In the pantheon of the greats Vitali has a very high place, among those without stunted intelligence that is.
A big hole that could leak in water if it ever were exposed. I also give Sanders better chances of beating Lennox H2H than smaller past prime heavyweights in Tyson and Holyfield. Also Byrd wouldn't have been much trouble for Lewis, but he didn't take the damn fight nevertheless...
It is amazing that people are still debating about Vitaly Lewis. This fight went down as one of those fights which will remain controversial forever. It was the period when I started following boxing and I still remember how great it was. I was very disappointed in the way it ended - I think Lewis should have given him a rematch. It does affect Lewis' legacy. Vitaly was a bit unfortunate with his career, especially with the repeated injuries. He spent his prime de facto retired as emeritus champion. I think he would have been the most dominant heavy and would have left a better legacy than Wlad did, had he kept fighting between 2004 and 2008.
You obviously missed the Lewis uppercut that nearly decapitated Vitali LOL Old Vit didn't know if he was in Vegas or Vladivostok. Reminded me of the shot Ike Ibeabuchi caught Chris Byrd with. Without that cut LL would have stopped VK inside 2 rounds
Why not show up for the offered and ordered rematch and collect $50m then? Why retire in shame and leave his only challenger as champion, and who was still there age 41. Why leave with unfinished business? I'll tell you why, he wasn't taking any rematch and he knew it. :deal
Beating Sanders would have proved nothing about Lewis. Shyt, Hasim Rahman didn't get that much credit for beating him and he iced Sanders earlier than Vitali did. Had he not iced Iced Wladimir, no one will even know that Sanders existed. You're elevating Sander's in order to justify Vitali's disgraceful resume. The guy quit against a soft punching former super middleweight midget, and got mugged by an out of shape, ring rust, close to 38 year old Lewis. If the drug cheat Vitali was 6'1 ft no one would have heard about him. His legacy was built feasting on over-matched fat midget. The one time he fought a man his own size that he couldn't just jab from a distance, he got his face tore up. But, hey, Vitali won the event.:roll:
I always thought Vitali was a much better overall boxer/fighter than Wlad. Vitali didn't have chin problems and had a decent inside game also. Power edge goes to Wald but not by a whole lot. But Wlad doesn't throw many punches so whats the use of punching power if your scared to throw fearing getting KTFO?
Lennox was due to meet Kirk Johnson in a warm up fight everyone knew Kirk's heart was not in it .& wasn't training so Lennox didn't train properly either. When Kirk dropped out Lennox took on a 100% ready Vitali on 2 weeks notice. A barely 80% Lewis kicked Vitali's ass. Why fight him again. Wlad ran for the hills he didn't want to know. Lennox was getting pressure from his wife Violet to retire too. To sum it up he retired at the exactly right time & has stayed retired The sad part in all this is the Kirk Johnson I knew in Dallas could have given both Lennox & Vitali a competitive fight but the hatchet job done on him by John Ruiz & Joe Cortez for the WBA title really broke his heart
People tend to forget Lewis took the fight at 2 weeks notice, came in at his heaviest career weight, and still sliced Vitali's facial tissue to ribbons. Frightening to think what Lewis would have done to Vitali, were he at 100%.
There is no need for these kinds of excuses. Lewis took the fight on short notice, but was already training for Johnson. Vitali got the short end of the training camp. As for the "heaviest" meme, he was at his oldest and people put on weight as they age. That being said, he won the fight. It was a great fight in which Lewis did enough to win. Diminishing Vitali's accomplishment in putting on a great show only diminsihes Lewis' victory. Please stop doing so. Thanks.