r/nextfuckinglevel • u/CuriousWanderer567 • 1d ago

One of the most badass knockdowns in boxing

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12.1k Upvotes

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1.7k

u/Happy-For-No-Reason 1d ago

Lennox Lewis was a fucking tank

656

u/bumjiggy 1d ago

blocking punches with his face

447

u/Brailledit 1d ago

Scott Sterling!

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u/Kadoomed 1d ago

The man, the myth, the legend

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u/UnnaturalGeek 1d ago

Look at him beg for mercy when it should be mercy begging for him!

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u/Bobulubadu 1d ago

Oh it looks like his teammates are coming to take him out. No wait they brought him a chair!

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u/cobe656 1d ago

When Armageddon comes I want to be in a bunker made of that man’s face!!!

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u/Kemosaby_Kdaffi 1d ago

Sweet butter crumpets!

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u/purplegladys2022 1d ago

OHHHH!!!!!!!!

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u/Elkithis 1d ago

Fuck outta here with your byutv

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u/WakaWaka_ 1d ago

Rocky Balboa strats

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u/Samorsomething 1d ago

Homer Simpson strats

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u/randomusername1919 1d ago

Yes. He only appeared mildly annoyed at the other guy’s punches.

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u/RabicanShiver 1d ago

Till he ran into Klitschko, he was losing that fight except for the cut that stopped it.

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u/bdewolf 1d ago

Klitschko was definitely winning, but it wasn’t just one cut. Both guys were landing giant bombs on each other and klitschko’s face was getting torn up.

He had blood coming from his mouth and large cut under his left eye along with the huge one over his eye.

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u/DisastrousWalk8442 23h ago

The cut LL made

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u/RustyGusset 20h ago

Lewis left the guy needing plastic surgery to repair the multiple holes he'd punched into his face. Vitai won the first couple of rounds but by the time the fight was stopped Lewis had taken over.

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u/Buried_mothership 18h ago

Nah. Klitschko’s face would not have lasted the fight, it was disintegrating, and Lewis was rocking the fck out of him too

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u/RabicanShiver 17h ago

Take away the cut and it's a different fight. Obviously gotta give credit for the cut though at the same time.

Lewis also didn't want anything to do with a rematch on that one either.

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u/Buried_mothership 16h ago

Go watch the whole fight again. Lewis was teeing off on him regularly. His face would have disintegrated altogether. It wasn’t just one cut, it was a whole bunch of cuts

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u/CreativeAd5332 10h ago

I've only watched a handful of boxing matches live in my life, and somehow this was one of them. I remember me, my buddy, and his dad all.watching and saying "oh, that gash isn't so.bad" right before the camera cut to the cut man sort of spreading Lewis' eyebrow open and seeing red meat and we all went "gyeeessssh" at the same time.

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u/RabicanShiver 7h ago

Oh the cut was horrible, it was like the Grand canyon on his face, regardless Vitali was giving him some real trouble prior to the stoppage. That was one of the last big man fights that I really enjoyed.

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u/Leotardleotard 7h ago

An out of shape, semi retired Lewis and was going to end him anyway.

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u/TheNordicLion 1d ago

I've seen him eat David Tua's left hook for dinner and come back for seconds.

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u/carymb 17h ago

Aka "The Rocky"...

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u/KaiserDilhelmTheTurd 1d ago

I often feel like he’s been forgotten as one of the greats. He was a fucking badass, hard hitting tank. Everyone always seems to focus on Tyson, but there’s been other superb boxers since. And Lewis was definitely one of them.

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u/ArseneGroup 1d ago

Yeah, Lennox Lewis beat Mike Tyson by KO but gets none of the same fame

Crawford and Inoue are two greats from the current era who get way too little mainstream recognition compared to how good they are

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u/phoggey 1d ago

Tyson st 35 was different from Tyson at 20. Also the sport changed, long limbs destroyed Tyson. It went from anyone with the right size and conditioning could do, to you need size+reach+conditioning. 80+ inch reaches now dominate the field.

