{"id":245246,"date":"2025-11-05T12:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245246\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:04:12","slug":"lennox-lewis-names-the-american-heavyweight-who-was-the-hardest-puncher-he-ever-faced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245246\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennox Lewis names the American heavyweight who was the hardest puncher he ever faced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lennox Lewis<\/a> may have been a heavyweight grand master, but during his career he certainly faced some of the division\u2019s biggest punchers \u2014 and one man in particular stood out for sheer power.<\/p>\n

From 1993 to 2003, Lewis competed in 18 world title fights, taking on a host of heavy hitters from Evander Holyfield to Vitali Klitschko.<\/a> Along the way, he suffered two stunning defeats that raised question marks over his chin when Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman both blasted him out in 1994 and 2001 respectively.<\/p>\n

Lewis avenged both losses and went on to become the undisputed heavyweight champion in 1999, defeating Holyfield in their hugely anticipated rematch in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

But it was during a 10-fight run in America, from 1995 to 2000, that Lewis faced the man he credits as the hardest puncher he ever shared a ring with. Speaking to The Ring<\/a> for their \u201cThe Best I Faced\u201d series, Lewis said:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lacked endurance but [Shannon] Briggs certainly knew how to put his bodyweight behind a punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his second reign as WBC heavyweight champion, \u2018The Lion\u2019 made his fifth trip to Atlantic City, where he had a perfect 4-0 record. Looking to take his crown was brash New Yorker Shannon Briggs. The five-round scrap saw Lewis rocked early, but the Brit recovered from the scare to drop Briggs twice before stopping him in the fifth.<\/a> He recalled the moment after naming Briggs his biggest punching opponent, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for him you need the full package when you face me so power isn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lennox Lewis may have been a heavyweight grand master, but during his career he certainly faced some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-245246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}