And the only people who dare to disagree are prejudice Americans who at their core don't know shit about boxing.
I'm American, I come from a boxing background, and I disagree. I have no prejudice, and at my core I am a lifelong fan of boxing and I've actually been in the ring before. I know about boxing.
The fact of the matter is no one comes close to matching Lennox's resume. No one. He was an Olympic champion. His record was 41-2-1, where he avenged both losses in impressive fashion (brutally knocking out one and made the other cry while he quit), and the draw was horseshit that he would go on to avenge anyway. He beat every champion, legend, contender, and young lion from his era... every single one of them. There was nothing this man didn't do during his reign.
Well, he didn't go against the one guy in a rematch that looked to be able to beat him, and rather than face the worthy contender he turned tail and retired. The scorecards had Klitschko winning that fight before it was stopped for cuts(rightfully so) and Lewis was fortunate that it did end the way it did. The truth of that matter which you may or may not have been privy to, is that Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko met in private at Lennox Lewis' house to discuss a rematch. But, Lennox's mother didn't want him to fight Klitschko for fear of what might happen to him. That's the truth, and Lewis used it as an escape clause to retire rather than face the biggest challenge of his career and possibly lose.
Seriously, check out this list of victories.
Okay, let's do just that.
Vitali Klitschko - Top 5 GOAT.
I just talked about this one above. Rather than having a mandatory re-match he retired because he simply didn't want to face someone he wasn't sure he could beat. He had no real advantage over Klitschko physically which was what he relied on most, and we will get into that more down the list. This was a guy who he knew could get to him, that would go toe-to-toe, who took his best shots and kept coming. He wanted nothing to do with him after their first encounter, and he was well on his way to a loss before the fight was stopped due to cuts. In all fairness, you can't say those cuts caused themselves. Lewis did inflict damage to Klitschko causing the stoppage, but it looked worse than it was, and even Vitali himself wanted to keep going so it couldn't have been that bad. Lewis got away lucky on this one.
Evander Hoyfield - Top 10 GOAT. And beat him twice.
Correction, he beat him once. Their first fight was a draw s/d. Holyfield was on the decline, but besides that there is something else that needs to be addressed. Size and reach. Lewis' stature won the day against Holyfield, and a lot of other guys. The younger Holyfield was able to overcome size and reach at times as he displayed against Riddick Bowe. What was also displayed against Bowe was that he clearly had problems with guys that big, as anyone Holyfield's size generally does. He was a blown up Cruiserweight to begin with so size and reach were pretty significant here. If Lennox didn't have a 6 inch reach advantage, 3 inch height advantage, even the older Holyfield could likely get inside that jab.
Mike Tyson - Another top 10 GOAT. Was he past his prime? Yeah, but he was still very good and very, very, very dangerous, and Lennox made him look like a bum.
No, Tyson was a shell of his former self, nowhere near as good as he had been even before the Holyfield fights. This incarnation of Tyson was shot, disheartened and jaded with the sport, and fighting for nothing but a check. He wasn't even dangerous anymore, at least not to someone like Lewis or many of the other heavyweights in the division at the time. Tyson was all name recognition at this point. He made Tyson look like a bum, because that's what he was at this point. Once again, he was also incredibly larger than Tyson, more so than he was to Holyfield. Tyson always had trouble with big-tall guys like that. Early on in his career he was gifted enough to overcome the size of a lot of his opponents, but that didn't last too long.
Tommy Morrison - Not an all time great, but would still beat every Heavyweight today without the last name Klitschko.
Morrison was pretty good, not an all time great as you said, but he was long exposed by the time Lewis got to him and had been having a lot of trouble in his last slew of fights. He likely would beat most of todays crop not named Klitschko, but now we're talking about an entirely different era of boxing. Also, this is another opponent which Lewis had a great size advantage over.
David Tua - Had perhaps the most devastating punch in boxing history with his left hook and Lewis ate him alive.
David Tua was a heavybag with eyeballs. Sure, he was a big puncher, but saying he had perhaps the most devastating punch in boxing history is quite a stretch. He was a decent fighter, but once again you have a situation where the guy Lewis is fighting is much smaller than him.
