Today is the 20th anniversary of Vitalli Klitschko and Lennox Lewis

20 years of delicious fanboys tears over TKO6.

 

Still Vitali's greatest accomplishment; going life and death with a pudgy, nearly 40 year old Lewis that was inactive for a year.

 

FOTC; twenty-first century

 

Respect to both Lewis and Klitschko for giving fans a show. Lewis was favored to beat Vitali but it wasn't easy. Vitali showed tremendous heart despite having his face carved in.

 

Thank you for making me feel every one of my 40 years

 

This was an important fight.

After Lewis beat Tyson, there was a pervasive view, that he had no near peer left in the division.

It was reasoned that he would probably take a couple more fights then retire, but there was no clear standout.

The options being discussed included Roy Jones, Chris Byrd, both Klitschkos, and John Ruiz.

He was slated to fight Kirk Johnson next, because of his rank with the WBC, and that didn't look nearly as bad as it does in hindsight.

Johnson with drew due to injury, and Dr Ironfist agreed to step in at short notice.

The fact that Lewis took the fight on those terms, shows that he was not short on confidence.

Some newspapers said that Vitally was not even the best fighter in teh Klitschko family, never mind in the world.

I don't need to tell you what happened in the fight, but it changed the landscape significantly.

We went overnight, from having a champion with no near peer, to having a single fight that everybody thought had to happen.

Suddenly people who did not normally take an interest in boxing, were talking about boxing.

Vitally became the mandatory, and It quickly became clear to Lewis, that it was Lewis Klitschko II, or retire.

There was a lot of speculation on this forum about will they won't they.

It became clear which way the wind was blowing, when members of this forum got eyes on Lewis close to the deadline, and it became clear from his figure, that he was not getting ready for a title fight.

The announcement came soon after.

That should have handed the heavyweight division to Vitally on a plate, but he suffered a near career ending injury after the Williams fight, and teh rest is history.

 

Lewis had no plans of rematching Klitschko the plans were to either fight Jones or Tyson 2. Once WBC made Klitschko the mandatory Lewis retired.

 

he was a h2h monster before lewis beat him. lewis beats him 9/10 times or better, but that doesn't make vitali not formidable. but maybe you weren't even born then.

 

You know, sometimes I may troll you, but I'm actually a fan of glass city cobra

 

Jones would have been sparked.

 

The public expected Lewis Vitally II now.

It was that or retire.