Pugilist Specialist - The GOAT HW or smoke and mirrors?

For me, when somebody asks me who is the GOAT HW, my thoughts focus on only 6 fighters and of those I can shortlist 3 of them.

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Wladimir Klitchko
3. Vitali Klitschko
4. Riddick Bowe
5. Evander Holyfield
6. Mike Tyson

For this article I want to focus on The Lion, My pick for the #1 HW, Lennox Lewis.

Post 1994, the champions had to always face tough contenders. Lewis, who was a genuine superheavyweight had to fight some really good fighters

1) Tommy Morrision – Genuine heavyweight with a razor left hook.
2) Donovon Ruddock – Good solid puncher, who gave Tyson tough battle in two fights.
3) Andrew Golota – The foul pole, who gave a hiding to the 260 pound, 6 foot 5 Riddick Bowe.
4) Evander Holyfield – Though a small heavyweight, he was a tough one to beat because of his solid chin.
5) Mike Tyson – Almost washed up, but was still dangerous at times.
6) David Tua – Who can forget his 19 second knockout of John Ruiz and 30 second knockout of Michael Mooorer.
7) Hashim Rahman – The one, who upset Lewis, but got thrased in the rematch. A solid puncher with almost 70% knockouts. Had a 82 inch reach and was a good fighter.
8) Oliver Mccall – Who knocked out Lewis via TKO, but suffered drug problems. But never seemed to do anything worthwhile in the rematch
9) Shannon Briggs – A young heavyweight during 1994, had decent punching power, stood at 6 foot 4 and weighed 230 plus pounds.
10) Michael Grant – A tall 6 foot 7 boxer with a solid record till he met Lewis.
11) Vitali Klitschko - Never lost more than 2 rounds, never been behind on the scorecards, never suffered a clear loss and never even been off his feet let alone knocked out in a professional boxing match.
12) Ray Mercer - A good solid HW with deceptive skill and a solid chin who shockingly stopped an unbeaten Tommy Morrison in his rise to the top.

Basically, Lewis had atleast 12 solid boxers, 10 of them being former title holders in his resume.
1) Lewis faced two boxers taller than him (Vitali and Michael Grant)
2) Lewis had to fight contenders, who always had a punchers chance (Tommy MOrrison, David Tua, Tyson, and Ruddock)

Tell me how does this man not deserve to be considered the GOAT after these accomplishments?

George Foreman said it best..

"Even at my best.. I don't think I could have ever beaten Lennox Lewis" (a rare moment of honesty from a former HW champ)

And this...

"It is now beyond all doubt... Lennox Lewis is the greatest heavyweight of all time. He is not second anymore... He is right there, at the top!"

I tend to agree!

I think of Lewis, holmes, and holyfield....

Definitely not gene tunney, dempsey, jack johnson, or these other primitive fighters that are listed in the atg top 10 lol by old men... These primitive fighters would have been journeymans in the modern era..

Jack dempsey... seriously? Owen beck and monte barrett probably would have beaten him.

I would re-mortgage my house to bet it all on Beck or Barrett to beat Dempsey LOL

Yes although I did not list Holmes personally I have no issue rating him among the greatest HW's.

He is another who like Lewis- their career can be highlighted in either a positive or negative light. But truthfully it takes more than a puncher to put him away. I would have liked to see him fight Foreman at some stage. I think Holmes could have outboxed him most times.

Yes for the purposes of this thread I think we can safely disregard anything "black and white" without too much resistance (hopefully lol).

The thing is many factors of Lewis's career have been reflected on negatively and call into question his true worth and some consider him less than one of more of the other 6 fighters I listed (or Holmes or Foreman for that matter) because of numerous reasons.

Hopefully "That's all" you will have to contribute!

Lennox The Lion Lewis was second only to The Greatest Muhammad Ali'
Lennox beat every man he ever faced in the pro ring & retired with nothing else left to prove

Can you really see Muhammad Ali making his way through that list of opponents? Let alone Lennox Lewis himself? Not likely!

Foreman is about the only comparable opponent to any on that list for Ali. Sorry but I find difficulty in selecting Ali for a top 10 position let alone a number 1.

Muhammad does have a good record in world title fights and is a toplist fighter for this category by any measure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C.J.Rock

Lennox The Lion Lewis was second only to The Greatest Muhammad Ali'
Lennox beat every man he ever faced in the pro ring & retired with nothing else left to prove

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Lewis beats ali...

Lewis has much better resume than wlad..

Quote:

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Lewis beats ali...

Lewis has much better resume than wlad..

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I too like Lewis's resume better than Wlad's and rank him 1st. It's not so much Lewis's opponents were so much better (as I'm attempting to do Wlad a service and outline on the other thread) but Wlad's was padded with some more lack lustre competition whereas Lewis is chock full of the very best. He seems to have purposely skipped weak opponents and bums, even dropping belts, to fight the very best that were available whilst Wlad has seemed content to cherry pick guys like Jean Marc Mormeck at times.

I think the 90's HW's were the absolute pinnacle overall as well and the Wlad era has been just a slight decline. I really do think had Wlad faced Lenny instead of Vitali at that time, Lennox would have wasted him as Sander's did.