BoxRec

Let me just say before I start this, I fully respect Lennox's talents and have full respect for him. He, for a time was the best Heavy on the planet, and he retired at just the right tiem, great career.

However, on reflection, it could be argued that the names on his record, although decent, consist of people who were either not that great, or over the hill in boxing terms. Guys like Grant and Tua were hypejobs whpo went on to achieve nothing. Holy and Tyson, well, they were well past their sell by date.

Fast forward six years and Vitail rules the division with an ironfist. He knocks out ex champs, and destroys the new breed with ease. Yes, the likes of Arreola and Johnson may prove to be the modern day Grant's and Tua's but he is doing exactly the same job as Lewis did, in an even more exciting manner.

So, does that leave Vitali, Lewis' last opponent, as the greatest name on the Lewis register? I have a gut feeling, in 20 years time, people may have forget him beating an old Tyson and Holy, but will remember him beating the divisons next hall of famer.

IMO opinion its a prime Holyfield, Vitali just has beaten anyone great or at least a top top guy, his opposition has been mediocre at best apart from Lewis but he lost that fight.

markg7 wrote:

teddy007 wrote:IMO opinion its a prime Holyfield, Vitali just has beaten anyone great or at least a top top guy, his opposition has been mediocre at best apart from Lewis but he lost that fight.

When did LL beat a Prime Holyfield?

Ok imo Holyfield was in his prime when he beat Tyson and and had a draw with Lewis, he was a good fighter when he had his trilogy with Bowe but peaked when he fought Tyson & Lewis.

I believe that by the time Holy drew with Lewis, Evander was in decline, hence he went on to have life and death with John Ruiz post LL-Holy 2(which many have Holy winning)

the thing is i found that lewis didnt get the regconition he deserved until after he retired, people said he was a boring safety first boxer, i think the same applys to wladimir and vitali, people get on there backs because of there boring safety first approach but they are dominating the division like lewis did, but the problem is vitali's defining fight is a loss to lewis and i dont think wlad has even had a career defining fight but they can only beat what is put infront of them and i do believe they will both be undefeated from now until the time they retire....

In a word, NO.

Plenty of Lewis's victims IMO would reign long over the likes of Danny Williams, JC Gomez, Sam Peter at al.

I don't see Razor Ruddock, Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker, Holyfield, having much bother with anyone Vitali has beaten. Vitali is on top because thered nobody to fight.

One of LL's victims, Shannon Briggs, is a top 10 contender TWELVE years after Lewis hammered him!!

Lewis' victory over Vitali will re-inforce his image as an hall of famer, the longer Vitali keeps fighting and winning the better Lewis looks in the annuls of history. Because, his win and draw with Holyfield left question marks. It would not be right to judge him purely on the Klitschko fight, he beat some of the toughest fighters at the time: Ruddock, Tucker, Mercer, Akinwande, McCall. Most importantly he won the Lineal/Linear Championship from Shannon Briggs in 1998.

thepocketrocket wrote:Let me just say before I start this, I fully respect Lennox's talents and have full respect for him. He, for a time was the best Heavy on the planet, and he retired at just the right tiem, great career.

However, on reflection, it could be argued that the names on his record, although decent, consist of people who were either not that great, or over the hill in boxing terms. Guys like Grant and Tua were hypejobs whpo went on to achieve nothing. Holy and Tyson, well, they were well past their sell by date.

Fast forward six years and Vitail rules the division with an ironfist. He knocks out ex champs, and destroys the new breed with ease. Yes, the likes of Arreola and Johnson may prove to be the modern day Grant's and Tua's but he is doing exactly the same job as Lewis did, in an even more exciting manner.

So, does that leave Vitali, Lewis' last opponent, as the greatest name on the Lewis register? I have a gut feeling, in 20 years time, people may have forget him beating an old Tyson and Holy, but will remember him beating the divisons next hall of famer.

Are you serious when you say vitali is more exciting than lewis,my god his last few fights have been so predictable,when does he have a 1 punch ko win his scraps are so boring i can't even be bothered to watch tonight.

With all due respect I thionk that any man who KO's 37 of his 38 opponents is rather exciting, call me easily pleased!

It is predictable because he is so much better...a truly great win for Lennox!!!

thepocketrocket wrote:With all due respect I thionk that any man who KO's 37 of his 38 opponents is rather exciting, call me easily pleased!

It is predictable because he is so much better...a truly great win for Lennox!!!

