Lewis wanted nothing to do with a Vitali rematch and never will. He got through the first one by the luck of the gods, no way he would tempt fate again.
Lewis doesn't have to give Vitali a rematch, even back then Klitschko shouldn't have earned an opportunity to fight the lion for the second time. Lennox successfully defended his WBC title and beat his opponent fair and square. I don't know why vitali had the nerve to even demand a second chance, especially when you know it would have ended with the same result, probably quicker since Lewis would have been much more prepared for the battle this time. During the first fight, vitali won the first three rounds after beating the champion with the jab, then Lewis changed his style and he went inside to make it an "alley fight", he took it to the street. Lennox roared in, using his 5 inch reach advantage to reach Vitali's tissue paper skin and cut him to pieces. The lion raised in the judges' scorecards and in the last round, due to Vitali being emabrassed by the horrible cut, Lennox was taking control of the fight. So even if the referee didn't stop the fight, i think Vitali ,due to his warrior's heart, stays on his horse until the end of the fight, but he would lose on points, due to the cuts. So yeah, this fight gives me feeling that Vitali would have lost one way or the other. And i don't see a different result had They stepped in for another match. Vitali makes it a tough fight early, Lewis change styles, goes inside, find the magestic button which was the "Quarry" type of Vitali's skin, and stops him on cut. Vitali just met a heavyweight who was better than him. Lewis had one flaw: his whiskers, but does Vitali have the punching power to crack it? I don't think so. Lewis had Vitali's number, always has been, always, and forever will be. Anyway, i think a fight between Lewis and Tyson would be a better idea, a much prepared tyson against a "maybe" prepared Lewis, now that would be interesting.
I liked your post, and agree that Lennox won fair and square. I don't blme Lennox for retiring, and have often defended it on the fact that he explicitly retired because his son was born and he wanted to spend time. All of that notwithstanding, the entire world would have loved a rematch. But the clock ran out and it is not to be.
How could he not? I mean, all that blood...It was like a scene from Carrie. For a few years, Vitali's nickname was actually "Boxing's Carrie, Minus The Telekinesis." But, you know, like many of history's great nicknames, it was scrapped on account of sheer verbosity.
In before TKO6 and 100 pages of back and forth until the thread gets merged into the LL/VK dumping ground. I'll be back, just heating up my popcorn. As you were.
Actually Vitali was a late replacement for Kirk Johnson, the same Johnson who Vitali blew away to win the title that Lewis refused even after saying that he would rematch Vitali. As for Vitali not earning or you wanting him to earn a fight with Lewis what’s the excuse for journeyman Mike Tyson earning a fight in 2002?
What between the number 1 heavyweight and a journeyman version of Mike Tyson who hadn’t had a win over a top 10 opponent since Bruce Seldon in ‘96 or perhaps, perhaps Botha in ‘99? And remember Lewis took Tyson to court to try to force a rematch which nobody was remotely interested. But a drubbing of Tyson deserved a rematch, one which Lewis wanted but Vitali, who gave Lewis one of his hardest career fights did not? Makes absolutely no sense.
Yes. Lewis wanted the fight so bad he convinced Tyson to cancel his fight against Ray Mercer in January 2002. Because tes, Tyson and Mercer had a contract to fight on January 19, 2002, which Mike had happily agreed to, and then Lennox Lewis offered Mike a title shot, and the promoter offered him $35,000,000 and Tyson took the fight, saying Ray would understand his taking 7 times the money and a title shot. Lewis was probably afraid that Mike , who was a just a sad shadow of Young Prime Tyson he once was in 1980's, lose to Mercer and at the same time, the title opportunity.
Nice revisionist thinking. Lewis took Tyson to court to stop the Mercer fight so it did not scupper his mandatory defence against Tyson, he also requested that if the fight went ahead Mike be removed from the WBC rankings. Looking back Merced would probably of beaten Tyson at this point, which just reiterates my point that the fight was a casuals dream but the knowledgeable fans knew that Tyson wouldn’t of beaten and never even looked like wanting to fight any of the true top 10 of the time. Vitali warranted a rematch.