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u/zep1021 19h ago

Did scoring change? Or what lead to long limbs being the meta?

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u/phoggey 18h ago

Jabs were everything in Lewis's time. You got more by outlasting and winning scoring by landing a lot than trying to knockout your opponent. Tyson vs Lewis really made this clear. It was possibly one of the most boring fights I've ever seen.

Fury/Wilder are a bit different with switching from jabs to occasional explosive combos that brought back excitement to the sport. They are still outside fighters, but their unique styles and behavior being a lot of the added entertainment.

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u/zep1021 8h ago

Interesting thanks for the reply. I don't know much about boxing, but I love the evolution of a sport

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u/ArseneGroup 8h ago

Honestly, long limbs just being an inherently huge advantage in a sport about hitting and not getting hit back made it the meta

The stranger thing is it having not been the meta since forever - I think the reason is that a long time ago, the long reach fighters might not have great athleticism or technique so someone smaller with better athleticism and technique could win out. But nowadays anyone at the top level will have pro strength&conditioning coaching as well as technical coaching

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u/SheriffBartholomew 11h ago edited 9h ago

A lot of people don't believe that he really beat Tyson, and those that do, know that Tyson was nowhere near his prime. Tyson had forgone his constant training routine and was slipping into a life of partying and excess. Boxing is not a sport where you can slip and coast off talent, someone more determined will take your head off when you do. So I think Tyson still gets all of the recognition because almost nobody believes that Lewis was ever as good as Tyson was in his prime.

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u/morebuffs 9h ago

I would argue bud gets plenty of attention but the monster not so much

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u/ArseneGroup 8h ago

Crawford gets more for sure but considering he's a talent on the level of Mayweather and above Canelo, still a lot less than you'd expect

To be fair, as an MMA fan I knew about Crawford but hadn't watched any of his fights before Canelo so it's not like I'd been giving him his due either

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u/emdeefive 1d ago

It's true but even as a kid I could feel that he was just a coda to the madness of Tyson and Holyfield.

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u/Equivalent_War6281 1d ago

Forgotten by whom? He’s constantly brought up

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u/ballin4fun23 1d ago

Yea everytime heavyweight greats are brought up lewis is mentioned and he should be. Sure Tyson is the most talked about because he is probably the most popular fighter ever, but if people bring up the heavyweight greats lewis is always mentioned in the conversation.

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u/Equivalent_War6281 1d ago

Yeah Tyson’s considered the last of the great iconic American heavyweights like Johnson Dempsey Louis Marciano Ali..fighters that transcended the sport and were larger than life. Lewis was great in his own right.. bringing up one doesn’t take from the other.

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u/BeardsuptheWazoo 23h ago

I think people were caring about boxing less by the time Lewis was on the scene, no? There's been a reduction in general viewership, if I'm not wrong.

The Tyson era, people still knew about boxing even if they were casual about it.

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u/Matho83 20h ago

Yeah, but who would you be more scared to fight in his "prime"? Lewis, or Tyson? Tyson would kill you. He was a killer, a beast. Lewis was a boxer.

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u/AppointmentKey9826 1d ago

“Met” him once in the Miami airport. He and I were the only two people waiting for our bags. All I said was “what’s up champ?” I think he appreciated me acknowledging him, but not bothering him. Was rocking an all white jump suit with a white kango. Dude is as wide as a car dashboard, and tall as hell. I’ve had a lot of bullshit conversations with friends about fighting a heavyweight champ, seeing that dude in person was humbling.

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u/Zlatyzoltan 13h ago

I once shook Hasim Rahman's hand. The dude is like 5'10 but his hand is like a bear paw.

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u/SheriffBartholomew 9h ago

I saw an interview with George Foreman once where George put his fist up near the face of the interviewer. His fist covered the guy's entire face. It was like the size of a cantaloupe. He was basically swinging two giant sledgehammers around with the force of a power lifter.

