Why didn't Lewis rematch Mercer?

Probably because he nearly lost.

Ray went semi-retired after the fight for a little while...had like 4 fights in 5 years. He was already in his mid-30's when he fought Lewis. By the time he got back to fighting regularly he was pushing 40.

Lennox won the title back in his next fight and probably wouldnt of wanted to fight Ray again if it wasnt necessary...Ray hardly fighting in the following years saw his stocks to go back down and he dropped off the radar.

 

I don't know why it didn't happen, I myself had Lewis up a couple of points. I think the tiny ring benefitted Mercer greatly and that in a bigger one, Lewis would have backpeddled more, boxed more and it wouldn't have been such a good fight.

 

Ms. Butler has Mercer's back. That is why Lewis did not want the rematch.

 

It is a very simple answer. MONEY! To most of the fighters (almost all) boxing is about making enough money to live comfortably for as long as possible. The reward must out weigh the risk, not the other way around.

Today, Lennox Lewis is rich and retired, Ray Mercer is 47 and getting ready to fight a MMA guy.

 

dont see how people could have had mercer win that...close..yeah could say that but lewis was the clear winner


and lewis was moving on to bigger and beter things..after that fight he got back a heavyweight title and later on fought holyfield

 

when you put it like that it really stings

 

Big turning point in both their careers. Mercer came to fight and was in shape for that fight. This was Lewis' biggest test under Steward, and it was exactly what Steward wanted to test Lewis' heart. If anyone has the fight go back and watch it and see how Lewis was ready to quit and kept telling Emanuel go tell the ref hes headbutting and cheating and kept on. Steward basically told him hey you want to be the champ you gotta fight and win these type of fights, go out there and do it. Lewis responded, but it was razor close. To me, this is when Lewis prime started, because even though he had previously held the title, Pepe Correa never prepared him for this type of fight and wouldnt have been able to coach him to the win.
To this day, Lewis will tell you that was a huge turning point in his career, that fight! It was his first real fight that he had to dig down and fight out a win, because the fight wasnt on his terms of boxing safely from the outside.
Shows you how important having the proper trainer in place is. It takes a guy who can stand up to these pampered egomaniacs and say shut up and fight, regardless of the millions involved. The smart fighters understand this (Lewis), the dumb ones (Tyson), dont.

 

I watched this fight about 4 times and each time i thought it was an even draw:think good ****ing fight!! Lewis didn;t fight him again because he didn't want to go thru that hell again plain and simple.

 

It was not a really viable project for Lennox, i would not have made great money sense, and would not have made sense full stop as to where his career was headding ... Another win over Ray would have just established that he was simply a better heavyweight than Ray, but it was further a field Lennox was looking , as far as beating the larger names and headding towards dizzier heights to establish himself as an all time great heavyweight..Its like saying why didn't Oscar rematch Felix Sturm , or why didn't George Foreman rematch Alex Stewart.. or why didn't Evander rematch Bert Cooper.. It was not in the Victors best interests all round to rematch any of the aforementioned fighters, because more often than not the men were actually too god for thier own good.. No bones about it, Ray proved his weight in gold on that evening and also proved how style wise , he was a risk when all said and done , that Lewis didn't need to cross paths with one more time.. unless there had been a large incentive in it for him to do the rematch.. He won, it was slim , but a definite win...

 

Mercer should've beat some names and got back in-line for another shot at Lewis...it's not on Lewis to worry about a guy he's already beaten thats not a big name...

 

and RJJ should've had the same attitude after he beat Tarver the 1st time...

 

1)why didnt holyfield? he eeked by him as well. hell it was holy's manager at the time that said that mercer damn near sent him back into retirement.

2)it was a close but clear for lewis. i dont see how it could be scored for mercer.

3)mercer is absolute hell when he turns up to fight. high risk, low reward fighter that has the ability to age people.

a rematch made no sense for lewis

 

doubt he was ever going to get back at lewis, as the fight right after lewis(witherspoon i believe), he looked like a markedly(sp?) diminished fighter. this marked mercers decline from the HW ranks.