BoxRec

What do you think Lennox Lewis' legacy in professional boxings heavyweight division is?


How do you think that Lennox should rank?


Top 20?



Or, top 15?



Or, top 10?



Anyone think that Lennox should rank within the top 5?




Please explain.

Lewis is a top 10 HW in my opinion, but he is such a frustrating guy to rank.

On his best night , fit & fully focused, he's an ATG HW, but his two losses really count against him.

One could argue that he was unlucky, in that on the only two occasions that he didn't prepare properly & give his opponent respect, he was iced big style.

Thankfully, for him, he avenged both defeats & remains one of the few HWs to have defeated very man he faced.

Syntax Error wrote:Lewis is a top 10 HW in my opinion, but he is such a frustrating guy to rank.

On his best night , fit & fully focused, he's an ATG HW, but his two losses really count against him.

One could argue that he was unlucky, in that on the only two occasions that he didn't prepare properly & give his opponent respect, he was iced big style.

Thankfully, for him, he avenged both defeats & remains one of the few HWs to have defeated very man he faced.

Totally agree with that.

ATG10

on a good night he can beat anybody. i for
one do not at all hold his losses against him.
it's the heavies and that happens if you take
risks. nothing wrong with that.

the mythical "0" is a terribly overrated thing.

Good fighter. But Lennox Lewis, to me, has nothing to show me to be awed about.

He beat two washed up legends in the greats of Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. The second fight with Holyfield, some say that they gave him that fight to make up for the first one. Some people say that Holy really won the second fight.

As for dominant heavyweight, he beat every man he faced, but got knocked out twice when it should not be. He picked up the rest of the bunch after Tyson and Holyfield. That was it. It was like Jay Z picked up where Biggie and Tupac left off.

Not a top 10 heavyweight all time for me. Not a top 100 atg p4p fighter, either. He belongs in the 14th to 20th slot for me in the atg heavyweight rankins.

'But got knocked out twice when it should not be'

When it should not be what?

On his night would beat any top heavyweight but overall He's defiantly up there top 5 destroying anything pre Ali.

Turning it around can you list 10 heavies who would beat Lennox to a spot ? its a lot harder than it looks !

littlepug wrote:Turning it around can you list 10 heavies who would beat Lennox to a spot ? its a lot harder than it looks !

Bit of a challenge... but here's my list...

#1- Muhammad Ali
#2- Larry Holmes
#3- Jack Dempsey
#4- Prime Mike Tyson
#5- George Foreman
#6- Joe Frazier
#7- Sonny Liston

^^^Those seven without question in my mind could of done it. Dempsey may be the only man, though, of the early 20th century (first half) who could of done it because he had such experience beating physically superior opponents. Some will ask "Why not Louis?"... again, Joe had a notoriously soft chin for a heavyweight, and he was a stalker in that ring. From the waist up he was perfection, a pure executioner, and sure he beat some giant men--- but I don't believe he could of gotten passed the battering ram jab of Lewis's.

The other "possible" three who could of done it... but I'd say their chances are 40%... Tunney, Jeffries and Johnson

SNG wrote:'But got knocked out twice when it should not be'

When it should not be what?

He should not lose to the BUMS that he lost. It counts against him BIG TIME

Top 15 for me. Definitely the best HW since a prime Holyfield. But he could've easily drawn or lost to both Holyfield in their rematch and Mercer. But a great fighter. His wins over Tua, washed up Tyson, Grant, and Golota in retrospect don't look as good as they did at the time, but concurrently his victory over Vitali has only grown in stature.

Top 15 without a doubt...pushing top 10, especially considering that he should hold two wins over Holyfield and he beat Vitali right at the back end of his career.

Would have looked a whole lot better without that dumb, heavy and avoidable loss to Rahman....a definite blot on the copybook even though it would be convincingly reversed. Rahman really nothing special and getting stiffed by a guy like that still marks him down in my opinion.

elmersalsa wrote: He beat two washed up legends in the greats of Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. The second fight with Holyfield, some say that they gave him that fight to make up for the first one. Some people say that Holy really won the second fight.
.

Most Americans had Holyfield as a heavy favourite against Lewis in their first fight.
Holyfield was 36... hardly an OAP in heavyweight terms.
It was only afterwards that people were saying Evander was washed up rather than actually give Lewis any credit for dominating him.

As for the rematch... it was closer but Lewis was still a clear winner.
Again the Americans refusing to give Lewis his due.

Granted Tyson was a faded name when Lewis got him.
However the Tyson that Evander beat was no prime Tyson either.

Heartbreak_Kid79 wrote:Most Americans had Holyfield as a heavy favourite against Lewis in their first fight.
Holyfield was 36... hardly an OAP in heavyweight terms.

As for the rematch... it was closer but Lewis was still a clear winner.
Again the Americans refusing to give Lewis his due.

36 is very old in any sport, especially boxing, especially if the year is 1999 and you turned pro in 84 and have gone through Qawi twice, Dokes, Foreman, Cooper, Bowe thrice, Moorer twice, Mercer and Tyson twice. Are you really so naïve to think Holyfield was anywhere near the peak of his powers after 15 punishing years as an elite level pro? He was still one of the best in the world absolutely (and I thought he won the rematch), but he was past his best.

