Could Ali beat Lewis?

I just saw ESPN boxing analyst Max Kellerman make an interesting statment. When asked where Lewis ranked among the all time heavyweights, he said that he is one of the 14 best champions based on what he did in his era. He then went on to say that "in his era" is the only fair way to compare heavyweight champions because todays heavyweights are simply bigger and faster than their predecessors. He then said that Lewis would have dominated Larry Holmes and would likely beat Muhammed Ali, though he said that it was possible that Ali was great enough that he could pull off the "upset" against Lewis.


I thought it was an interesting series of comments in light of our recent p"ast vs present" athletic discussions.