Jan 2005, 13:10

I would say that amongst British Boxing fans he is generaly well liked and respected.

He is not that well known by the general public, but that has as much to do with UK Boxing TV coverage as anything else.

Lennox is not as popular with the general sports fan as Frank Bruno was.

In my opinion.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 24 Jan 2005, 13:42

JohnRuiz wrote:I meant is he popular, like Frank Bruno for instance?

nowhere near as popular among the general populace, more popular with boxing fans. Lewis never had the cuddly image bruno and his handlers cultivated, and his arrogance never sat well with a british public brought up on lovable losers.

ILikeBeer · Post by **ILikeBeer** » 24 Jan 2005, 16:30

The British love a loser that tries hard but just can't make it. That is why they loved Bruno, and Brunos title reign was more celebrated, because he'd finally won it.

I am British and I like him. A lot of people think he's crap because of his two losses to mediocre competition. But I think, it's because he claims to be British, and won a gold medal for Canada, whilst constantly talking about his Jamaican roots. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I think some British fans can't relate to him as British as much.

Manos de Oro · Post by **Manos de Oro** » 24 Jan 2005, 16:46

Most of the casual fans I asked about Lewis during the 90's more often than not replied that they liked him, but they thought he was 'boring'. I personally never liked his arrogance and the way he treated opponents he beat. Obviously I very much appreciate his career inside the ring.

There is only one other thing that degrades Lewis' achievments other than his arrogance, for me. And that is that when watching just about every fight after the first loss, I always had the feeling that he would go if someone clocked him cleanly. In this way, he never had the true 'invincible' aura that previous undisputed's had, again: for me. This is just the way I saw Lewis.

EDIT: spelt 'invincible' wrong.

THEBUTCH · Post by **THEBUTCH** » 25 Jan 2005, 06:00

Nowhere near as popular as Bruno.

The thing with Lennox is he's winner. He was never going to be a victim of a promoter or manager such as Maloney. He employed Maloney to do a job and when that job had been completed he let him go. It worked for Lennox.

It makes me laugh when you see Maloney acting out his bitterness with how Lewis treated him, when he does the same thing every year to boxers who no longer have successful futures in a boxing ring. He gets shot of them, just like Lennox did to him.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 25 Jan 2005, 06:10

Well, I suppose anyone would have felt the same, it must feel good to be associated with the Heavyweight champion of the world, and you could argue that without Maloney, Lennox would probably not have had a fanbase over here, and his career would have been more difficult. In the book 'Mama's boy' that I read, Maloney did not seem that bitter any more, though I don't know whether that was just for the benefit of the book.

THEBUTCH · Post by **THEBUTCH** » 25 Jan 2005, 07:01

Maybe, but on nearly each occasion I've seen him speak on the subject of Lennox Lewis he reeks of bitterness.

Yes, Maloney was instrumental in Lennox's career and only an ignoramous would deny that, but the way i see things is Maloney got a taste of his own medicine and didn't like it one bit.

Remember when Kevin McBride turned out to be less than good, Maloney said if things didn't improve he'd hand him back his contract. A very unemotional decision, just like Lennox's.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 25 Jan 2005, 07:45

Well yeah, you're probably right, I guess managers are used to being the ones on top. I guess it's like the difference between dumping a fat bird because you've found someone more tasty, or being dumped by some really fit bird....

I do remember when they had Maloney in the studio for the Lewis v Tyson fight, and at one point they asked him what he thought was going to happen, he couldn't hide his bitterness at that point when he said.

"Tyson early, Lewis' legs have gone, Tyson's going to knock him out early."

When they came back to him later on between rounds and it was clear that Lewis was going to hammer Tyson into the ground like a tent peg, Maloney did look less than comfortable.

In the Mama's boy book however, Maloney appears to have put the past behind him, though he still obviously felt hard done by.