how good was lennox lewis

[Fenster]

Lewis ducked Ruiz, Byrd and Toney?

Lets get some things in perspective.

1. No-one gave a shit about Lewis-Byrd. Don King, Byrd's promoter, paid Lewis $1million dollars to give up the IBF title, so Byrd-Holyfield could happen, whilst Lewis was contemplating retirement.

2. Ruiz turned down a Lewis fight on the date he fought Grant. Then got himself involved in the Holyfield WBA shit and lost to Jones. Ruiz being a serious challenger to Lewis is ridiculous.

3. Lewis basically retired after beating Tyson. He was only hanging around for a possible Tyson rematch and massive $30 million pot.

The date Lewis fought Vitali on was originally meant to be a Lewis/Tyson doubleheader. Tyson-Maskaev, Lewis-Johnson HBO PPV. However, Tyson pulled out. This is when Klitschko came into the picture. He fights on Lewis's undercard to set up a POSSIBLE match between the two. But Johnson pulls out so Lewis accepts Klitschko (to stop himself losing a fortune on the promotion).

For people that say they had the same preperation is just ridiculous.

Vitali was 31, a young hungry challenger trying to redeem the Klitschko name. He was seen as a coward. Wlad had just been splattered by Sanders. Lewis was 38, hadn't fought for a year, and spent that time contemplating retirement. Clearly their careers were in completely opposite places. Vitali was entering the fight of his life, with everything to gain and nothing to lose. Lewis was trying to save himself from losing a fortune against a guy that meant nothing to him.

Had Lewis lost there's no doubt there would have been a rematch. He didn't. And didn't need to prove anything against a fighter from a different generation to him.