Lewis - the great intimidator!

For me Lewis was a much better fighter and champion then most give him credit for. If you look back at his career you realise that many of his peers had a real respect for the man although they never admitted it publically. When Lewis was champ he had an aura about him that effected many opponents.

I don't know if it was his size, or his calm demeanor but he had a distinctive but intangible quality that seemed to surround him. IMO the following fighters BOTTLED it when they met him in the ring....

David Tua - After making a name for himself as a bit of a brute and power house many anticipated an upset but Tua never turned up and Lewis controled the fight fairly easily.

Micheal Grant - The next big thing when he stepped into the ring with Lennox. Gave a good account of himself in the first round but when Lewis put a little pressure on him Grant dissapointed a lot of people and basiclly wilted too soon.

Henry Akinwande - What the hell happened to Henry that night? He just wanted to grab hold of Lewis all night. No desire to fight Lewis and of course Mills Lane had enough.

Oliver Mcall - The famous 2nd fight. Lewis had obviously taken the daz door step challange with his illuminous bright white shots, Mcall broke down and the rest is history.

I would also include Riddick Bowe who never even stepped into the ring with Lennox. Of course not every fighter was effected by Lewis's presence but a fair few were. Props to Bruno, Mercer, and Holyfield for having a go but they failed to beat him. Tyson had an aura which was based on sheer aggression and brute force but Lewis was the opposite. Calm, calculated and methodical great heavyweight champ.

With Lewis I always felt that his mental aura was more of a guy that was very hard to intimidate, as opposed to being intimidating himself per se.

Agreed Manos, the only fighter he faced that I thought was intimidated was Akinwande. Tua and Grant gave it a go before finding the task a bit too difficult.

You forgot about that Polish fellow Galota, I don't think he managed to throw a punch befor being stopped and Donovan didn't fare much better. It seems to me that Lewis has more fans now than he had when he was fighting.When Mannie Steward became his trainer I thought he was the best around.

Great article, with an interesting perspective.

Perhaps I have a slightly different/lower opinion of Lewis than you do, but I always thought that this "aura" was because no one really knew who he was in a sporting sense of the word. He always seemed a little distant to me, never really engaging with the media and just saying what he thought they wanted to hear. Nothing wrong with that, maybe he is just more of a private/reserved person.

I also think this distance transcened into the ring, in that other fighters never really knew what his intentions/style was going to be. He could rough it up and be a puncher, or he could keep it safe and box. This is testament to his talent that he was so versatile, but it also perhaps made his fights a little bit more boring because a) he was reserved and content to be patient and study his opponent for the first few rounds, and b) because of this, the opponent was often relucatant to commit.

Finally, I think the second of these points was further excaserbated by Lewis' size and power, and the fact that other fighters knew that if they went in OTT and careless, Lewis could pick them off. This IMO led to a few phoney wars with both boxers not sure what their next move should be.

A very good fighter, but I personally do not rate him as highly as most here, although I do agree he got a lot better when Steward came on the scene.

Does anyone think Lewis' stock has risen because of what followed and the passage of time makes people look back with a certain nostalgia?

People are now saying that he went fot the KO more often than not? Is that so? I recall Manny frequently imploring him to get the opponent out of there instead of boxing safety first? Holy round 5 springs to mind. Perhaps his 2 KO losses played in his mind and he was also hesitant to finish a fighter off.

Level of opposition played a part in that, only times I recall him being hesitant were against Holyfield and Tyson, against the level below he was more often than not brutally efficient in finishing them off. There is of course the Tua and Mavrovic fights but he hit them hard enough and often enough to finish off 95% of heavyweights.

Nathan you make a good point about how Lewis carried himself out of the ring. He was known (for a while) as the ice man or something along those lines and he was a cool customer in and out of the ring.

Not a real trash talking fighter although he did dish it out now and again but someone who you got the impression had a plan and would not divulge too much information. Those are the worst guys to fight as you can't read them like you could most.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Level of opposition played a part in that, only times I recall him being hesitant were against Holyfield and Tyson, against the level below he was more often than not brutally efficient in finishing them off. There is of course the Tua and Mavrovic fights but he hit them hard enough and often enough to finish off 95% of heavyweights.

I'm sure you've read and heard Manny complaining that Lennox spends too much time playing chess and it affected his boxing.

I think the reason Lewis's stock has risen is because of the K-brothers and the current state of the heavyweight division. Also because Lewis was part of a very good era for heavyweights with the likes of Tyson, Holy, Forman, Moorer, Morrison, Rudduck and even Bruno. An era second only to the 70's era of heavyweight boxing imo.