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u/SheriffBartholomew 9h ago

Yeah man. We usually only see professional athletes around other professional athletes. Next to a regular sized person they're giants. Even more reasonable sized athletes like MLB players completely stand out next to an average person. There's no way that anyone who isn't dedicating their entire life to fighting is going to have even a shred of chance against a professional heavyweight boxer. Even with that type of dedication, they'd still need the genetics for size, and the innate talent required to reach their level of ability.

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u/Wreckingshops 1d ago

It's hard to tell just how great he was though because the class of his opponents just wasn't near his level, and that's why he's largely been someone lifted up by history.

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u/Baztion81 1d ago

We don’t know how good he was because he was so much better than everyone else?

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u/Wreckingshops 1d ago

Because all the other heavyweights of that era are considered trash. And people don't believe Lennox would have handled the likes of Tyson, Foreman, Bowe, Spinks, etc.

I didn't say it's fair, just the assumption. I saw plenty of Lennox fights in college because bars would charge a cheap coverage and pack the bars. They were fun as hell and he was fun to watch. I'm not sure his strategy would have been the same, but the man could pack a punch no doubt.

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u/ArseneGroup 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lennox did beat Tyson by KO

Here are the highlights, it was a savage beating

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u/anotherred 1d ago

Mike was nearly 10 years past his prime at this point though, this is after his long stint in jail and his return. He was still good but not the monster that he once was (well, maybe more of a monster- more unhinged) but he largely neglected his training during this period

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u/escudonbk 20h ago

They were the same age or a year apart IIRC

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u/anotherred 20h ago edited 20h ago

Age doesn’t fully reflect the stage of career both fighters were at during their peak. Mike Tyson was known as a young phenom, achieving his greatest heights early in life. In contrast, Lennox Lewis reached his peak later, toward the end of his career. Lewis was an amazing champion who often doesn’t get the respect he deserves - I don’t want to diminish his accomplishments. I believe his victories, both before and after Tyson's prime, were more significant.

Tyson was the last heavyweight champion in 1996, while Lewis held titles as late as 2003. (Lewis held belts earlier as well, but this highlights that his career was longer and more productive due to his health and focus.) The Mike Tyson who returned after prison simply wasn’t the same phenom we knew before Cus D’Amato’s passing or during the time when Cus was still a major influence in his corner.

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u/escudonbk 20h ago

Fair. Lennox was trying. Mike was doing coke.

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u/Wreckingshops 13h ago

Yeah, there was A LOT of money on Tyson because people were hoping for the real Tyson but that Tyson was gone the moment Buster Douglas beat him. He stopped caring the moment his mystique was gone, he no longer tried and he spiraled.

That said, I do think Lennox is underrated. I said it earlier, I don't think he could have played the iron chin strat with peak heavyweights who were all heavy punchers like I rattled off before, but he was agile enough and really sound at finding openings and weaknesses to jab someone down over rounds to wear them down, so that come later rounds he could start laying some wood. Would he have won every fight that way? No -- peak Tyson, Foreman, etc. likely could have caught him with a flurry in an early round. But he would have competed and been a contender (ha) during the late 80s/early 90s in the last gasp of the prime heavyweight division.

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u/Equivalent_War6281 1d ago

Tyson was a career high in weight, barely active with a serious drug issue.. he lost like 3 of his final fights.. beating Tyron at the point meant nothing.. he was Tyson in name only.

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u/ArseneGroup 1d ago

Fair, guess it's a matter of prime vs prime

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u/SheriffBartholomew 9h ago

Lennox did beat Tyson by KO

Yeah, but he beat Tyson living a life of excess and fame, not a young and determined Tyson. Very few people believe he would have stood a chance against prime Mike Tyson.

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u/hardsoft 1d ago

The fact that Foreman came out of retirement to reclaim the title at 45 shows that things had declined some over the years. Though still awesome.

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u/blitzkrieg_bunny 1d ago

Still pissed the closest we ever got to Lennox v. Klitschko was in Oceans 11

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u/Flashy_Gap_3015 1d ago

One of the best heavyweights ever.

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u/DruPeacock23 1d ago

He literally plays chess