Former heavyweight champions Anthony Joshua and Lennox Lewis have gotten into a squabble after Lewis criticized Joshua and his trainer Rob McCracken.
“Lennox is a clown,” Joshua told Sky Sports. “I don’t respect Lennox…me and Lennox aren’t the same. My legacy is to sit back and enjoy the younger generation coming up. And not really be involved, just appreciate what it takes to get there. Lennox isn’t like that. Me and Lennox are cut from a different cloth.”
Lewis responded via social media, “Disappointed in AJ’s words but I understand that this ‘jealousy’ narrative was only fabricated AFTER I criticized them for Wilder negotiations. All of the sudden I’m a hater. Ask who benefits from such a simple-minded narrative? Not AJ. Not me.”
Joshua’s conqueror Andy Ruiz Jr., who will face Joshua in a December rematch, agitated the situation a bit more by tweeting “Lennox all day,” when asked who would win a fight between the two in their primes.
AJ probably let himself down here especially as the interviewer was just showing similarities with him and Lewis.
But then you look at who Lewis works for and you can see where the one eyed ness is coming from. He doesn’t criticise his boy Wilder even though he has beaten only one top 10 fighter in his whole career.
I would also have thought that Lewis would realise that even with the best will in the world he could not make many of the fights he wanted. Bowe and a peak(ish) Tyson being 2 examples.
You look at Bruno’s attitude towards British fighters and compare it to Lewis/AJ and there’s a massive difference.
Yeah I agree, AJ should be more careful with his words because he can’t really come out on top with Lewis having his career under him. But Lewis’ stance the last couple of years has been strangely bias. It is like he is a casual boxing fan and Wilder fanboy. Even if you think AJ could have done more, he acts like Wilder has been this world beater who will fight anyone. Before Ortiz, Wilder’s resume was laughable and he had been champ for 3 years. He openly turned down a $100 million three fight contract saying he could earn more further down the line. Absolutely no criticism came from Lewis. I can see why AJ and Hearn have been perplexed by Lewis’ behaviour and attitude.
Have you ever looked at Barbershop conversations interviews on YouTube? The guy is hilarious
Ajs talking like he’s washed up, not sure why but you lose your belts then call out one of the best heavyweights in history ? Don’t know if aj can defend himself anymore we will see
Best thing Joshua could do is stay off the cesspool of socia media.
He’s right, they are cut from a different cloth. Lennox is one of the best! Joshua isn’t!
Does AJ realize that Deontay is friends with both Andy Ruiz and Lennox Lewis? If AJ beats Andy Ruiz, and he gets the big payday with Deontay on neutral grounds, Deontay is going to BEAT AJ’S ASS. And there is nothing AJ or Fredo from CNN is going to do about it.
Another reason I love Lennox and Deontay, is that they respect the G.O.A.T (President Trump).
bIRAQ oBOMBa (aka Barry Newports) sucks.
CNN SUCKS … FREDO CUOMO SUCKS !!
zzzzz
Sounds like you think about this shit way too much. Get a life.
CB, you are giving me the zzzzz. Speaking about the zzzzz, the Dem challenger next year is going to feast on z’s, when he or she gets KTFO by President Trump.
Why are you talking about Trump on this forum? Are you intellectually satisfied by all of the political discussion going on here?
WTF? Why, dude? Stop the nonsense.
Note to joshua:
Beat Ruiz and wilder and fury THEN call Lennox a clown
well said brother….
AJ was just beaten like a bitch. AJ s in no position to talk shit by a HOF legend, who also exemplifies a lot of class. Lennox is the consummate professional, and a friend of both Deontay Wilder and President Trump. Lewis, Wilder, and Trump are my heroes. AJ better go to the store and get some vaseline and lipstick, because once again, he is going to be Andy Ruiz’s bitch.
Jonathan, it is like you are some sort of satirical character
Fanboy is the correct term. Even uses the B word in the same way
Trump 2020 by a Landslide! Tyson-Holyfield-Foreman-Mayweather all Trump supporters that know him personally and will tell you he is no racist! Fake News Media lies!
You are a total loser bringing up politics! You obviously live in your mom’s basement and watch too many cartoons about your cartoon president.
Well said
…and Dubois and Joyce and Pulev and Ajagaba and then…MAYBE he can be put in the same sentence with Lennox
Ruiz is correct. Lewis would probably KO Joshua in both their primes. His combinations ending with power would be too much for Joshua to handle.
I wonder if AJ has actually hit his prime yet? Will he after his first loss?
We know Lewis’s career path and how he came back from his defeats, but I say we haven’t a clue on AJ yet. My gut says, he’s done and Ruiz will repeat, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Wow…. AJ has lost his mind!! Lennox would DESTROY AJ with ease!!!! His jab alone is better than anything AJ has to offer!! Can’t wait for Ruiz to KO him again!!
