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[Afro]

I was watching ESPN Who's Number One? the other day Top 20 Boxers

They had Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson on the list.. no Lennox Lewis, they mentioned honorable mentions... no Lennox Lewis. So they put two boxers he has beaten over him and dont even mention him at all.. and if you google Top Boxers of all-time you'll occasionally see a Mike Tyson or Evander, and Lennox is no where in SIGHT! Why is this? what was it about Lennox that leaves him out of these discussions but yet includes Boxers he has beaten?

[Luis Cruz]

Because he beat them when they were past their primes. lol Lennox Lewis is overrated in most instances. I probably wouldn't mention him in a top 20 either, maybe honorable mention, but not a top list of fighters. He was around a while but yet no one knew him and that's simply because he didn't beat anyone or look for anyone until they past their primes then ran with a starved Heavyweight division. His biggest win was Vitali Klitschko who WAS in his prime but even that fight he was losing and was stopped from a cut. But Vitali is a nobody too and he won't be in anyones all time top list either. The only person who truly believed Lennox to be one of the all time greatest boxers is..........well Lennox. He was his biggest fan and wasn't shy about sharing it. He was an average boxer among a list of greats.

[Punk Ass]

Originally Posted by Luis Cruz

Because he beat them when they were past their primes. lol Lennox Lewis is overrated in most instances. I probably wouldn't mention him in a top 20 either, maybe honorable mention, but not a top list of fighters. He was around a while but yet no one knew him and that's simply because he didn't beat anyone or look for anyone until they past their primes then ran with a starved Heavyweight division. His biggest win was Vitali Klitschko who WAS in his prime but even that fight he was losing and was stopped from a cut. But Vitali is a nobody too and he won't be in anyones all time top list either. The only person who truly believed Lennox to be one of the all time greatest boxers is..........well Lennox. He was his biggest fan and wasn't shy about sharing it. He was an average boxer among a list of greats.

Well I think your being a bit too harsh. Lennox was a great fighter, but his lack of formidable opponents and tendencies to be a little lazy and get himself KOed, probably kept him off the list.

Holyfield was boxing at a time when their many very good HWs who were all in their prime, except for Forman who eventually won the title from a prime Micheal Moorer who beat Holyfield. Evander beat the man that ended Tysons rain, and had 3 amazing fights against Riddick Boe. Just to eventually KO Tyson. Holyfield was undeniably the best CW fighter ever and a legend at HW.

The reason Mike Tyson makes the list I think speaks for itself. He cleaned out the HW division, was the undesputed champion of the world,, having all 3 titles, the youngest champion ever, explosively fast, frighteningly powerful, boxing has never seen anything like a prime tyson and that's why everyone feared him.

[Luis Cruz]

Originally Posted by harlemhustla145

Well I think your being a bit too harsh. Lennox was a great fighter, but his lack of formidable opponents and tendencies to be a little lazy and get himself KOed, probably kept him off the list.

Holyfield was boxing at a time when their many very good HWs who were all in their prime, except for Forman who eventually won the title from a prime Micheal Moorer who beat Holyfield. Evander beat the man that ended Tysons rain, and had 3 amazing fights against Riddick Boe. Just to eventually KO Tyson. Holyfield was undeniably the best CW fighter ever and a legend at HW.

The reason Mike Tyson makes the list I think speaks for itself. He cleaned out the HW division, was the undesputed champion of the world,, having all 3 titles, the youngest champion ever, explosively fast, frighteningly powerful, boxing has never seen anything like a prime tyson and that's why everyone feared him.

I agree with everything you said but the point of my earlier post was because of what you said, he didn't take on formidable opponents until they past their prime, a bunch of them. He was around when all these guys were in their prime, he was just tucked away safely staying away letting them fight each other while he padded his record in his country. He really wasn't that great of a fighter. Him and Bowe i believe started their careers around the same time so there's no excuse for him to wait so long to fight Holyfield. I think Holyfield would've beat him 5 out of 5 times if they fought when Holyfield was in his prime. He struggled against him twice and that was a Holyfield starting his decline, not as bad as today obviously but he wasn't in his prime for about 4 years, maybe 5.

[Punk Ass]

Agreed

[Salvy_Mic]

Just to add what Luis and Hustla said, but part of the reason Lennox is not considered one of the all-time great heavyweights are the shocking losses he suffered at the hands of Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman. Sure, he got his wins back, but those were fights he should have won dominantly the first time around. Sure, Ali was upset, but until his loss to Leon Spinks (when Ali was already declining), the only losses in his career were to another legend, Joe Frazier, and one of the more underrated heavyweight champs, Ken Norton, both of whom were in their own primes.

[Dork8503]

yeah agree, i think lennox knew he was in trouble in the vitali fight and after that cut he got the win and figured in a rematch he would loose, so just retire, and i agree he fought to many people after there prime, like evander and tyson are just the ones i can think of right now and loosing to hasim was shit because hasim is not a good boxer imo i think he is shit, and oliver was shit too, but i still liked to watch lewis box,

[nyckid]

I think it's because he's gay

[Jones]

Originally Posted by Luis Cruz

I agree with everything you said but the point of my earlier post was because of what you said, he didn't take on formidable opponents until they past their prime, a bunch of them. He was around when all these guys were in their prime, he was just tucked away safely staying away letting them fight each other while he padded his record in his country. He really wasn't that great of a fighter. Him and Bowe i believe started their careers around the same time so there's no excuse for him to wait so long to fight Holyfield. I think Holyfield would've beat him 5 out of 5 times if they fought when Holyfield was in his prime. He struggled against him twice and that was a Holyfield starting his decline, not as bad as today obviously but he wasn't in his prime for about 4 years, maybe 5.

