When a fat out of shape Lewis TKO'd Vitali...

it proved 2 things. 1 Lewis needed to leave the sport soon before it caught up on him. 2 the division would be in safe hands with vitali at the helm.

 

Why are you so mad?

 

:thumbsup

 

:good

 

That dumb trolls make dumb threads.

 

it proved even at the twilight of his career, Lennox could still hold off
a serious challenge, true pugilist

 

vitali would have been favoured in the rematch a year later. lewis was slipping and vitali was at his peak.

 

I am a fan of Lewis but he was losing on points and down on all the cards.
That effort was a going for broke, do or die moment...and it worked.

However Lewis knew that he was expired and retired on top (like your supposed to Roy Jones Jr). I would have favoured Vitali in a rematch.
Well done Lennox.

 

It's good to call it quits when....

1. you've had a fantastic career

2. you get a fortunate TKO win on cuts from a guy beating you

3. you have millions in your bank account to retire and have the luxury of saying no to a multi-million dollar rematch against last beast you just fought


That's what I realized. And I will always be a bigger fan of Lennox Lewis than Vitali Klitschko. But it's clear Lewis ducked the rematch.

 

Exactly, Lewis had easily beaten his last two opponents. He struggled against Vitali and emerged victorious. Carrying on would likely have resulted in him losing to a fighter he'd already beaten, in otherwords, retiring was absolutely the right thing to do.

 

Lewis took the fight on short notice and was not in perfect shape.

A scheduled rematch with Vitali would have given Lennox all the time he needed to be in his usual fighting shape. Even that scenario and big money could not lure Lennox back into the ring with Vitali, because he knew he was not your average Euro fighter. Lennox feared Vitali. Vitali's career afterwards has validated Lennox's fears.

 

not fear, certainly not fear.

lack of motivation, yes. when he's declining, why stick around to rematch a guy he's already beaten? saying that, if he did stick around he'd have had to rematch vitali to keep any credibility as champ.

 

Vitali won four rounds, very close rounds i may add. Championship fights aren't determined by 6 short rounds. Would dread to think what Vitali's face would look like if it went the distance. Vitali lost because his inside game was inferior, he got busted up good and proper.......

 

Maybe he's so rich a big multi million dollar paycheck can no longer motivate him. I wish it could be that way with me.