What an entirely unnecessary squabble!
Lewis was good into the Ruddock or Tucker fights. Then his career kind of got tarnished until after the Ray Mercer fight. Holyfield should have fought Tyson in July or Nov 1990 and then fought Lewis sometime in 1991 or 1992. Holyfield never needed out of shape Buster Douglas in 1990. Bowe was a clown more than Lewis. He had Rock Newmann running his career in all the wrong directions like all these PBC fighters and money team fightersnup to about 16o lbs. Howe sucker punching Larry Donald is what made me lose interest in him. And the Tillery fights and the Golota fights. And departing, bowe vs gonzalez( k o king ) was a clown fight too.
Lennox didn’t need an out of shape Buster Douglas? You are aware that Holyfield was just a former Cruiserweight and not looked at as a champion and barely a contender because he was too small. Why would he not need to fight Buster Douglas who was the undisputed unifed champion? WTF are you talking about?
Out shape Buster Douglas was THE Heavyweight Champion of the World, so I’d say that was a fight Evander definitely needed. Besides, you never knew which Buster would show up. The version that beat Tyson was one if the best ever. Unfortunately, Buster also showed up 20 pounds out if shape as well.
So Joshua thinks a guys who’s older and done more than him should respect just because?
1990s was a terrific era of Heavyweights. Lennox Lewis proved he was the Best of that era.
Early 1990’s was Tyson’s. Late 1990’s and early 2000’s was Lennox’s. Even then, Lennox only beat Tyson because he hugged and held and pushed down on Tyson’s head in a ugly mugging. Lennox should have been DQ’ed.
Him or Big Daddy Bowe
Thing is AJ isn’t calling Lewis out or dissing him as a fighter. He’s basically had enough of LL’s sniping, biased comms against him. Who would win is irrelevant , but you can’t really compare fighters records until both careers are over. At this stage (after their first defeats) AJ had definitely achieved more.
LL criticised AJ over being greedy re the split with Wilder and then said he didn’t know what was said in negotiations. Also Hearn has said that he was not sent a contract to back up Wilder’s offer despite asking for it. Obviously Hearn could be lying but I’ve seen nothing from Finkel etc to counter what Hearn said.
However , if I was AJ’s advisor I’d advise him to stay away from the media for some time and just concentrate on training/tactics.
I fully agree here with John’s comment. Careers can only be judged once they are over. And yes, its best for anyone to stay away from the media and focus on his work.
Stay in your lane…. AJ.
YOU ARE A NOVICE. Lennox would eat you alive… even if the fight happened this fall, he’d still school you before putting you to sleep. YOU fighting him on his prime is straight up blasphemy.
Billy, my life is great. Deontay Wilder is the WBC champion, and Donald John Trump Sr. is the president of the USA. That makes me very happy.
Now we just need to get Deontay to unify the titles, and Trump reelected, and that would make it even better.
Seriously dude stop with the political stuff please everyone finds you totally obnoxious and your not achieving anything.. so whatever weird reason your behaving like this for, can you please just stop subjecting us to it..? Thanks
A prime Lennox destroys Joshua in 1 round. Even a faded version beats him in less than 3 rounds, ala Michael Grant style.
When Lennox lost to Hasim, everybody I know knew he was going to wipe him out in the return. Cannot say the same about Joshua-Ruiz. Win impressively, then you can talk sh!t about one of greatest UK champs ever.
AJ is going down the wrong path here. He has nothing to gain by slagging out an all time great like Lewis. He just needs to shut up and do the work to restore his titles, otherwise we may have seen the end of him.
As for Ruiz, it’s hardly agitating when he is just stating the facts. It’s “Lennox all day” against all of today’s heavyweights
just pure jealousy on his part, he’ll never be as good as lewis,
Joshua is going to have to beat a lot of people in order to talk any kind of shit about Lennox Lewis. Lennox beat every man he ever faced. Tyson, Holyfield, Klitchko, Golota, Mercer, Morrison, Tua, Grant, and Rahman. Hall of Fame Lennox. Joshua wishes he could be Lennox right now.
Lennox was gifted a win against Klitchko
Sorry, he (Lewis) was good but not great. He is way overrated. He fought an over the hill Holyfield, a way past his prime Mike Tyson and he never tested himself against Bowe, Foreman, or even Micheal Moore. Those other names you mentioned, were decent fighters but not world-class contenders (except Mercer, but even he was arguably past his prime and Lewis only won by a majority decision).
Bye the way, I would not say Lewis won the Klitchko fight. Lewis nearly was knocked out in that match, and was behind on all score cards before it was stopped by a cut that Klitchko sustained. If there was no cut on Klitchko, Lewis would have undoubtedly lost that fight. He was smart to retire and not rematch Klitchko. Lewis had a great jab, but had a glass jaw for a man of his size.
