Prime Lewis TKO Vitali in how many rounds??

Lewis doesn't get the (T)KO without a cut, so I guess I can't put a round out to answer this one.

 

When it comes to posters and their ability to put together a rational, intelligent, analytical argument, you're one of the worst.

But just for the hell of it, let me ask you how fighting a fighter who RETIRED after this fight, in anyway indicates how Vitali would do against said fighter in his prime?

You really don't make any sense and your comments are about as intelligent as saying Leon Spinks would beat a prime Ali because when they fought, Spinks landed more punches.

It's the exact same moronic argument only in this case, Lewis actually won the fight.

And your pathetic focus on only what the score was at the time of the stoppage, shows any boxing fan, that you lack the very basic knowledge of how the outcome of a fight is determined.

 

Prime for prime, Lewis ko 2.

 

Well if we didn't see anything in this fight, we saw that Lewis was capable of cutting Vitali more than once. Vitali had sustained a minimum of 3 cuts during that fight. One above the left eye, one below it, and his lip was partially shredded open.

So it wouldn't be a great leap of analytical reasoning to think that Lewis could have caused a couple of cuts in his prime. Whether that would have made enough of a difference to determine the outcome of the fight however, is up for debate.

 

Vitali has one of the best chins of all time.

There is no blueprint to outbox Vitali Klitschko, he will not be KO'd either.

He was ahead on the scorecards in both of his losses, they were both due to injury.

 

An injury?

I suppose one could also call a KO an injury as well, but when the injury was inflicted by the opponent fists, and you require about 60 stitches afterwards, that's called taking a beating, which is exactly what Vitali took.

You did see the pictures of him after the fight didn't you?

You klitschko fans are hillarious. I've never in my life seen anyone group of fans spin things the way you guys do. One accidental punch, or not, Lewis basically smashed Vitali's fan to ****. That train wreck of a face certainly wasn't the result of one punch, lucky or otherwise.

But you're right about the chin..

Too bad his skin wasn't as tough as his chin.

 

I can't see Lewis winning on KO or TKO unless it is on cuts.

Vitali isn't known as someone who gets cut all that easily.

So Lewis winning by TKO means winning on cuts, which raises the question of how likely it is that Vitali would get cut badly enough to end the fight again.

I'll put that down as possible, but unlikely.

So that leaves the question of who would win by decision. We know that Vitali was outboxing Lewis, just as we know Lewis won the fight. I frankly laugh at people who try and emphasise how out of shape Lewis was - he was fine. He was slightly past prime.

Who would win a decision between the best Lewis and the best Vitali? I don't know. I'd probably back Lewis if I had to back anyone. But it's a pick'em fight.

If Lewis can get Vitali cut again, then he can win by KO. I don't see it happening any other way. I also see cuts as being unlikely, but if it happened again you'd not be totally surprised either.
Lewis got sparked several times in his career, which proves that his chin was worse than Vitali's, but I don't know if you can extrapolate that into meaning that Vitali had much chance of KOing Lewis with his accumulation punches. Again it seems unlikely, but if it happened you can't say it would be amazing either. Lewis was KOed by worse fighters than Vitali.

So I got it as about an even chance of either winning by KO or by decision.

What a shame that their careers didn't overlap more, or we may have had a trilogy for the ages.

 

First, you seem to fail to realize that boxing is a sport and as in any other sport the rules are made to minimize wins by chance and maximize wins by skill. It is a common misconception that the cut automatically results in TKO. If you ever bothered to read the boxing rules then you would have realize that when the fight is stopped because of an injury there are about 10 scenarios of the outcome and they all deal with the fact how the injury initially happened and what made it worse.

Second, Lewis had no plans to retire before the fight with Vitali. In fact, even immediately after, since he announced his retirement almost a year later. He was at his best against Tyson and then suddenly he was shot against Vitali? Nonsense. Ali started to show signs of decline ever since Thrilla in Manila. Lewis had his best wins late in his career.