Took Lewis to the brink in a close decision, and serves as another example of a smaller guy with a shorter reach that just couldn't get inside his long jab. I don't keep mentioning this to diminish Lewis either, he had a great jab, but a lot of that was due to his size and reach advantage over a lot of his opponents, it's just an obvious observation and tells the story more honestly.
Knocked him out, and lost a rematch.
Also knocked him out and lost a rematch.
One of the only bigger men Lewis ever fought, and Briggs almost knocked him out early on in the fight but ran out of gas doing so, leading to him eventually being knocked out himself.
Henry Akinwande
Tony Tucker
Frank Bruno
Francois Botha
All four of these guys were average at best. Akinwande was a guy with a padded record he built in his own backyard against second rate fighters, then came up against a first rate fighter in Lewis. Tony Tucker was a guy with his best years behind him in the 80's when he fought Lewis. To Tony Tucker's credit though he did take Mike Tyson to a 12 round decision which he lost in 1987, and went on to beat Akinwande shortly after losing to Lewis, and had beat Oliver McCall prior to facing Lewis, but before Lewis himself would lose to McCall, so this fight made sense at the time. Frank Bruno was another guy with a padded record against nobodies built in his own backyard and would rarely leave it. His most notable wins are against James Tillis, Jesse Ferguson, and Oliver McCall which isn't much of a resume. Francois Botha, the "White Buffalo" lost every notable fight he ever had and was never that good to begin with.
And it's not like Lennox had these epic wars against these guys... no, he either completely outclassed them or simply destroyed them.
That's because none of them were that good. I wouldn't say he either "outclassed them or destroyed them" either. He had sound boxing skills and physical attributes that accentuated those skills giving him an edge against most guys. The few he faced that were his size or bigger gave him problems with the exception of Golota who was a basket case anyways.
Lennox Lewis is the greatest Heavyweight boxer of all time. To me, it's not even subjective. If he were American, this "opinion" of mine would be shared by many, many more. It's a shame that this guy will never get the respect and accolades he deserves simply because he was British and a gentleman instead of a loud-mouth thug.
I think the "If he were American" bullshit can stop right now. You're the only one expressing any prejudice here, and it's clearly against Americans, but who can blame you, he's the only one you have to cling on to. All the other British fighters come here or somewhere else and get their asses kicked See: Carl Froch vs Andre Ward or Mikkel Kessler(In Denmark), Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, Amir Khan vs Lamont Peterson, David Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko(which didn't happen here but is another example of an over hyped Brit getting his ass kicked rightfully, Prince Naseem Hamed was another big let down as well, you can blame Marco Antonio Barrera for that one.
And, a lot of these guys are the biggest shit talkers around. You care to defend David Chisora either? Lewis was a loudmouth in his own right as well, and hardly a gentlemen. He was too busy fawning over himself to ever give anyone else credit, even Klitschko when he took him for the ride of his life. He never stopped praising himself and discrediting the people he faced which is why a lot of American didn't like him. He was a poor winner, and a sore loser. You want to say it's because he wasn't a loudmouth thug as if that is what we praise over here in the world of boxing, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Lewis was given his due while he was on top, and the American boxing press often noted in the early 90's how he was ducked by a lot of the top ranked fighters, Riddick Bowe most notably, so you can seriously drop that anti-American shit right now.
You clearly don't know shit about Americans or their opinions on Lennox Lewis. First of all, we made the guy a star over here and he is credited by many American boxing aficionados as a highly underrated and under appreciated heavyweight in his time. He was a great fighter and a great champion, no one has ever said less of him that I have ever heard. He was even given more credit for his wins against Tyson and Holyfield than they possibly warranted due to WHEN he beat them, well past their primes. I am with you all day that Lewis is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, no question about it. However, he is not THE greatest heavyweight of all time by a long shot.
Anyway....
Lennox Lewis represented Canada when he won the Olympic Gold so I have no reason to over look him.