BoxRec

Conventional wisdom suggests his peak was around the age of 34-36, when he trounced Grant, Botha, Tua, Rahman in the rematch, and Tyson.

Do you agree with this? Or do you think his physical peak came earlier and it was increased experience which allowed to win the above matches so easily?

How would a younger Lewis have fared in those matches? Better or worse?

97-02 sounds more or less right to me. He was at his peak during a time most fighters are calling it a day. He was good when he was younger but a little clumsy & not yet as poised as he would later be.

oliverfennell wrote:Conventional wisdom suggests his peak was around the age of 34-36, when he trounced Grant, Botha, Tua, Rahman in the rematch, and Tyson.

Do you agree with this? Or do you think his physical peak came earlier and it was increased experience which allowed to win the above matches so easily?

How would a younger Lewis have fared in those matches? Better or worse?

I think he was best at his medium stage 1995-99 for the Morrison, Mercer, Briggs bouts.

The judges seemed to indicated his peak was during his second fight with Holyfield. But wait the judges from both the first and the second encounter may have been peaking themselves....on some sort of controlled substance.

BoxBuzz wrote:The judges seemed to indicated his peak was during his second fight with Holyfield. But wait the judges from both the first and the second encounter may have been peaking themselves....on some sort of controlled substance.

That is funny!! Yet probably true.....

Not a Boxing Expert, but wondering, which opponents in their prime did he beat ....

Like Tyson was over the hil....
Holyfield??

Well, without doing anything more than going off the top of my head, mind you, I'd say the following scalps were probably fighters in or close to their primes...

Michael Grant
Hasim Rahman
David Tua
Andrew Golota
Donovan Ruddock
Tommy Morrison
Ray Mercer

I'm sure there are others, or that some will dispute whether or not fighter X was in their prime. Keep in mind Lewis had not yet hit his own peak when he beat some of the names I mentioned there.

observer1 wrote:Not a Boxing Expert, but wondering, which opponents in their prime did he beat ....

Like Tyson was over the hil....
Holyfield??

No one because all the others were washed up fighters like holyfield and tyson.
Morrison made a pathetic performance against lewis and he was in terrible shape,mercer destroyed prime morrison like a maggot in 5 rounds even if morrison was ahead.
Lewis was in the prime against rahman and he lost with a single punch he is the only champion who lost with a single punche in his prime. lewis glass chin

Is Morrions even a Rated Boxer??

i always thought Lewis fought most of his opponents at the "Right Time"

Lewis fought all the best that were available, except Bowe who didn't want to know!

...lewis was at his peak around 10:30 pm central time...

How does a fighter with a glass chin have a peak?

granberry wrote:How does a fighter with a glass chin have a peak?

Because in 44 fights he was KO'd 2 times, by shots he didnt really see coming, both of which would knock out most heaveyweights.

Please tell me this is more of your BotP Forum humor.

JAHamilton77 wrote:

granberry wrote:How does a fighter with a glass chin have a peak?

Because in 44 fights he was KO'd 2 times, by shots he didnt really see coming, both of which would knock out most heaveyweights.

Please tell me this is more of your BotP Forum humor.

knock out most heaveyweights????
I can't see an all time great being koed by a punch like mcall gave to lennox.
I can see a lot of all time greats who couldn't be koed by punches like that.
Lewis had a glass chin no doubt.

Great question.

Lennox enjoyed 2 peaks; a physical peak from about 92 - 96 & a boxing peak from 96 - 01.

If Lennox had the right trainer from the start of his career, it's doubtful whether anybody of his era would have beaten him.

dempseyfire wrote:

oliverfennell wrote:Conventional wisdom suggests his peak was around the age of 34-36, when he trounced Grant, Botha, Tua, Rahman in the rematch, and Tyson.

Do you agree with this? Or do you think his physical peak came earlier and it was increased experience which allowed to win the above matches so easily?

How would a younger Lewis have fared in those matches? Better or worse?

I think he was best at his medium stage 1995-99 for the Morrison, Mercer, Briggs bouts.

many people inluding myself saw lewis possibly/if not lose the mercer fight, he was outjabbed and outfought in the trenches by mercer

Upon watching Lewis - Mercer...

It really makes you wish Mercer took his career, and his conditioning alot more seriously.

chiricahua wrote:

JAHamilton77 wrote:

granberry wrote:How does a fighter with a glass chin have a peak?

Because in 44 fights he was KO'd 2 times, by shots he didnt really see coming, both of which would knock out most heaveyweights.

Please tell me this is more of your BotP Forum humor.

knock out most heaveyweights????
I can't see an all time great being koed by a punch like mcall gave to lennox.
I can see a lot of all time greats who couldn't be koed by punches like that.
Lewis had a glass chin no doubt.

Judging by your earlier response you have no perspective on the issue.

I think they should split BotP Forum into 2 Forums.

Pre-1990 & Post 1990 because the people who like the former are often ill informed on the latter.

Personally I don't go in for the, "punches that would have knocked out any Heavyweight" line.

I just don't see that McCall & Rahman KO'ed many world-class Heavyweights of their day with one shot, let alone fighters like Ali, Frazier, Tyson, Holyfield, Holmes etc.

