British heavyweight legend Lennox Lewis adopted a rather odd opinion on the matches involving Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, both of whom disposed of their opponents by stoppage. Rather than being fair in his analysis of both matches, Lewis opted to use a biased stance, fully disregarding Joshua’s win over Otto Wallin while adulating over Dubois’ win against Jarrell Miller.
Lennox Lewis had little criticism for Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KO’s) after his victory over Jarrell Miller (26-1-1, 22 KO’s) other than mentioning other strategies which he could have applied.
“Daniel Dubois really came alive in the late rounds; using his jab, using his movement, caught a lot of confidence,” Lewis said on the TNT network.
“He’s there boxing a 320 lbs guy and he [Dubois] was giving up too much ground in the first rounds but as he gained his second breath throughout the fight, he did very well. He looked like a good boxer.“
In comparison, Lewis had no such praise for Anthony Joshua (27-3, 24 KO’s), whom he alluded to having picked an “easy opponent” despite Otto Wallin’s (26-2, 14 KO’s) greater ranking in the sport compared to Miller.
“He [Joshua] definitely looked good, he did what he was supposed to do, go out there and take out a guy he’s taken out in fights before,” Lewis said about Anthony Joshua’s victory over Otto Wallin.
“The guy [Wallin] didn’t have no definition in his body. I don’t know if he worked hard or if he was in training camp or whatever, and I didn’t see him throwing any punches that actually connected because AJ looked good after the fight, like a movie star.
“I think it does good for his [Joshua’s] mental state, and everyone’s saying he’s back. But there is still a long road ahead and some strong fighters. I mean, he still got to go up against Tyson Fury if that’s fight going to be made.“
Lewis’ statements surrounding Joshua having faced Wallin in the past are based on the amateur fights they competed against each other in and not actual professional fights. Joshua and Wallin also have a history in sparring, though in the heavyweight division it is certainly not abnormal for fighters to have sparred each other, and their last recorded date of sparring together goes all the way back to 2016.
Lewis also made remarks about Wallin’s apparent lack of muscle definition yet was full of praise over Dubois’ victory over Miller while Miller weighed 333 lbs at the weigh-in with literally only fat defining his body and no shred of muscle detected on his body.
His assertion that Wallin did not appear to have trained is a completely false narrative drawn out of thin air as Wallin has had a full training camp for his fight with Joshua and as adamant that he would beat the British heavyweight. On December 23, Joshua stormed to an easy technical knockout victory over Wallin where he won every round on the cards and dominated Wallin to the point his corner threw the fight in the fifth.
However, Joshua’s victory over Otto Wallin seems to have done little to assuage Lennox Lewis, who feels adamant Anthony Joshua should face Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KO’s), despite Fury being currently set to fight Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KO’s) in an undisputed heavyweight clash in February next year. Fury must first win the fight for the prospect of Joshua to face him to be considered reasonable, as Lewis’ train of thoughts would naturally lead him to criticize Joshua for fighting a Fury coming off a loss.
Lennox Lewis holds a pivotal name in boxing due to his achievements as a British heavyweight, but there is a known dislike for Anthony Joshua that stems from a place that might be jealousy as he has criticized Joshua for most of his career.
This became even more evident with his recent analysis of Joshua’s and Dubois’ fights where he seems to downplay Joshua’s victory while doing the exact opposite with Dubois’ victory over the lower-ranked Miller who clearly weighed in more than healthy.
Regardless of whether he thinks Wallin trained or not, which is a ridiculous statement given Miller looked in no normal shape for a heavyweight yet received none of the same criticism by Lewis, Miller himself admitted to having a shorter training camp following his fight with Dubois, yet Lewis mentioned none of these facts in his assessments of the two British heavyweights’ fights.
Lewis’ bias does not serve his legacy, as he clearly speaks out of a sense of favoritism rather than doing his due diligence in research, and has proved to be unable to give Joshua the credit for beating a top 10 heavyweight as he instead chose to lambast Wallin for having “no muscle definition” and allegedly not having trained.
In this same vein, there is little choice but to take Lewis’ future statements with a pinch of salt as he is unable to corroborate his statements with any factual data, and seems to be driven by his own agenda of who he likes, and doesn’t.
