Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis are dubbed as two of the greatest heavyweights of all time, with each man debated as the standout champion of an extremely competitive 1990’s era.
Now, one man who shared the ring with both has declared who was the harder puncher between the two.
Tyson is deemed by many to be the most fearsome knockout artist in boxing history, with his iconic rise to the heavyweight throne being one of the most iconic streaks of all time, registering 44 knockouts in his 50 career wins.
Meanwhile, Lewis halted a past-his-best Tyson in 2002 and famously defeated every opponent of his career, avenging his two career defeats to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman via stoppages and hanging up the gloves with 31 wins inside of the distance out of a total 41.
Joe Egan, a seven-time national amateur champion in Ireland, lost to Lewis in 1985 in an amateur bout and was a regular sparring partner for Mike Tyson. On The Option One Podcast, Egan admitted that Tyson hurt him more and regularly made him cry in sparring.
“[I would rather fight] Lennox Lewis [than Mike Tyson], he didn’t hurt me as much as Mike.“
“People ask me, ‘How bad did Mike Tyson hurt me?’, he made me cry many times. He busted me up but the thing is, see if Mike Tyson missed you with a punch, you get pneumonia from the draft.“
“The uppercut that Mike used to throw would lift men off the ground, I’ve seen it. Every punch he threw was with bad intentions, he wanted to hurt you with every punch.”
Tyson and Lewis’ 2002 meeting will continue to be a topic of discussion for years to come, with some fight fans believing that the outcome could have been different if it had happened earlier.