The truth of the matter is Lewis' chin & recuperative powers simply aren't very good.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Personally I don't go in for the, "punches that would have knocked out any Heavyweight" line.

I just don't see that McCall & Rahman KO'ed many world-class Heavyweights of their day with one shot, let alone fighters like Ali, Frazier, Tyson, Holyfield, Holmes etc.

The truth of the matter is Lewis' chin & recuperative powers simply aren't very good.

Then other than those where are the KOs or numerous knockdowns to bear this out.

Its party line thinking.

Lewis was just flat-out too good for the competition, & you gotta respect him for that (though many find a way not to).

Lewis was a lot bigger than most of his opponents, & this had a fair bit to do with his victories. He was 6'5", 245lbs & had an 84" reach. Lewis used this size, range & strength to outbox or overpower many adversaries. This is a credit to Lewis, as he is a great fighter, & the proof of that is that great fighters fight to their strengths. Lewis was better at this than most.

But don't think for a second there wouldn't have been more knockdowns (& KO's) if he were 6'2" & 215lbs. Lewis was a great champion &, in my view, a top 10 all-time Heavyweight. But again, how many world-class opponents did McCall & Rahman take out with one shot? Lewis' chin simply ain't very good. It may not be the worst like some make out, but this increasing movement of logic that dictates, "Anyone would've been KO'ed by those shots" is nonsense & unsupported by the facts.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Lewis was just flat-out too good for the competition, & you gotta respect him for that (though many find a way not to).

Lewis was a lot bigger than most of his opponents, & this had a fair bit to do with his victories. He was 6'5", 245lbs & had an 84" reach. Lewis used this size, range & strength to outbox or overpower many adversaries. This is a credit to Lewis, as he is a great fighter, & the proof of that is that great fighters fight to their strengths. Lewis was better at this than most.

But don't think for a second there wouldn't have been more knockdowns (& KO's) if he were 6'2" & 215lbs. Lewis was a great champion &, in my view, a top 10 all-time Heavyweight. But again, how many world-class opponents did McCall & Rahman take out with one shot? Lewis' chin simply ain't very good. It may not be the worst like some make out, but this increasing movement of logic that dictates, "Anyone would've been KO'ed by those shots" is nonsense & unsupported by the facts.

I agree.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Lewis was just flat-out too good for the competition, & you gotta respect him for that (though many find a way not to).

Lewis was a lot bigger than most of his opponents, & this had a fair bit to do with his victories. He was 6'5", 245lbs & had an 84" reach. Lewis used this size, range & strength to outbox or overpower many adversaries. This is a credit to Lewis, as he is a great fighter, & the proof of that is that great fighters fight to their strengths. Lewis was better at this than most.

But don't think for a second there wouldn't have been more knockdowns (& KO's) if he were 6'2" & 215lbs. Lewis was a great champion &, in my view, a top 10 all-time Heavyweight. But again, how many world-class opponents did McCall & Rahman take out with one shot? Lewis' chin simply ain't very good. It may not be the worst like some make out, but this increasing movement of logic that dictates, "Anyone would've been KO'ed by those shots" is nonsense & unsupported by the facts.

Also agree. McCall and Rahman failed to knockout any other truly top-shelf Heavyweights but both somehow "struck gold" vs Lennox?? Prrettyy big coincidence. Lewis actually was hurt/rocked many times throughout his career . .his opponents were just usually too old (Holyfield) too fatigued (Mercer, Briggs) or too clumsy (Bruno) to capitalize.

JAHamilton77 wrote:

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Personally I don't go in for the, "punches that would have knocked out any Heavyweight" line.

I just don't see that McCall & Rahman KO'ed many world-class Heavyweights of their day with one shot, let alone fighters like Ali, Frazier, Tyson, Holyfield, Holmes etc.

The truth of the matter is Lewis' chin & recuperative powers simply aren't very good.

Then other than those where are the KOs or numerous knockdowns to bear this out.

Its party line thinking.

I sort of agree with JA Hamilton. It's true that McCall and Rahman didn't have great Ko records, which normally would be an indication that Lewis didn't have a good chin. However, if you watch the fights, you will see that they were great punches, especially the Rahman one. It was a bomb that landed perfectly. Yes. its a coincidence that Rahman didn't do this more often. however, coincidences do happen.

Benitez wasn't a hard puncher at all, and he landed a devastating KO against Maurice Hope.
Tony Galento didn't score knockouts again impressive competition, but he knocked down Joe Louis.
Ali was knocked down by Banks,Cooper, and Wepner and not Shavers,Foreman and Liston.
Renaldo Snipes landed a bomb on Holmes and hurt him badly. Snipes wasn't that hard of a puncher.

You have to look at Lewis; whole career which consisted of 42 other fights including Tyson,Ruddock,Holyfield,Bruno,Mercer, and Tua. He wasn't even knocked down in any of them and seldom hurt.
Granted not all of his opponents were in their prime, but still his overall record shows he had a good, though not great chin.

How many left hooks from Tua, Tyson & Ruddock landed flush on Lewis' chin?

The proof is in the pudding.