1997 Lennox Lewis vs 2003 Vitali Klitschko

I really think it would've been a different fight. The slop fest was partly a result of Lewis getting tagged early and Vitali getting cut early. Lewis also didn't want to move his legs as much due to age, weight, and the fast pace.

 

I think a fighter who has never ever been knocked out ever in his career i.e. Vitali Klitskhko should be given the benefit of the doubt. Holding on to an opponent is a survival tactic isn't it to get out of tough spots?

I agree Lewis will win overall but to knock out a guy who has never been TKO'd before in his career, that is too much. Lewis was no super man who could knock everyone out.

 

You have your opinion, I have mind. At the end of the fight Vitali had cuts that required over 60 stitches to close, and he was hanging on for dear life at the end of the fight.

And Vitali's comp was nothing special, so not getting knocked out by any of them isn't all that extraordinary.

I've watched Lewis' entire career and except for his two losses that was the worst version of him, I ever saw.

A prime Lewis would have stopped him.

 

Lewis was deliberately targetting that cut on the eye to make it open more and more, pretty unsportman like if you personally ask me.

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl

What would you expect. An apology and to sit down in the middle of the ring and bring out their chess board. It's a fight ffs.

 

Punch him to the chin, nose but why target a dangerous cut which permanently blind the opponent. I even saw Larry do it once. Pretty unsportsman like behavior.

Fight hard but not be inhuman at the end.

 

You're joking right??

That's what ref's and doctors are for, to stop the fight if they think either fighter would become permanently injured. It was Lewis' job to go after that eye and force a stoppage, this just happens to be a contact sport.

I've seen lots of fights were fighters are practically begging the ref to stop the fight and they were still pummeling the at the same time. In the Duran - Moore fight, even fans were jumping up yelling to the ref to stop the fight. So it's a tough business.

 

So are you saying that Lewis had no other chances of victory or winning apart from just single handedly bashing that eye to get a stoppage rather let the fight drag on to the later rounds?

 

I'm saying it was his job to win the fight any way he could and it was the ref's job to make sure it was within the rules of the sport, and the doctors job to stop the fight if they thought Vitali couldn't continue.

This is the very basics of the sport.

 

Fair enough. I think the Doc should have ended the fight earlier then.

 

That's part of the fight game,if your opponents leg was injured you wouldn't kick it? :nono

 

Hurting a leg is different from completely blinding an opponent for life.

 

Oh I do too, but they were checking his eye between rounds, so it wasn't as if they weren't monitoring the injury during the fight. They were, and eventually it was decided that he could no longer see well enough out of the eye to continue fighting.

 

You cannot blind an opponent if blood is not going into the eye .there was no evidence of the severity of the cut,vitali was back in action a month or so later,it wasn't bad at all,as Dundee had his fair share of looking at cuts saw this. Maybe im not seeing the magic invisible blood that others are?