Yes you can't argue with his ko record i'll agree with that,he just doesn't get me jumping with excitement,unlike lennox there were too many good wins to name

agree with a good few points on this thread......

i feel lewis best win was against ruddock , he just destroyed him that night

holyfield was not at his peak when lewis beat him , tyson was shot

vitali if people remember was beating lennox when he was stopped on cuts , would lewis have pulled it out if vitali wasnt cut??? , who knows , there should have been a rematch.

lewis was a good champion as he certainly cleared the divison of its numerous top 10 contenders , its just a pity that he never got to fight holyfield or tyson much earlier.

ps: lewis vs holyfield prime for prime.......holyfield has too much stamina and punch output for lewis...holy wpts
lewis vs tyson prime for prime..........tyson too fast and too powerful , lewis chin would let him down in this one
lewis vs vitali prime for prime...........lewis wins on points , more talented in every department.

boxerbob wrote:agree with a good few points on this thread......

i feel lewis best win was against ruddock , he just destroyed him that night

holyfield was not at his peak when lewis beat him , tyson was shot

vitali if people remember was beating lennox when he was stopped on cuts , would lewis have pulled it out if vitali wasnt cut??? , who knows , there should have been a rematch.

lewis was a good champion as he certainly cleared the divison of its numerous top 10 contenders , its just a pity that he never got to fight holyfield or tyson much earlier.

ps: lewis vs holyfield prime for prime.......holyfield has too much stamina and punch output for lewis...holy wpts
lewis vs tyson prime for prime..........tyson too fast and too powerful , lewis chin would let him down in this one
lewis vs vitali prime for prime...........lewis wins on points , more talented in every department.

When would you say tyson and holyfield were at their absolute peaks.

tyson 86-89

holyfield 89-92

bigjack wrote:

thepocketrocket wrote:With all due respect I thionk that any man who KO's 37 of his 38 opponents is rather exciting, call me easily pleased!

It is predictable because he is so much better...a truly great win for Lennox!!!

Yes you can't argue with his ko record i'll agree with that,he just doesn't get me jumping with excitement,unlike lennox there were too many good wins to name

Blood hell what a cracker that was devestating punching from both klit and johnson i couldn't take my eyes off the stream sorry couldn't resist,johnson was pants and clearly had no interest in winning that fight,i mean it's not like klit is hard to work out,jab-right hand,jab-right hand but you could see from the first bell he was not going to throw any big punches.

I agree with original point, although Lennox got dead lucky in that fight.

The three best heavyweights of Lewis's era were Bowe, Tyson and Holyfield. He never fought Bowe, Tyson was washed up and Holyfield well over the top when Lewis fought them. Holyfield was at his peak in 1991-1997, yet Lewis didn't fight him then. And loads of people thought Holyfield won the second fight, but knew he wouldn't get the verdict because of the controversial draw.

After getting jobbed by Lewis, Holyfield went 1-1 with John Ruiz.

gobbles wrote:I agree with original point, although Lennox got dead lucky in that fight.

The three best heavyweights of Lewis's era were Bowe, Tyson and Holyfield. He never fought Bowe, Tyson was washed up and Holyfield well over the top when Lewis fought them. Holyfield was at his peak in 1991-1997, yet Lewis didn't fight him then. And loads of people thought Holyfield won the second fight, but knew he wouldn't get the verdict because of the controversial draw.

After getting jobbed by Lewis, Holyfield went 1-1 with John Ruiz.

None of that was Lewis' fault though, Lewis became mandatory challenger after destroying Razor Ruddock but Bowe refused to face him, Lewis was mandatory challenger for the WBC title in 1996 but Tyson chose to fight the mighty Bruce Seldon instead and the Holyfield fight never happened for whatever reason. That's just how boxing works, fighters rarely cross each others paths at their very peaks.

Lewis wanted to fight them all, it was Holyfield, Tyson and Bowe who didn't want to fight Lewis at various different stages.

Holy and Tyson's primes are very suggestive.
Tyson is deemed to be Holy's best ever win, yet he was years past his best according to some.
Take a look at Holy's perceived prime...he struggled with Foreman and Holmes to an extent and he got beat by Moorer who was nothing special at Heavy.
Holy had a long prime imo, but more importantly than that, there was always a chance he could come in and fight below his best. He could be inconsistant.
Lewis beat him in both their fights. The 2nd can only be deemed a Holy win if the you honestly think the 1st fight was close(which it certainly wasn't)

Tyson peaked early obviously and he was a shell when Lennox pounded him.
A prime for prime match up between them two could never have happened in real life so it remains one for the fantasists.

Bowe-Lewis has always intrigued me.
Out of all the four fighters, Bowe actually produced the best performances against a genuine elite level opponenet when he went in with Holy.
Why he didn't fight Lewis only he knows. He had the game to beat Lennox and it would have been a hell of a fight, possibly leading to a series of battles.
I think Bowe hated Lewis but hated the thought of losing to mhim even more and thats why he never took up the challenge.

Vitali doesn't deserve to be mentioned alongside these 4.
Prime for prime, he loses to them all, by wide margins too. So what he was up 4-2 after 6 rounds against a fat Lennox lewis...Lewis had won the previous two rounds people seem to forget and was looking the stronger of the two(although both looked gassed to be fair)
Lewis still ripped his face open.

I don;t think Lewis has a signature win. I would probably plump for Holyfield 1.

