Lennox Lewis, an all-time great heavyweight champion who defeated every man he faced. Tyson Fury, the best big man on the planet today, also owning wins over every man he has (thus far) faced. Who wins this particular Dream Fight? The best of British, it’s a mythical super-fight scenario that interests many fight fans.
Promoter Frank Warren, when asked the question of who wins, Fury or Lewis, with each man at their absolute best (Frank didn’t mention any particular Lewis performance, but let’s say, for sake of argument, Lewis’ brilliantly savage KO win over the dangerous Donovan Razor Ruddock), replied as follows when speaking with the Daily Mail:
“Lennox Lewis at his best, and the Fury that fought Wilder, if I had to bet I would back Tyson,” he said. “[Wladimir] Klitschko was the best of his generation, and look at what he did to him.
He’s beaten the biggest puncher in the past 30-odd years (Wilder), and not just beaten him, taken him to school, stopped him, beat him in every department. Tyson in any generation is a standout fighter, put him up there with any of the big names, he’s there with them.”
Now, Warren may be biased seeing how he promotes Fury, but his opinion is certainly worth listening to all the same. But do you agree with Warren? Could Fury, as big and as agile as he is, defeat the Lewis who smashed clean through Ruddock, who out-toughed Ray Mercer, who boxed to perfection against David Tua, who, at the very end of his career, managed to stop the immensely strong Vitali Klitschko?
Maybe, maybe not. I take not. But how about you?
In his two defeats – at the hands of Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman – Lewis was either vastly overconfident (McCall) or not in top shape or acclimatized to the altitude in South Africa (Rahman), Lewis not being at his best at all. Yet at his best – against Klitschko and Wilder in the return – Fury did look special (although the Klitschko fight was about as dull as could be imagined).
It’s a tough one: Lewis was hit and hurt by Frank Bruno, Shannon Briggs, and, in the end, Klitschko. Fury has been on the floor himself but aside from the first Wilder fight when he was not at 100-percent, not for a long time. A fight between these two British giants would very likely have been decided by the three judges. For my money, Lewis would have taken it in a fight that would have tested both men.
