"lewis on his best night is the best hw ever/beats all others"

[Boxerbeetle]

Foreman got stopped once in like 80 fights, definitely chinny then

[TheLeprechaun]

Foreman got stopped once in like 80 fights, definitely chinny then

He was put down pretty easily vs Lyle. He blitzed through most of his opponents at that time without being hit. Frazier landed nothing of note. Ali troubled him with clean shots. Young put him down with shots although granted Foreman was tired. I mean Lewis hits harder than those guys. Foreman seemed to have an iron chin when he came back though so I'm not sure how a chin improves with age but certainly he did look a bit chinny in his prime to me anyway. He wouldn't have been able to take a clean shot from Lewis like the likes of Holyfield, Tyson, Bowe, Ali, Holmes etc would.

[ElJefe]

The weakness of Lewis' chin is overrated. There's a middle ground between iron chins such as Ali and chinny HWs such as David Price. Lewis took plenty of big shots over his career. Enough to avoid being labelled chinny IMO.

Young Foreman vs Lewis would have been very interesting imo purely for the size factor. I still find it crazy how physically imposing a young Foreman was, yet at 220lbs he would have been over 20lbs lighter than the version of Lennox that worked with Emanuel Steward.

[TheLeprechaun]

The weakness of Lewis' chin is overrated. There's a middle ground between iron chins such as Ali and chinny HWs such as David Price. Lewis took plenty of big shots over his career. Enough to avoid being labelled chinny IMO.

Young Foreman vs Lewis would have been very interesting imo purely for the size factor. I still find it crazy how physically imposing a young Foreman was, yet at 220lbs he would have been over 20lbs lighter than the version of Lennox that worked with Emanuel Steward.

Well he took quite a few from Vitali but Vitali was an accumulation type of puncher.

I'd say he had a moderate chin. Another problem is that he showed no recovery powers when dropped. Someone said Holmes popped up after the Shavers right hand and that's what you don't get with Lewis. Powers of recovery can mitigate a moderate chin. e.g Carl Froch. Froch is probably a bad example because his chin was very very solid but couple that with his powers of recovery and it's hard to see him ever being stopped in his prime. McClellan is probably the worst style matchup for Froch that I can imagine but even McClellan would have struggled to stop him.

[Matt W]

If lewis had a chin I'd pick him over anyone at his best. The likes of Joshua and wilder have no chance. Well they have a very slim chance of landing one but they most likely would have went like grant. Its the really great fighters like Tyson, bowe (who was kind of beating lewis up in that Olympic final) ,holmes, etc who have iron chins and are definitely too good not to land something big at some point, even if they are losing, that I have trouble picking lewis confidently. Even Ali was spiteful and could hit when he wanted to and carried serious speed. Frazier at his best is going to land his left hand at some point you'd think. Foreman was chinny but ferocious even to the body.

Lewis is definitely a handful for all of them. He's got the power to finish it with one punch and champion level heart. Whenever you see a fighter badly hurt and running completely on instinct and still trying to get up and fight, that is world class heart. Lewis was never discouraged and always believed. No pre fight antics would have made him doubt himself. He was actually over confident

[DrDuke]

Lennox's chin was underrated. Lewis wasn't chinny at all, he had a decent chin. He was knocked out twice by not the biggest punchers, but the possessors of the decent punch. And in those fight Lewis was not prepared in a proper way, so he was easier to get hit. He got hit clean eventually. And he also took Tua's shots well, that a sign of definitely not bad chin. Taking Vitali's punches was also a good sign, I'd say. Some call Vitali a volume puncher, that's probably right, but still Vitali was too hard-hitting for a volume puncher in a common sense.

[banjo]

Lewis took some whoppers from the likes of Ray Mercer and Shannon Briggs too and sucked it up.

[Grilling Machine]

Foreman seemed to have an iron chin when he came back though

Because he knew he had to pace himself in his 40s. His chin was great, it was his stamina that wasn't. He went down from exhaustion against Ali, and the Lyle fight was one of the most brutal in modern heavyweight history, between two massive punchers with a taste for brawling. Foreman took plenty of huge shots in that fight.

I think McCall had the best ever chin, but Foreman was superior in most other regards, and we'll never know if McCall could've won his rematch with good mental health.

[Mighty Moose]

Lewis at his best would have troubled any heavyweight, pretty sure that's nailed on. But I see him having issues with Larry Holmes, that jab is one of the best, if not THE best in history. Lewis had trouble with Bruno's jab and there's no doubt in my mind Holmes was a lot better.

Doesn't mean I think Holmes is the ATG though, just styles make fights.

What I do believe is Lewis presents more problems for all the heavyweights than most of the others, we know he could box, he could unload, and under Steward there wasn't many times he had poor tactical plans set up.

[Tuan_Jim]

Foreman seemed to have an iron chin when he came back though

Because he knew he had to pace himself in his 40s. His chin was great, it was his stamina that wasn't. He went down from exhaustion against Ali, and the Lyle fight was one of the most brutal in modern heavyweight history, between two massive punchers with a taste for brawling. Foreman took plenty of huge shots in that fight.

I think McCall had the best ever chin, but Foreman was superior in most other regards, and we'll never know if McCall could've won his rematch with good mental health.

Calling someone chinny because Ron Lyle knocked them down with a full impact power punch is like saying Lewis must have a glass chin because he was felled by that cannon ball from Rahman. I like most of Leprechaun's posts but that is one of the worst things I have ever read on this site!

Lewis would be a handful for most champs of yore (not an 80s Tyson though, too many factors favour Iron Mike), but I think McCall at his best would always be a singular Ken Norton type threat to Lewis. With his head in the right place the rematch should have at very least played out something like the Ray Mercer fight. He had no fear of Lewis's power, bundles of energy and a knack for picking his punches and timing explosive counters. But Benton and Page just couldn't drag him out of his turpitude and the result was embarrassing to watch. Very sad.

[Crease]

"lewis on his best night is the best hw ever/beats all others"

Strongly disagree.

If anything we overestimate Lennox these days. Guys in our generation (especially young'uns in their early 20s) seem to make him out to be one of the greatest p4p fighters of all time.

Back in Lennox's day, I always thought that there was a vulnerability about him. He preferred to control bouts, rather than engaging in firefights. It meant that his fights weren't as exciting as they potentially could have been (like Mike Tyson in his prime).

He liked to control fights with his long jab and controlling the distance (in much the same mould as Larry Holmes before him and a style that Wlad Klitschko adopted).

He was a very good Heavyweight, but I wouldn't put him in my top 10.