The Bowe fight never took place because of Rock Newmans demands, I was at the meetings!!
Tyson was due to fight Lennox but paid lennox $6 step aside money so he can have another fight even tho Lennox was number 1 contender

thepocketrocket wrote: Fast forward six years and Vitail rules the division with an ironfist. He knocks out ex champs, and destroys the new breed with ease. Yes, the likes of Arreola and Johnson may prove to be the modern day Grant's and Tua's but he is doing exactly the same job as Lewis did, in an even more exciting manner.

First time I've hgeard the words "Klitschko" and "exciting" in the same sentence!

Anyway, he's gonna be tied up in court for a while, since I'm gonna sue for the three hours of my life I'll never get back watching that farce last night!

VK might just be the best name on Lewis' record in hindsight.

Although the performance was not vinatge Lewis, I thought he did remarkably well to tough it out the way he did, when he was ageing & overweight, against what has turned out to be one of the best HWs of this decade.

banjo wrote:

gobbles wrote:I agree with original point, although Lennox got dead lucky in that fight.

The three best heavyweights of Lewis's era were Bowe, Tyson and Holyfield. He never fought Bowe, Tyson was washed up and Holyfield well over the top when Lewis fought them. Holyfield was at his peak in 1991-1997, yet Lewis didn't fight him then. And loads of people thought Holyfield won the second fight, but knew he wouldn't get the verdict because of the controversial draw.

After getting jobbed by Lewis, Holyfield went 1-1 with John Ruiz.

None of that was Lewis' fault though, Lewis became mandatory challenger after destroying Razor Ruddock but Bowe refused to face him, Lewis was mandatory challenger for the WBC title in 1996 but Tyson chose to fight the mighty Bruce Seldon instead and the Holyfield fight never happened for whatever reason. That's just how boxing works, fighters rarely cross each others paths at their very peaks.

I'm not disagreeing, it's just that some people accept this from Lewis, just Joe Calzaghe is constantly slated for not fighting Hopkins or Jones earlier, even though those fights were never on the table.

gobbles wrote:

banjo wrote:

gobbles wrote:I agree with original point, although Lennox got dead lucky in that fight.

The three best heavyweights of Lewis's era were Bowe, Tyson and Holyfield. He never fought Bowe, Tyson was washed up and Holyfield well over the top when Lewis fought them. Holyfield was at his peak in 1991-1997, yet Lewis didn't fight him then. And loads of people thought Holyfield won the second fight, but knew he wouldn't get the verdict because of the controversial draw.

After getting jobbed by Lewis, Holyfield went 1-1 with John Ruiz.

None of that was Lewis' fault though, Lewis became mandatory challenger after destroying Razor Ruddock but Bowe refused to face him, Lewis was mandatory challenger for the WBC title in 1996 but Tyson chose to fight the mighty Bruce Seldon instead and the Holyfield fight never happened for whatever reason. That's just how boxing works, fighters rarely cross each others paths at their very peaks.

I'm not disagreeing, it's just that some people accept this from Lewis, just Joe Calzaghe is constantly slated for not fighting Hopkins or Jones earlier, even though those fights were never on the table.

The difference between Lewis & Calzaghe is that Lewis made good use of his passport & went to the Mecca of boxing: The United States of America.

For some reason, Joe Calzaghe never followed this path until it was way too late in his career.

overhand_right wrote:In a word, NO.

Plenty of Lewis's victims IMO would reign long over the likes of Danny Williams, JC Gomez, Sam Peter at al.

I don't see Razor Ruddock, Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker, Holyfield, having much bother with anyone Vitali has beaten. Vitali is on top because thered nobody to fight.

One of LL's victims, Shannon Briggs, is a top 10 contender TWELVE years after Lewis hammered him!!

errrr...yes on paper, briggs was an easy win for lewis, but lennox took some huge shots off briggs and was definately buzzed a few times, hardly a defensive shut out from LL

I think a lot of Lewis' opponents would have beaten Klitschko's contenders.
Lennox was gonna stop Vitali if he had come out of his corner (which he couldn't because Lewis had hurt him bad with legitimate, quality punches).
Plus Lewis was definitely past his prime and in the worst shape of his career for that one.

IMO Bowe is the only name missing off Lewis' record.
It's Tyson's fault he wasn't around to fight Lewis at the time.

I wasn't really grabbed by Lewis until late on because he didn't initially seem very dynamic, but he was good with the sweet science.

pablothunder wrote:I think a lot of Lewis' opponents would have beaten Klitschko's contenders.
Lennox was gonna stop Vitali if he had come out of his corner (which he couldn't because Lewis had hurt him bad with legitimate, quality punches).
Plus Lewis was definitely past his prime and in the worst shape of his career for that one.

IMO Bowe is the only name missing off Lewis' record.
It's Tyson's fault he wasn't around to fight Lewis at the time.

I wasn't really grabbed by Lewis until late on because he didn't initially seem very dynamic, but he was good with the sweet science.

Spot on & Bowe is only missing because he was too scared to fight Lewis.

The funny thing is that if Bowe had more belief in himself, he more than had the tools to beat the 1992/3 version of Lewis, who was still quite reckless & over reliant on his big Right hand.