LOL!!!! I think you should stick to the MMA section, Luis. You obviously don't know jack f*ck about boxing, let alone Lennox Lewis and the era he fought in. You know nothing. You weren't watching boxing back in his day when he was fighting. At least that's what it seems like by reading your ignorant post. Everything you mentioned in your post is completely false. 100% complete crap that you just posted.
Read up on your boxing history my friend, you'll learn something. Find some of those old Ring Magazines, visit some of the good boxing websites out there. You'll learn. And when you learn, you'll come back here and read your post and then smack yourself for how ignorant you were with your original post.

[Jones]

Originally Posted by Luis Cruz

Because he beat them when they were past their primes. lol Lennox Lewis is overrated in most instances. I probably wouldn't mention him in a top 20 either, maybe honorable mention, but not a top list of fighters. He was around a while but yet no one knew him and that's simply because he didn't beat anyone or look for anyone until they past their primes then ran with a starved Heavyweight division. His biggest win was Vitali Klitschko who WAS in his prime but even that fight he was losing and was stopped from a cut. But Vitali is a nobody too and he won't be in anyones all time top list either. The only person who truly believed Lennox to be one of the all time greatest boxers is..........well Lennox. He was his biggest fan and wasn't shy about sharing it. He was an average boxer among a list of greats.

Another ignorant post. Well done!!! LOL
If you actually watched boxing at the time and paid any attention, you'd have realized that Lennox Lewis was completely frozen out of the picture by the so-called champions and particularly by DON KING. Lewis refusing to sign with the devil cost him many opportunites, leading to being frozen out of the title picture. Just the same as Don King did to Tim Witherspoon and many other fighters who tried to find success without signing with King. That's how strong a grip Don King had in the sport of boxing. And as you see now, he f*cked over most if not all his fighters at one time or another, or completely robbed them of their money. Something Lewis protected himself from happening by not signing with King. Smart move you can say now that you look back at history. But not all the fault was with King, most of the fault was with the boxers themselves who wanted a low risk/high reward path to greatness. Now here's some history for you:
Mike Tyson had his chance to defend his WBC title against his mandatory challenger Lennox Lewis in 1996. Tyson paid Lewis $4 million in court to step aside so he could fight that bum Bruce Seldon who took a dive. Tyson then threw away the WBC title to avoid Lewis and the title went to vacancy which Lewis fought for against #2 rated challenger Oliver McCall. Tyson decided to duck Lewis so he could take on the supposedly shot Holyfield but Holyfield obviously wasn't as shot as Tyson had thought.
Riddick Bowe, same thing. Riddick beat Holyfield and unified the championship in 1992. His mandatory challenger was Lennox Lewis. Bowe, scared to death perhaps from their meeting at the Olympics when Lewis beat his ass, decided to duck his mandatory challenge and on public tv, threw the WBC title into a garbage can, and decided to fight the walking dead man Michael Dokes and completely shot Jesse Ferguson. Smart matchmaking! What a great champion he was! LOL!
Evander Holyfield, now here's a true warrior and a true champion who is too brave for his own good. So likely he would've fought Lennox Lewis when nobody else would. Not so!
Evander chose to fight anybody whose name wasn't Lennox Lewis, and despite Lewis offering him several times to get the fight made, Holyfield would have nothing to do with it. When there was no more Tyson, no more Bowe, and no more Moorer in the multi-million dollar picture, Holyfield decided to finally give Lennox Lewis a shot. But there would be a very hefty price tag.
Holyfield would price himself up so highly that it would almost become impossible for the fight to be made. Lennox agreed to take the far smaller cut just so that the unification fight could be made. But Holyfield over 2 years would not agree to anything less than $20 million. When Lewis gave him $20 million, Holyfield would then ask for $25 million. When given $25 million, Holyfield would then demand $30 million. This charade of negotiations would keep the fight stalled for 2 years until eventually Holyfield realized he needed to make money so he finally gave in and took the fight.

Now, as for Lennox Lewis beating these big names past their primes, I'd think you need to look at Tyson himself and wonder who the hell he ever beat that was this grand figure in the squared circle? His best win being over a 37 year old fat saggy Larry Holmes who came into the fight after a 2 year layoff and no tune ups whatsoever.
Most of Tyson's other comp being B- level at best. Certainly no prime Ali, Holyfield, Foreman level competition in his short era. And also having never avenged a single loss in his entire pro career. But of course, he was exciting to watch hence his popularity.
Lewis on the other hand, a non-american, actually a british boxer who normally isn't given the time of day by american fight fans. Just like as is today, when a non-american fights in the UFC and gets booed. And you wonder why?
If you take a close look, you will notice that Lennox fought the toughest fighters of his era, and his competition level was no worse than the likes of Tyson nor Holyfield. He fought them all, some of them at the height of their powers.
This would be comparable to say a Tito Ortiz who ruled 205 for a long time. When people look back, they say "Who the hell did Tito ever beat?" Well, he beat them back when they were running the division. Maybe they don't mean anything now, several years later.
That's the same attitude people have towards Lewis. But when you actually watched the sport at the time when the fights were happening and lived through that era, you have a completely different appreciation for these fighters.
Even many americans turned around and began giving Lewis his due when they realized that he was indeed the real deal and not just some pompous bum beater. He beat them as they came. He was the last man to unify the championship in November 1999. And he beat every top contender in his era.
Not much more you can do than that. But if you want to call him a bum and say he never fought anybody and lost to bums, go right ahead. That's the same ignorance shown by you that is shown on the UFC ppvs when those drunk fans boo all the fighters despite the fighters being impressive. Maybe it was Lewis' style that didn't work for you. But he sure as hell never took a path of soft touches. He went out and beat the #1 mandatory Vitali Klitschko before he retired, even despite being 37 years old and near the end of the road. If you think Vitali was a bum, you're dead wrong.