and well lewis isnt stupid, of course he would retire if he knew he couldnt handle the top guys anymore.
The Briggs fight was a one-sided affair that should have been stopped, in fact Briggs incurred some damage as a result of that fight but Shannon showed incredible heart but the referee and Briggs managers were braver
The odds for the fights were Lewis 4-1 over McCall #1. A lot of that money was based on Oliver being a King fighter in a WBC title fight. And the late money came in on McCall. Rahman odds were 13-1, Lewis. And the fight was taking place at a nuetral site but Hasim had yet to be a road warrior of any sort. That's a 3x bigger underdog where it counts, the money bet on the fight. There were people picking Oliver for the upset but hardly anyone thought Rahman had any sort of chance. This was the foresight, hindsight was a little different when discussing chances but it sure did not translate to people backing one guy's chances with cash before the opening bell.
Regardless of the odds which I question, thats my opinion. I didnt blink an eye when Rahman flattened Lewis. I wasnt surprised at all because of all the things leading up to the fight and the way Lewis was fighting. With Mcall it was a bit surprising considering what Lewis had done in previous fights to better fighters.
McCall easily for me. Lewis was very different from the boxer Manny fashioned, he was naive tactically but physically he was strong. For Rahman the guy aclimbatized for 2 weeks, for a fight at 5,500ft that's nowhere near good enough. Add to this the fact Steward only spent 2 weeks training him due to his commitment preparing Barrera for Naz it was a recipe for disaster.
Oliver McCall's victory was not lucky. Between the first and second round; McCall told Steward that he would "look for the short right hand." Nothing lucky about a good plan.
I never said mccall's victory was lucky. I said rahman's wasn't. I hope you can see how them two sentences are not the same thing.
It makes no difference, poor training is on lewis. A peak great at the level of lewis should not lose to contenders of the quality of hasim. It's as bad as mike losing to douglas, and baer losing to braddock. Overturning the defeat in a rematch is a great thing as it removes the blotch.
Lewis had desire to fight on just not against Klitschko. Why else would he wait for the outcome of Vitali-Johnson and even more so why would he wait for WBC to set the deadline to make the fight or to be stripped. He knew he could not beat Vitali at that point but that was the only fight everybody wanted to see. So he retired.
rahman easily/ against mccall he got up/ against rahman..........he was real fuked up.....................DRUNK AS SHITTT
I don't see the problem with lewis retiring. He was old and had already cleaned out the division. He won a huge struggle against the latest contender and called it quits whilst he was still at the top. We as fans hate to see fighters carry on too long. Seeing lewis lose in 04 to vitali and struggle on trying to recapture his old glory is not something any fan should wish to see.
Tyson was probably PEAK for Douglas cos he looked 100% VS Bruno a year earlier, But no ****ing way was Lewis PEAK for Rahman 1. Lennox was not focused, he was filming Oceans 11, he only had 2 weeks to get used to high mountain altitude And did not train properly cos he thought Rahman was a easy joke challenger who got KO'd by Tua in 1998, who Lewis won every round from in a title defense in 2000. lufcrazy you do not make sense. YES somebody can be PRIME even if they do not train, BUT how teh **** can they be PEAK [at their 100% best] if they do not train their hardest to get in top shape?? If you do not train with 100% effort, you can NOT be in top shape. Do you say Foreman was PEAK when he weight-drained so much he was like a slomo slug VS Jimmy Young?? ANYWAY Lewis was a old past-primer 2001-2003, so he could not be PEAK if he tried, cos he was not even PRIME! :deal