You don't get disqualified for that in an English ring. Probably not even today, certainly not then. Vann should have stopped it anyway, that was what was really incompetent about that refereeing, there was absolutley no reason for Frank to ship those additional bombs.
I've seen it. I think what I said still stands, that was a dirty performance as was the finish to the Bruno fight but I think if you compiled a list of dirty fighters Lewis would be nowhere near the top.
Vann has no control in a fight, you watch American refs they yell "stop punching" or whatever and separate fighters and by and large don't take much ****, guys like Vann yell "let 'im go Ricky" Ricky doesn't and then he just doesn't do anything. British refereeing is way behind the doodles, I sometimes wonder if they do their apprecticeships in illegal bareknuckle boxing.
yeah it wasnt a spectacular ko to be honest. it looks better on paper. way too sloppy but its the refs job to step in and enforce the rules and he didnt do ****. mercante completely sucked in that fight.
:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:happy:happy Funniest thing ever - and one of my favourite boxing memories from the thick of my (brief) college days - one of my favourite fights ever too - Lennox Lewis at this time was the best he would ever be - miles better than when he supposedly improved under Manny - this was when he was young and 16 stone 3 pounds - and fast as - and that nasty street mentality in him still (and still didn't give a **** about impressing anyone - much prefered trying to show off a bit) - his combination of the size AND SPEED was what set him apart then - I don't care how much experience he got later - this was Lewis at his best - Bruno's best fight aswell on top of that PS i wanted that hat Lewis wore on his way in - it was cool as :rasta
Maybe he should have been penalized for the Bruno thing, I dont know. But I think the fouls in the Grant fight were really beyond the pale. Absolutely horrendous. 2 (and perhaps 3) of the 4 knockdowns looked completely foul, including the finish (perhaps the worst foul of all). And between the KDs Lewis was fouling constantly.
The Lewis camp should've done the same thing the smarter opposing camps did to Bruno--make Frank take his act on the road. He's always going to be in top form in front of his hometown fans. And since he was far more popular than Lennox, make the fight in Atlantic City or Vegas & then you don't have as difficult a guy on your hands.
It was only Tyson who fought Bruno for the championship outside of the UK. And Bruno did better in Las Vegas against Tyson than some of Tyson's other ranked opponents (Americans). Bruno looked overmatched and scared, but that was probably the "Tyson effect" rather than being away from home. It's not as if the British fans didn't make their presence felt.
Thats an understatement, I was there. The arena was nuts with British fans singing and partying. It didnt feel like we were on Tysons home turf believe me.
The fight was effectively over as soon as Lewis landed the big left though wasn't it? I agree the ending was ugly, bordering on illegal but you could say that about literally dozens of HW fights. Lewis liked to get an advantage where he could but show me a HW champ that doesn't/didn't?