Could Lewis beat Vitali without cuts?

Lewis would have spanked Bowe, that I am sure of. So would Vitali.

If you are talking resumes then Lewis > Vitali, I don't really think it's debatable. If you are talking H2H that's a different matter and I am sure it has been done to death.

 

In that fight...maybe. Could have gone either way.
Prime Lewis? Absolutely.

 

You see everything in reverse. No surprise there.

 

Lewis was out boxed by Frank Burno until landing the bomb, and had a tough time with a smaller Ray Mercer's jab in a close fight I scored 6-4 for Lewis. A few ( not me ) think Holyfield defeated Lewis in their 2nd fight.

Out boxing Lewis was not easy, but he never fought a skilled super heavyweight on Vitali's level where he was giving up height and giving up activity of punches.

Vitali was clearly out boxing Lewis ( 4-2 on all three cards )and in control until the cut. The film shows a clear backhand by Lewis, which could have played a role in the cut. At the end of the fight, the bleeding was under control, and Lewis looked the more spent of the two. We all saw how much energy Vitalihad left once he learned the doctor was stopping the fight.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtdOteT5G0Q[/url]

A re-match was needed. Lewis said he would do it on air in the press but balked! Having a big ego ducking out of this fight and retiring must not have been easy for him. But I think he knew he wasn't winning the re-match.

 

It depends. Pre-McCall Bowe might have spanked Lewis. Lewis then had balance issues and the arrogance he could not get hurt, which to me is puzzling since he was KO'd in the amateurs by a tier two Russian

But with Steward in his corner, I think Lewis defeats Bowe.

I also think Vitali defeats Bowe.

 

This is a fair post. I also think Vitali was very effective. Awkward and at times ungainly, but effective. Well-schooled and had a good chin. Tough, determined type of fighter.
If I have one rather small criticism I would say he had mediocre hitting power for a big guy. Certainly similarly-sized guys like Wlad and Lennox hit substantially harder.
It's not a big deal but I did notice that after a while, he wasn't hurting Lewis who for me had a questionable chin.
Against good opposition he had to grind them down normally.

 

i just watched it, because it's a fun fight, the cut was clearly caused by a legal punch.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjyJQClP8o[/url] 22:50 shows it from a good angle

 

Agreed. Joe Louis would have given him one. Maybe Ali too.
I can buy the reasons offered by Lewis and his fans for not giving one, but in all honesty he really ought to have given a rematch to settle the matter once and for all.
Only a biased poster would think this was anything but anybody's fight at the time of the stoppage.
Yes cuts happen but the ending left a sour taste in the mouth for the neutral.

 

Agree, he did not have great 1 punch KO power, rather he was a thudding, solid hitter that over the course of a fight managed to wreck people. This seems to me to be a natural consequence of how he fought, using mostly arm punches so as not to lose his balance and so that the opponent couldn't counterpunch him easily. It's actually a very cerebral style, if ungainly. I thought that he tried to hit harder than usual against Lewis and that Lewis took them pretty well. I also think Lewis' chin is so-so, but that night it seemed good.

 

Yeah its been a few years since I've watched any footage of it ( even though youtube clips of that fight are posted here regularly. ) but I seem to remember Vitali winning the early rounds and Lewis getting the better of him from about round four onward. There's no doubt about it. Both men were exhausted and taking huge damaging blows. It wasn't just Lewis. Klitscko was exhausted, badly cut and losing steam. had the fight gone on for another round or two there's no telling what would have happened.

 

A while ago you said Lewis was the more marked up of the two, then ,when I posted a photo of both in the ring after the fight you didn't reply.The bleeding was under control? You are funny sometimes.
Vitali got an overweight near 38 years old Lewis who had not
fought in a year and he was stopped, no arguments, no fouls ,no ifs or buts he was stopped.

"A right from Lewis opened a grotesque cut over Klitschko's left eye in the third round". Legitimate punch.:good

END OF.
Here, refresh your obviously faulty memory.

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Honestly I think Lewis maybe realised (Vitali made him realise) that he was getting on in years and that he wasn't as good as he once was.

I don't want to say he was scared of Vitali, but I do think that what he had seen of him that night was enough to make him realise that any fight with Klitschko would be a gruelling, bloody affair, and that he had better things to do than go through that again, win or lose. And maybe he realised that he may well lose.

I think that if their primes had coincided he would have given a rematch.

 

Vitali looks like Rocky Balboa after his first fight with Apollo Creed in that photo. And I've seen interviews with the doctor who examined that cut in between rounds. He said that the tissue was so deeply cut that he was in jeopardy of having his tear duct glands damaged permanently. The stoppage was well warranted. To let that fight continue would have been potentially disastrous both for Vitali as well as the ringside doctor who may have been sued for letting it continue.

 

"A right from Lewis opened a grotesque cut over Klitschko's left eye in the third round"

 

I don't blame the doc for stopping that, to be honest. I feel sorry for Klitschko, but half his face was hanging off. I think that at that point Vitali just didn't care though, even if that was his last fight because of it.