IF there was a rematch between Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko, who do you have winning?

Only reason why Vitali was up on some card was cause HBO thought that LL was one his was out and wanted a new star. Try scoring the fight yourself objectively and you'll see that any score card giving VK a lead is nonsensical.

 

Vitali being the younger fresher fighter with Lennox being at the end of his career so no surprise that Vitali was ahead on the cards,but it’s a 12 round fight and points in the bank don’t win nothing if you can’t go the 12 round distance ! Vitalis injury aside Lennox started getting to him so would have stopped him anyway imo,as for a rematch Lennox never lost one so hard to see him losing a one to Vitali,as for Vitali he never rematched Byrd either the only other fighter to beat him as a pro .

 

I've seen the fight but was LL really out of shape

 

Lol what, Vitali outpunched Lennox in every single round in both total punches and power punches. Vitali out-landed Lewis 160 to 100. I think Vitali is massively overrated, but he was definitely easily winning that fight on unbiased cards

 

They both looked terrible and were gasping for air about to fall over after 4 rounds. Both taking big shots lumbering around.

 

Just watch the fight sucker.

 

Just read an article on the Bleacher Report. It was Lewis's wife that wanted him to stop. According to the article Lewis wanted the fight, Stewart told Lewis that Klit deserved a rematch. They spoke about the rematch up to a year after the first fight.

 

Simps are going to simp.

 

Here, I'm drunk for the first time in awhile, so I decided to rewatch it, as I have nothing else to do:

Round 1: 10-9 Vitali. Lennox lands a few jabs but Vitali lands more jabs and lands massive power punches snapping Lennox's head back several times
Round 2: 10-9 Vitali. Lennox gets hurt multiple times and does nothing. In fact, he literally falls over at at a point and the ref runs between them, only for Lennox to catch himself and avoid the KD. Thanks, ref. Honestly, this round could arguably be scored 10-8
Round 3: 10-9 Lennox. It's a great round where they both hurt each other, but Lennox catches Vitali with the better shots despite being outlanded. (both guys are cut, and Vitali's cut is much worse. Very ugly)
Round 4: 10-9 Vitali. Lennox starts off well, but then Vitali entirely takes over and Lennox only lands a few punches in the last two minutes. Easy Vitali round. They don't mention the landed, but the announcers claim Vitali threw 66 punches to only 27 for Lewis. I'm surprised Lewis threw that many.
Round 5: 10-9 Lennox. Really, really close round. Lennox starts off excellently but then Vitali comes back and hurts Lennox plus outlands him for the last two minutes. I want to give this to Vitali, but I don't want to be biased, so I'm scoring it to Lennox.
Round 6: 10-9 Vitali. Very easy Vitali round. Vitali gets hit by a big uppercut but isn't hurt whatosever, other than that he basically schools Lennox the entire round and probably outlands him 5 to 1.

 

If he could whip himself into good shape both physically and mentally one more time Lewis would win.........if not it's a toss up.

 

For me, it's obvious it would be Vitali and that's the reason Lennox didn't give a rematch. He fairly won a fight he was loosing by luck.

 

Lewis was overweight and undertrained and didn't prepare to fight Vitali. Vitali, on the other hand, was as prepared, strong, healthy as he could get - their match was his absolute best against Lewis' worst. Had there been a rematch, I'm quite sure Lewis would have been well prepared and hence won by UD or TKO.

 

The "Lewis didn't give a rematch because he only got lucky" argument is pretty much an admission that "I'm a clueless casual with no actual knowledge about the background of the events".

It has been discussed ad nauseam that
1) Lewis was out of the ring for almost a year, undertrained, overweight and took the fight against Vitali on short notice - and still mangled Klitschko's face. You don't get 60 stitches worth of cuts because your opponent gets "lucky" - that's the result of some heavy battery. Vitali was never the type to getting marked up or cut easily so if you think him getting three separate cuts that wide is luck - yeah, you don't know what you are talking about.
2) Vitali was as well-prepared as he could ever be, and had been studying Lewis for years (by his own admission).
3) The rematch was stopped by two women: Lewis got an ultimatum by his future wife - he either stops ot she would leave her. This was confirmed by Manny Steward too.
4) Lewis' mother, Violet, has always been a huge influence on Lewis. Lewis was, for lack of a better term, a true "mama's boy" (even more so than Buster Douglas). It was his mother whom he promised to win the Olympics first before turning to pro - that's why he turned pro only after 1988 and not after 1984. His mother was always there in every training camp to cook for him, she was always ringside in all of his fights etc. His mother was both his biggest fan and like his personal handler as well. For Lewis, what she said was gospel. And she, like Lewis' future wife, didn't want Lewis to continue fighting at that point. Vitali also met her personally, and confirmed himself how Lewis' mother pretty much said "no" to Lewis about the rematch and that's why it never happened.

These things have been known and discussed for the better part of two decades. Manny Steward confirmed many times how Lewis kept talking about being interested in a Klitshcko rematch even years later. So if anyone is still blabbering about how Lewis was just "lucky" or "wanted no part of Vitali" - I'm sorry, but you are not only a casual but a hopeless one at that.

 

Maybe he was thinking from the perspective of a husband that respects his wife's opinion and not just as a man.