If Bowe fought all Vitali Klitchko opponents

Because Lewis, like many older fighters knew his best chance to win was to slug it out now. Lewis is not one to produce many late round stoppages. He was gassed. Did you not see him crash down on his stool hard after the 6th round ended? Even Max Kellmeran, who was certainly no Klitschko fan said he has never seen Lewis that tired.

As for Vitali getting hit, sure, but he was also fighting back and winning. Hardly going into a shell as you suggest.

Vitali is the one who pressed for the re-match. Lewis was the one who mentally cracked and did not offer one.

 

Lewis like Bowe against Golota, knew he had nothing left, thats why these guys retired. It had nothing to do with avoiding the fight. Besides, Lewis was clearly over the hill and old. Even if Vitali beat him in the rematch what does it prove? Does it prove he was superior to Lewis? Lewis was in shape, but I dont think he was at his respective best, do you?
I dont knock Lewis for hanging them up and why should it even matter if Lewis felt he couldnt win the rematch, he was old. To me it speaks more to how good Vitali is and was at the time, because he couldnt beat a disinterestsed old Lewis in a fight that didnt really come down to skills, but more of who had the bigger balls.
As far as Vitali, he was clearly submitting to the pressure of Lewis. He couldnt take it, thats why the gap closed and Vitali got busted up. Vitali, like most euro fighters likes to fight at range, and thats why Lewis approached the fight the way he did, because like Golota, or Sanders against Wlad or Mcall against Maskaev, these guys knew right off the bat, that they were not prepared to handle rough pressure fights.
Vitali made a good account for himself, he fought back, but he was still outgunned by Lewis.
I think the same scenario would have happened in the rematch, because I dont think Lewis would have been as cautious and would have applied more pressure from the opening bell. I think Lewis was cautious to Vitali's power in the opening rounds so the fight was more at distance, but once Lewis figured out Vitali didnt punch as hard as he thought, he started applying more pressure and it was over pretty quickly. The fight was only six rounds!

 

The careers of these two men are not defined by the "ham and eggers" they defeated, but by the top fighters they defeated.

And they defeated far more of the top men of their era than Vitali has.

 

I just rewatched that fight, and again I feel Lewis won that fight because of his grit and mental toughness. It wasnt much more than a sloppy brawl, and both looked pretty bad. Lewis in particular, standing in front of Vitali taking clean righthands right after another, but he pressed on, and at the start of the thrid when Lewis landed that righthand and cut Vitali it was definitely a mental momentum changer in my mind. By the 6th Vitali was doing everything he could do to survive, the uppercuts were hurting him badly, and he was lost on the inside and could no longer establish anything at range.
Again Vitali tried but I just dont see that dimension to his game. He cant fight at all on the inside (not that Lewis was great there either), and mentally he was being defeated by Lewis who started to land cleaner and more effective punches in close in the 5th and 6th.
Listen to Steward. Start of the 3rd, you need to apply more pressure. Between rounds of the 6th, you got him right where you want him now in your fight! This was the gameplan, what suprised Steward and Lewis was that Vitali was a bit more durable than they anticipated.

 

I had Lennox winning on the scorecards against Vitali 4-2. The best you can ask for is a 3-3 scorecard for Vitali.

 

I would say Bowe beats all of his opponents

The lazy factor is the X factor with Riddick though..

If he comes in out of shape then he could possibly be upset, but I have to be honest no one jumps out to me on VK resume that could upset Bowe..

Sanders can bang, But Bowe would KO him, Peter can hit 2 but he may not be able to take what Bowe gives back.. Danny Williams has guts but not enough Chin..

On the flip side if we are looking at Bowes brief title run, VK would wax that Dokes and Ferguson quick. But I don't see him beating either Holyfield of fight one or two, but fight 3 who knows probably..

 

Another Klithugger lie right there, a rotator cuff injury will not end a career

If Vitali or his corner weren't quiting against Lewis why were the butterfly stitches being put on his eye?

Watch Mendoza run away :hi:

 

Thats a good point, I was using the best Bowe. But even the heavy Bowe would beat fighters like Kirk Johnson, Kevin Johnson and Chris Arreola I would believe.. Did you see Mccline dropping Peter repeatedly with his uppercuts? That is one of Bowes best punches.. I just can't envision even the Bowe of the Golota fights losing to some of these guys.. Albert Sosnowski....... Come on man lol..

 

I dont think Vitali's opponents outside of Lennox Lewis are even much - or any - better than Bowe's opponent's outside of Holyfield.

Similar opposition. And Bowe had more fights.

I dont think Bowe could have had the longevity Vitali had, he didn't. But his accomplishments in 6 or 7 years stack up well with what Vitali's done over almost 15.

 

You can not be serious. Lewis up 4-2. Nope, nope, nope.

 

Run form the likes of you? I think Vitali as a sports doctor knew when his arm went dead, the injury could have jeopardized career. Not everyone comes back from a bad shoulder injury. But then again you don't know much about sports injuries at all.:hi:

Vitali had no idea the ring doctor ordered a halt to the fight. It was not a corner stoppage by any means. Once he learned the fight was stopped, we all saw how much energy he had left.

 

Every single title defense of Marciano was against the top contender, with the exception of Cockell who was number two.