If Lennox Lewis had fought Evander Holyfield in Atlanta on November 23rd 1991, on the same card with Holyfield vs Cooper as the main event, he could have become the champion then. Instead of Lewis fighting Biggs, if he had fought Evander, he probably would have been undisputed at 26 years old. 210 lbs Holyfield at 29 vs 230 1/2 lbs Lewis. I would have bet on Lewis. At that time, Lewis was 3rd in the WBA, 5th in the IBF, 6th by the WBC. See the tapes and you can guess for yourself if Lewis was up for it yet. Holyfield could have defended all of those belts against Lewis that night in late 1991. Forget A.J., he’s just about 30 now, he doesn’t care that much. A.J. can go to Saudi and get stopped again, but it won’t be noticed that much as if he fought in the UK or US vs Ruiz a 2nd time. But in Saudi, A.J. can run all night and get a gift 12 round decision too, and the fans won’t boo that much that A.J. runs a track meet in Saudi.
Joshua hasn’t yet proven himself and took a huge step back with his loss to Ruiz. Lewis, on the other hand, beat a multitude of good heavyweights during his long career and proved he is one of the best heavyweights of all time.
Lewis is worthy of respect and Joshua just diminishes himself with his comments. It would be in his best interest to take some constructive criticism because Andy Ruiz showed that AJ can’t deal with someone who possesses boxing skills and fast hands.
While i was never a big fan of Lennox Lewis, the man certainly deserves respect from current boxers that have not reached his level yet. Joshua sounds like he’s bitter apples. Lewis has a career that has spoken for itself.
I’m a Canadian and still was never a big Lewis fan. I was always a Tyson fan first. Just I have to give credit where it is due. Lewis is top 10 easy. Lewis fcks this kid up after 6 solid months of training at his age now. What’s this guy talking about? Watching the younger generation come up? Weirdo
AJ your comments are disrespectful to say the least, you are nowhere in the league of Lennox Lewis ,Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner ,Frank Bruno and now you know how it feels to be beaten and badly by another one dimensional boxer. Shame on you and your remarks!
Respect is a 2 way street. Personally I think he beats 3 of the 4 guys you mentioned but very difficult to compare – different eras and in some cases different weights
If you do some research john garder you will find all were past heavywrights
Sad…. I thought AJ was better than that. Shows he is still wet behind the ears…
Where has AJ actually called out Lewis or even compared himself with Lewis as a fighter? In fact where does he disrespect any ex HW as a fighter or even any other ex HW as a person?
Lennox deserves some grief for hyping David the chin Price a while back OK? Ruiz just tweaking AJ by givings props to Lennox. Now Ruiz is doing a diva routine about location of the rematch. Ruiz will not do a Buster Douglass against Hollyfield flop in the rematch and AJ will have to earn it in a war or at least use movement & jab to keep Ruiz away. AJ tried to do a Wilder style KO against Ruiz in the 3rd round and oops… Hopefully AJ learned his lesson.
Lewis is a clown??? The only thing comical about him is how silly he’d beat Joshua. Lewis is in the top 10 greatest HW champions. Joshua just lost to the stay puff marshmallow man.
I would take Lennox over anthony…..right this minute.
I don’t see what Lennox Lewis has to do with any of this. Anthony Joshua isn’t fighting Lennox Lewis, he is hopefully fighting Andy Ruiz again. Lennox had his legacy and it stands. What Lennox has to say shouldn’t matter to Anthony Joshua because Joshua should be concentrating on defining his OWN legacy and not concentrating on what is said about him on the internet. I think Lennox was and is a class act and tried to fight the best in his division. The only possible exception would be the rematch with Vitali Klitschko, but by then Lennox already had one foot out the door.
I literally went nuts on every YouTube and video about how estatic I was when Ruiz whipped Joshua. I posted all kinds of stuff on my own Facebook. I was a bit disappointed our great New Mexican/American first time ever world champion did not visit the White House however.
Lewis a clown? A prime Lewis would toy with AJ, then knock him out. AJ is a fool and looks like he won’t be going too far.
Joshua will NEVER go down as a great fighter. He’s a lousy boxer, has a weak chin, fighting in a weak division, and he lost in embarrassing fashion to a blubbery, unconditioned fighter who knows how to punch better, and has more spirit and will. Joshua seems better suited for stocking library shelves. I have never been that big a fan of the robotic Lewis, but Lewis certainly had a great career and deserves more respect than Joshua is giving him. 2019 is the year that Joshua was exposed as a pretender.
Lennox Lewis of course would beat Joshua though he list some fights he should not have lost but those fighters he lost too we’re proven before he fought them Ruiz big fight was when fought Parker not before that .