2) He neutralized fighters with his jab and boxing ability, dominating many excellent opponents with relative ease, which many considered boring.
3) He embarrassed many American stars. As you said, Riddick Bowe went so far as to flat out refuse to fight him.
4) Did I mention he's British? Lol.
AS AN AMERICAN
I hated him and thought he was going to make me fall asleep.....BUT I respected him as a fighter and still think he was one of the best.I think he had a suspect chin but there was no denying the man could fight my only true knock against him was refusing the rematch vs Vitali Klitschko.In the press conference he talked all this crap about how he had won the fight and how he thought he was winning before the cut stopped the fight but then refused to fight him again......kind of thought he was scared
I have never heard of anyone saying anything negative about Lennox Lewis, he was in my opinion universally respected both in and out of the ring.. He KOed Riddick Bowe as an amateur, which let to Bowe's shamelessly ducking him as a pro, but we all laughed at the fact that Lennox struck such fear into Bowe. The fact that Bowe feared him enough to humiliate himself by ducking him actually increased Lennox's appeal to real boxing fans. Lennox was easily approachable, well spoken, educated and a true champion in every respect.
What's not to like about a champion who fought and beat every significant opponent of his era and who avenged his only losses by beating the guys who beat him, You have to respect his career, unlike the Kitschko's Lewis had a list of seriously talented opposition, which helped his legacy considerably. Lennox was the last "great" champion the heavyweight division has seen, his wins over Holyfield, Tyson, Tua and Vitali put him in elite status even among other heavyweights, and a lot of people consider Lennox Lewis one of history's ten best heavyweights ever, a true all time great.
The fans didn't appreciate him because he had a boring personality. They wanted him to trash talk and disrespect his opponents like Tyson. He refused to do it and it led to him being underrated.
Tyson played the bad guy role to sell tickets.. He told them what they wanted to hear because they liked violience.
In the end, Lewis personality was his downfall.
He changed nationality for his own convenience (British-Canadian-British) and didn't engage in the trash talk that sells tickets.
I'm American, and he was my favorite Heavyweight of all time.
His fighting style wasn't liked by many.
Not a very exciting personality though his boxing prowess was unquestionable.
Ok
