Great performance by Vitali, but let us all not forget...

Vitali would have knocked Lewis out in the 7th round. Lewis was out of it, flopped down on his stool like never before, ever Max Kellerman admitted that and he was sitting behind Lewis' corner. Fight was stopped on a cut, which saved Lewis. That fight made Lewis retire for good. Vitali tried everything to get him back into a ring, but Lewis refused for any amount of money. Vitali took that fight on short notice and still almost stopped Lewis. Angelo Dundee said that Vitali was cheated out of the title that night. One more round should have been given to Vitali, if so, Lewis would have been knocked out.

 

sour grapes should have been the title of this thread. I won't open up the "would have been ko'd in the 7th debate." but the rest is pure hating. Lewis inactive? he fought one year prior. Vitali took a 4 year layoff and destroyed Peter.
Lewis unmotivated? I suppose you can read minds.
Heaviest weight? true, but misleading of course...Lewis is 6'5 and weighed 256 vs Vitali. certainly not fat. he also weighed 250 vs bothaand whooped him. 246 in the Rahman rematch, 249 vs Tyson, 247 vs grant, even 248 vs butler in 1995. Lewis was not far from his normal weight at all.

Normally I would leave it at that. But I am sick of all the Klitschko haters. These guys are very talented, generous and don't disrespect their opponnents. Maybe all you haters should take off your bias glasses and see these two are great fighters and good guys. Vitali comes back off a 4 year layoff and demolished a top heavyweight. thats pretty impressive but all you see is an insult. what do you know? answer: nothing.

 

This is exactly how I saw it.

If you take a look at the fight from beggining to end.....you'll find out that it would take Lennox Lewis almost an entire round to catch his wind everytime he expended energy.

When Lewis needed to catch his wind, it would take him at least two minutes or longer to do so......Vitali when he was winded, was right back with energy within 30 seconds.....

When exherting energy, Vitali was catching his wind back so much easier than Lennox......thats why I'm convinced that had the fight continued, the situation with these fighters needing to catch their wind would have worsened for the older Lewis.

Imo, Lewis would not have made it physically past another two rounds in that fight, Vitali would have KHTFO!

I'll give Lewis credit for quitting while he was ahead.....there's a reason why a remtach never happened, and Lennox Lewis knows exactly what he was in for had he fought on!

Lennox Lewis should get credit for knowing when to retire......and from the punishment he recieved from Vitali, he knew that was the time.

 

i second this post

 

its funny how people are so quick to jump on the klits for virtually anything from a dominating performance to an injury that stops a bout, but when someone like fat slob peter quits on HIS STOOL NO INJURIES AS A CHAMPION, well, he needs more work or he had an off night. pititful showmanship.

I am sure vitali had much harder sparring sessions than this beatdown of fat peters.

To come back after 4 YEARS of inactivty and destroy a beltholder, of whom many ESB members gloated over as the 'best HW in the world' shows the pure superioity of vitali over the HW division. What a legacy!

 

oh yeah, Vitali will kick the sh!t out of lewis 9/10times. The man is incredibly strong and has excellent boxing skills, and a chin lewis could only dream of.

 

Also the Japanese attacked pearl harbor. Let's not all forget ok.

 

Anybody that is of the opinion that Lewis-Tua was a boxing lesson, should seriously take a look at Vitali vs Peter and find out what a boxing lesson is really about!

There was absolutely nothing timid about how Vitali mastered Peter as opposed to how Lewis so boringly made a pact with Tua not to throw hard leather at eachother!:yep :deal

Vitali vs Peter = Boxing lesson

Lewis vs Tua = Embarrasing

 

Well said. Lewis didn't even go for the knockout.

Peter wasn't going another round, he would have been knocked out.

 

Please, please, please restart your legendary "Surely Vitali would have gotem KO'd" thread.

 

Vitali easily manhandled the slow and heavy Peter. Sam never tried to make use of his body strength and stayed, moved his head a bit but Vitali used very good body movement, excellent accuracy and flashy hands and could not miss with a thumping left lead, a sound left hook and a heavy right hand at range and pretty flat footed which just goes to show how helpless was Peter's game trying to find ways to get in... Basically, Peter never really had an idea of what did it take to make it through so he payed for not having a plan. Props to Vitali, not to Peter.

 

In defense of Samuel Peter, that was heavy leather he was trying to walk through to get to Vitali.......as opposed to the mostly timid jabs that brother Wlad threw at Peter when they fought.

.....thats the difference in why Peter could'nt get in punching range....hard shots by Vitali, and subtle lateral movement that kept poor Peter off-balance all night.

I'm a fan of Samuel Peter.....but truly, it was true what Al Bernstein commented on.....this was just a very bad style matchup for Samuel Peter......a big tall fighter with a reach, who knows how to fight like a big tall fighter with a reach.
Not every tall fighter knows how to use their reach and fight tall!

 

I like Sam and he's gutsy and all. But he didn't have a plan, he was actually confident fighting at range and kinda playing left hand leads against Vitali - what kinda plan is that? That is just absurd because we knew by the Williams fight that Vitali would get relaxed in there, hanging his left hand low and sticking it while balancing his body subtle from side to side, around and away from Peter's range... So Peter would have to balance his body forward and be first with speed-ups and jumps on top of him, crushing right hands on his body and overhand rights to the side of the head. Of course, he didn't and kept himself at that range where he could only take and take and take. In my personal opinion, Peter just expected Vitali to gas or to get injured and did nothing to make it happen fast enough. Period.

 

That fight proved how strong and tough Lennox Lewis really was ... in addition, wasn't Vitali a last minute substitute ? I'm sure it effected his stamina in such a grueling fight ...

 

100% agreed

I like Vitali big time, but Lewis really is the man. I don't think he is on a different level, but his reign is more impressive and you've to respect that.