Lewis could be a handful for anybody, but if you made him work he became sloppy and tired. If you took away his jab it confused him. And if Bruno, Mercer and Rahman can outjab you there are slicker, more gifted men in boxing history likely to do the same, and have the ring IQ to close the show when the opening is presented.

Lewis is in there somewhere but there are a lot of better minds with better chins and big punches at the top.

HomicideHenry wrote:

littlepug wrote:Turning it around can you list 10 heavies who would beat Lennox to a spot ? its a lot harder than it looks !

Bit of a challenge... but here's my list...

#1- Muhammad Ali
#2- Larry Holmes
#3- Jack Dempsey
#4- Prime Mike Tyson
#5- George Foreman
#6- Joe Frazier
#7- Sonny Liston

^^^Those seven without question in my mind could of done it. Dempsey may be the only man, though, of the early 20th century (first half) who could of done it because he had such experience beating physically superior opponents. Some will ask "Why not Louis?"... again, Joe had a notoriously soft chin for a heavyweight, and he was a stalker in that ring. From the waist up he was perfection, a pure executioner, and sure he beat some giant men--- but I don't believe he could of gotten passed the battering ram jab of Lewis's.

The other "possible" three who could of done it... but I'd say their chances are 40%... Tunney, Jeffries and Johnson

Put the great Evander Holyfield in that list, too. In his prime, Holyfield was an all out warrior.

Heartbreak_Kid79 wrote:

elmersalsa wrote: He beat two washed up legends in the greats of Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. The second fight with Holyfield, some say that they gave him that fight to make up for the first one. Some people say that Holy really won the second fight.
.

Most Americans had Holyfield as a heavy favourite against Lewis in their first fight.
Holyfield was 36... hardly an OAP in heavyweight terms.
It was only afterwards that people were saying Evander was washed up rather than actually give Lewis any credit for dominating him.

As for the rematch... it was closer but Lewis was still a clear winner.
Again the Americans refusing to give Lewis his due.

Granted Tyson was a faded name when Lewis got him.
However the Tyson that Evander beat was no prime Tyson either.

That's not true at all. For starters, people were saying Holyfield was past his best as far back as the first Bowe fight. His victories vs Tyson were seen as super-human at the time (whereas in retrospect Tyson would've probably lost to a handful of HWs by that point) and he was subsequently given the benefit of the doubt, but he'd not looked good in large swaths of the Moorer rematch and also looked poor vs Bean.

Evander also at 36 was more like 40 in terms of wear and tear. The Qawi and Bowe wars alone took years off his career.

Tuan_Jim wrote: 36 is very old in any sport, especially boxing.

A large number of HW champions in the modern era have been champions in their mid 30s. That was my point.
Wladimir is still their now at 38! Then look at Lewis, Vitali, Sanders, Byrd, Valuev, Chageuv, Briggs, Maskeav, Stiverne ... all made it to the top in their mid 30s plus. In fact it seems more common nowadays to have an older HW champion than a guy in his 20s
For smaller, quicker weight divisions, 36 would be old. But heavyweights seem to mature later.

I still have a 1999 documentary leading up to the first Holyfield vs Lewis, they interviewed several Americans leading up to fight who all claimed Holy would KO Lewis within 3 rounds.
Nobody outside the UK seemed to give Lewis a chance, he was much better than a lot of Americans give credit for.

Evander was a great fighter in his day, but was very well connected (Mr King) in terms of getting title shots... heck, even after losing his previous match (vs 2nd Lewis match, Ibragimov) he got immediate title matches (that weren't even rematches) ie vs Ruiz in 2000, and Valuev in 2008.
Lewis was frozen out of the picture for 3 years after McCall.... Evander was always in line for a shot, despite spotty win-loss records

For me only Holmes would be .500+ versus Lennox. So that puts him at number two.

Absolutely nothing you wrote rebuts the fact that Holyfield was an old man. Nothing.

To rattle of a bunch of ABC titlists who grabbed belts in the post Lewis/Holyfield/Tyson/Bowe vacuum only shows how poor the division became as the last great cycle grew too old to box. Ruslan Chagaev . . . Jesus Christ.

Lennox would just get in to the top 10. That's how I have him ranked.

Ali
Holmes
Fraizer
Foreman
Louis
Holyfield
Liston
Johnson


All rank above Lennox Lewis for me. having at any point thereafter up to 15 is good by me.

Yes We Can wrote:Ali
Holmes
Fraizer
Foreman
Louis
Holyfield
Liston
Johnson


All rank above Lennox Lewis for me. having at any point thereafter up to 15 is good by me.

Lennox beat Holyfield?

elmersalsa wrote:

SNG wrote:'But got knocked out twice when it should not be'

When it should not be what?

He should not lose to the BUMS that he lost. It counts against him BIG TIME

talk to me about Kirkland Laing, elmo

Counter-puncher wrote:

elmersalsa wrote:

SNG wrote:'But got knocked out twice when it should not be'

When it should not be what?

He should not lose to the BUMS that he lost. It counts against him BIG TIME

talk to me about Kirkland Laing, elmo

Using logic in a boxing debate?

Counter-puncher wrote:

elmersalsa wrote:

SNG wrote:'But got knocked out twice when it should not be'

When it should not be what?

He should not lose to the BUMS that he lost. It counts against him BIG TIME

talk to me about Kirkland Laing, elmo

That would have never happened in the prime of the hands of stone. Lennox got knocked out twice in his prime years.