The fights that Lewis coulda/shoulda fought

[klompton]

Hank Kaplan once swore up and down to me that Lewis was scared of Ruiz and avoiding him like the plague.

[Ambling Alp II]

I would say that he badly mistaken. What was there to be afraid of? Being hugged to death?

[BoxBuzz]

Maybe......Lewis was not the "touchy feely" sort.

Might not have been comfortable in Ruiz's arms.

[klompton]

Given the suspicion in regards to Lewis' proclivities i would have thought some man on man hugging with Ruiz would have been of great interest to him.

[ewenhay]

I've read a bit about the people Lewis should have fought recently.
For the sake of this thread, we won't go over the Bowe debate again, the prime Tyson one, the Vitali rematch and we'll just accept that he loses to Evander in 93, we all know how devisive those topics are.
But there are some names he could have fought in his career that never, I don't see him losing any of the following, but I'll throw them out there

Mid 90s Lewis wasn't the finished article, how would have faired against:
Michael Moorer?
Old George Formean?
Old Larry Holmes?

Late 90's - early 2000, he was pretty much the complete heavy. He could have faced:
Ike Ibeabuchi?
WBO then IBF holder Chris Byrd?
2 time WBA champion John Ruiz?
The flawed but highely rated early 2000s Wladimir Klitschko?

Getting ridiculous now, but 2003, Lewis was faded, how's about in October 2003, he comes in against:
James Toney? (he beat Holyfield that month...)

Not prime for prime, but when they could have actually happened

I don't think there's much missing from Lewis ' cv Davie. I know you don't want to drag it up again but I think the only fight really missing is Bowe. Maybe peak Tyson but their career trajectories were never aligned.

By the time Ruiz, Byrd and Klitschkos were on the scene Lewis was winding down and was only looking for legacy fights - his words.

For what it's worth I think he fought the toughest of the new generation in Vitali and though he made it tough for himself he still had enough at that late stage. He would have stopped the other 3 easily in my opinion.