Facts about Vitali

"Is it a fact that Lewis retired because he was scared to fight Vitali again?"

"Scared" is a loaded word. He was scared of blowing his legacy by his own admission and rematching Vitali or fighting Wlad risked doing that.

"Yes, it is my opinion that Vitali was prime"

Some facts: Lewis was an experienced champion coming off a dominant performance, Vitali was a relatively inexperienced contender, a B-side and a 5/1 underdog, Lewis wanted 3+ more fights going into 2003, including fights with both Klitschko's.

"Are you saying Lewis was scared of McCall too?"

Probably. McCall had just one-shotted Lewis in 2 rounds and taken his 0, Lewis then had four rehabilitation fights (where he was criticised for excessive caution) before the McCall rematch 2.5 years later. So I imagine he'd have been considerably more nervous in an immediate McCall rematch than he was vs Butler and Fortune.

 

"possibly a round or two too late"

Did Vitali have any permanent damage (let alone serious damage) from it being stopped "a round or two too late"? It doesn't seem like it. Give me some examples in combat sports where cuts have caused serious permanent damage, bonus points for recent boxing/MMA history as medical science has greatly advanced.

"Either guy could have won. It was a 50/50 fight at that stage"

Yeah. That's how it was seen at the time, why the stoppage against Vitali's will was controversial and why a rematch was so heavily demanded.

"anybody who thinks that Lewis was any more than 70% fit"

This is like people saying "Wilder had something wrong with him in the 2nd Fury fight, he's never gassed like that before". Fighting better opponents = you gas faster. It's entirely possible that Lewis's additional weight helped him win the fight (durability, power, strength etc.)

 

"Judging other people's motives is something impossible to do"

Lewis told us: "I've build a legacy, why put it all at risk rematching Klitschko?"

"it wouldn't have been humane at all for Lennox to step into the ring with him again"

Just like it wasn't "humane" for Lennox to chase Tyson for a rematch? lmao.

"Skipping the Vitali rematch was also the best thing for boxing."

It was the best thing to minimise risk to Lewis's legacy, regardless of how much money was on the table.

"You have to be putting in work for the race to see Vitali as ahead on points at the time of the stoppage."

Three white supremacist judges (including one Chinese white supremacist judge) "putting in work for the race". Racist punch stats too. Even white supremacist Lewis didn't think he was ahead, giving himself 3 of 6 rounds. Anti-black Emmanuel Steward had Lewis 4-2 down.

"an easy ko waiting to happen in the next 2 rounds"

Considering that Lewis was never able to hurt Vitali and Vitali was never officially dropped in 47 fights, let alone KO'd, it's not likely, let alone "easy" or "guaranteed". Even more unlikely considering that Lewis had 0 stoppages past 8 rounds and didn't carry his power late.

"Fact is that when you have enough then you don't really care."

"If the money's right I'll rematch Klitschko, bring on his brother too" - L. Lewis immediately post-fight, interview with Larry Merchant

Your whole argument (if you can call it that) is based on provable falsities and accusations of racism.

"ducked Tyson Fury and chose to have his retirement fight against Manuel Charr instead"

41 year old Vitali wasn't pretending to be the No.1 in the division and was generally fighting lesser competition in his WBC defences, 37 year old Lewis was claiming to be the best and talking about at least three more fights pre-Vitali, against both Klitschko's and a rematch with Vitali "if the money's right".