The better HW of their era, Holyfield or Lewis?

[GAME]

Prime for prime I think we'd see the same result.

You have to ask when was Evanders prime. If it was teh early 90s then logic dictates that if a cruiserweight like Cooper could hurt Evander then Lewis would have finished him. If a prime versiuon of Evander was the guy who beat Tyson then Lewis fought him and beat him twice. Evander was a great champion but Lennox had all the pyhiscal tools, too much power, great jab and had his number and would be a hard man to beat against any heavyweight champ in history.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

I've always rated Lennox Lewis highly as a Champion because of his consistency(reign), dominance (unifications) and Ability (Era). As a champion I think Lewis was better than most but as a fighters fighter, or even a boxers boxer, P4P Holyfield was by far the better man. Its just a shame his career as a Heavyweight was so patchy.

I still belive Holyfield wouldn't of looked so bad if he wasn't fighting tricky guys like Bryd, Donald & Toney so late into his career... Maybe the Ruiz trilogy had him fooled

I've said this before but I believe Evander should have retired after the second Lewis fight and if he had I think that the boxing world would regard him as high as 3# all time HW. I know I would. All the shit defeats such as Ruiz, Toney, Donald and Byrd that came after Evander had lost it just shouldn't have happened. People say Ali doesn't get knocked down the ATG ladder for his poor ending but he knew after losing to Berbick it was over and didn't wait around for other shit fighters to beat him too.

Yeah I dunno... Holyfield is all heart so he was never (is never) gonna give up fighting but I guess he could of been more shrewd with his opponent selection at the age of 36... But then I guess 99% of these warrior types don't ever make for clever matchmakers.

[Spicoli]

Prime for prime I think we'd see the same result.

You have to ask when was Evanders prime. If it was teh early 90s then logic dictates that if a cruiserweight like Cooper could hurt Evander then Lewis would have finished him. If a prime versiuon of Evander was the guy who beat Tyson then Lewis fought him and beat him twice. Evander was a great champion but Lennox had all the pyhiscal tools, too much power, great jab and had his number and would be a hard man to beat against any heavyweight champ in history.

Cooper was a legitimate heavyweight puncher but don't think he hit harder then Foreman...who bounced everything he could off Holyfield in prior fight and didnt do what Cooper did. Holyfields head was all wrong in front of hometown crowd and going from originally being set to meet Mike Tyson who pulled out....then Francesco Damiani....then to literal last minute sub for a sub, Cooper.

Do think Cooper is THE man to have hurt him the worst in career though. Out of everyone,just weird how it translates.

[VictorCharlie]

Evander was a great technical boxer and counter puncher unfortunately for him he wanted to be a KO artist. He all to often abandoned his boxing and was drawn into slugfests. I think his desire to have KO power at HW caused him to add too much muscle and lead to his heart and stamina issues.

[ICB]

Prime for prime I think we'd see the same result.

You have to ask when was Evanders prime. If it was teh early 90s then logic dictates that if a cruiserweight like Cooper could hurt Evander then Lewis would have finished him. If a prime versiuon of Evander was the guy who beat Tyson then Lewis fought him and beat him twice. Evander was a great champion but Lennox had all the pyhiscal tools, too much power, great jab and had his number and would be a hard man to beat against any heavyweight champ in history.

Cooper was a legitimate heavyweight puncher but don't think he hit harder then Foreman...who bounced everything he could off Holyfield in prior fight and didnt do what Cooper did. Holyfields head was all wrong in front of hometown crowd and going from originally being set to meet Mike Tyson who pulled out....then Francesco Damiani....then to literal last minute sub for a sub, Cooper.

Do think Cooper is THE man to have hurt him the worst in career though. Out of everyone,just weird how it translates.

Bert Cooper was on a nice little run then aswell, also giving Michael Moorer hell.

[GAME]

I think the reason Holyfield took Foremans punch but struggled with Coopers is cuz he saw Foremans coming. They were sent second class so Evander was able to prepare. Lewis' culd land quicker and changed the angles of his shots ( Rahman 2 ) Bowe knocked Holyfield out aswel before Evander had his best wins. Problem with Evander is that he always wanted to trade with biggr men when he would have been better served using his speed to get in and out.

[NUCLEAR BULL]

both holyfield and lewis were great hence there both in everyones all time great heavyweights..........i have to say i like holyfield a bit more...i have alot of both there fights i'm such a fan of them.....for me holyfield did some unbelivable things like beating bowe in the re-match beating tyson twice when he was deemed wash-up...the fact he was only 14.5 stone or 204 lbs when he first become heavyweight champ and hanged with big hitters like big foreman, bowe, holmes makes him a warrior........lewis did some super stuff to.....i edge holyfield for the excitment factor

[Spicoli]

I think the reason Holyfield took Foremans punch but struggled with Coopers is cuz he saw Foremans coming. They were sent second class so Evander was able to prepare. Lewis' culd land quicker and changed the angles of his shots ( Rahman 2 ) Bowe knocked Holyfield out aswel before Evander had his best wins. Problem with Evander is that he always wanted to trade with biggr men when he would have been better served using his speed to get in and out.

I think it was more of a fluky thing, a true brick that any big man is capable of on any given night. He landed after 3rd, and Evander took em. After all, pretty sure he didn't see that brutal pin point uppercut in the 10th round coming from the best version of Bowe we've seen. Same round ended fairly well for him I'd say.
Tyson win was great. Considering some pundits and fans considered 'that' version of Holyfield a walking dead man going in. He did however have some best wins at hvy before Bowe ko. I'd say discipline and style he showed in Foreman and Bowe 2 would suit him well vs Lewis in any form. Better then 'later' version who was gifted a draw and did after all end up on otherside of a debatable 2nd fight.

[Johnny99]

I think if this was a question of who had the better career overall then with the great fights and world titles at cruiser Evander makes it much closer, although in saying that David Haye seems to recieve little to no credit from many for entering the HW ranks as undisputed cruiser champ. I think that Evanders win over a much better version of Tyson than the one Lennox fought was a huge win because many HWs at that time would have lost to Tyson before the bell rang mentally Evander was on that night. In an earlier post it was mentioned that Evander is 1 from 5 with Bowe and Lewis and this clinches it for Lennox for me especially with Bowes refusal to face him as this emphasises Lewis consistency granted he switched off twice in his career but was emphatic in the rematches Rahman especially. He was also more exciting than people give him credit for explosive KOs against Golota, Grant, Botha, Ruddock and great fights with Briggs, Bruno, Vitali