The Golota fight doesn't count. Golota was drugged, he sued the doctor and won.. When Vitali fought Lewis he had just a few days to get ready and Lennox had been in training for weeks............
Fat/old/half motivated Lewis TKO'd a Prime Vitali, now let's have a drink of water think about life and take two steps back and look at the question again.
Then obviously prime Lewis wasnt much better. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jmFXl1sHh0[/ame] Prime Lewis Not any version of Lewis would do much better than the one who beat Vitali. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG3YREd_pYs[/ame] I wonder How long would Lewis last with this Prime Vitali here when he did not have to take fight with, what two weeks notice?:think Yes that pretty meaningless video exactly like Lewis blasting out FUKEN ANDREW GOLOTA. Like it did not happen again. like it proves something about these two(Lennox/Vitali)
The problem is with these two is it was a real passing of the torch fight. It was the fight were we saw lewis on the slide and vitali hit his peak. Any earlier and peak lewis would almost certainly have destroyed the green vitali, we all saw how he struggled with byrd compared to how dominant he was after the lewis fight. Any later and vitali would surely have stopped lewis over the distance, lewis was not only on the slide he was fast losing motivation whilst vitali was seriously hitting his stride. That night they fought is about as close as we'd have seen these two fight such that it'd be the most competitive. Now if we can take the 03-05 vitali and put him in with a 97-02 lewis I think it would be a more exaggerated version of the fight we witnessed. Vitali would hate started stronger, lewis would hate adapted more forcefully. I think the fight finishes with lewis pounding vitali and he gets stopped on his feet.
At his worst Lewis defeated Klitchsko. Anyone who thinks he would do better (or even win) against a young prime Lewis is a ****ing moron.
In his prime Lewis would have stopped Vitali by TKO just like he did when they actually fought, but it would have been a more impressive performance. Also I think the stoppage in the McCall fight was very dodgy, Lennox beat the count, put his hands up in a defensive stance in front of the ref and the fight (a world heavyweight title fight no less) is stopped. Of course, Don King then strolls into picture as McCall celebrates and we all know Don King had a great relationship with Lewis!
Prime Lewis would beat Vitali, I'd expect him to stop him late on in the fight. Prime Lewis would have had better stamina, sharpness, speed and over all effectiveness compared to the version that already beat Vitali.
Well Lewis got knocked out COLD again against Rahman after long relationship with Steward. Lewis got KTFO from green to his prime. And finally facing truely skilled big man and the Fight between them left more questions than it gave answers.. Lets not forget Vitali was beating Lennox ass handily before he got cut on his face. iam not questioning about that punch or victory(like you insecure Lewis fans propably soon would be suggesting) but Vitali did Show there he got what it takes to beat that guy. I know this bother hell outta Lennox Fans that Lennox could not put away Vitali or better yet Vitali made Lennox look very bad there. And Lennox rather retired than Give the damn Rematch like man:yep
Vitali made lewis look bad? It was a superb all action fight where lewis showed tremendous heart to recover from the first 4 rounds to begin taking over the fight. The more time passes the more this victory impresses.