I am not saying Vitali would walk over Lewis but in my opinion Vitali would win UD since he showed better skill in their respective fight. Accidental injuries can go both ways so I am not considering them in fantasy matchups.

Is that rational enough for you?

 

You will be hard-pressed to find any source of Lewis talking retirement before Vitali's fight. Lewis was scheduled to fight Johnson instead of Vitali before Johnson got injured and Vitali was set for December later that year. He invented the retirement story after the fact.

 

Yeah I have heard it all before. Lewis fans go on and on about it, it's called confirmation bias. Lewis was fat, Lewis was old, Lewis wasn't motivated, Lewis didn't train for Vitali... on and on and on it goes.

Lewis was slightly past prime. I was a big Lewis fan before I even knew about the Klitschkos. I didn't buy the excuses back when the fight happened, and I don't buy them now.

The difference between prime Lewis and the one who fought Vitali would perhaps have shifted the fight from being 4-2 to being 3-3 by the end of the 6th.

 

I realize the rules very well, I also realize what the outcome was. Do you?

To say Lewis was at his best against Tyson tells me any everyone else on this thread all we need to know about your boxing knowledge. Lewis never had his best wins late in his career performance wise, but he may have legacy wise. Everyone who knows anything about boxing knows that the fight between Lewis and Tyson was a legacy fight for Lewis, with big $$$ attached to it.

And to your third point about cuts, notice the word is plural, meaning as I said earlier, it's too bad Vitali's skin isn't as strong as his chin. Certainly if they fought in their respective primes there would be a chance of a cut stoppage by Lewis, or a TKO of some kind. Don't know the odds of that happening, but I hardly think it would shock anyone if it happened.

And the last point and Vitali showing better skills against Lewis in their fight is just plain weak..and again shows us that you've never seen a prime Lewis in action, he wasn't the slow plodding, one punch head hunter he was against Vitali, in his prime he had much better foot and handspeed.

It really is like comparing Ali to Spinks and picking Spinks based on who was faster when they fought.

How can anyone view this any differently, when you're comparing a fighter in his prime, against one who never fought again after that fight? And the funny part is, Lewis dispite his relatively slow plodding head hunting style, which I've never seen him use before, still manage to win the last couple of rounds and at one point had Vitali hanging on for dear life near the end of the 6th. Don't believe me?

Fine because I'd sooner you actually watch the last 2 minutes of the fight, Lewis was trying to create distance between himself and Vital so he could finish him off. To Vitali's credit he wouldn't let him.

 

He talked about retirement, but nothing definative. He was scheduled to fight Johnson who pulled out with an injury and as you mentioned he and Vital were orginally scheduled to fight in December. But after he beat Vitali he decided there really wasn't anyone else to fight and he knew while fighting Vitali that his skills had diminished far more than he realized. Hell everyone could see that.

I don't get those who can't..just watch some earlier fights of his and look for fs. It's not like this can't be verified, it's on tape for all to see.

 

See, this is from a poster who actually took the time to watch Lewis when he was younger and these are his comments. And how anyone who watched these fights and the Vitali fight could come to any other conclussion is beyond me.

 

He didn't decide to retire immediately after Vitali fight. They negotiated the rematch bound for December and Lewis did not announce his retirement until 2004.

I watched plenty of Lewis fights. Vitali made him fight off the back foot which Lewis was never comfortable with. Lewis was not slow. He was hesitant. He could not get his range setup so he could not fire fast shots or combinations. He tried to pressure Vitali earlier in the first but quickly realized that Vitali wouldn't fold. You won't find anything comparable in Lewis earlier fights. You think he was shot because you cannot find a reference when the truth is Lewis was just outgunned.

Just look at the stance:

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Well there's no point in arguing with someone who really believes that Vitali fought a prime Lewis and never even lost the fight.

It's as delusional as it gets.