Facts about Vitali

Irrelevant to McCall at 29, you're talking about a far more mature and experienced version of Lewis at 36 against a suspect-chinned relative greenhorn in Rahman.

 

"Sound reasonable?"

It's the fight where Lewis bumped into his toughest opponent, got a controversial win and (probably wisely) didn't want to risk a rematch, so he aborted his plans to have another 2-3 more fights.

Legacy is heavily about appearances. If you go on for longer then people will perceive your "prime" to be later and if you retire earlier people consider your prime to be earlier, even if it wasn't. If Byrd had retired at 32, people would have said that he was past his best when he beat Holyfield and his prime had been 2-3 years prior but because he dragged his career on longer than he should have, he doesn't benefit from those excuses so much.

 

I think you're deliberately being obtuse but on the off-chance you're not.

A relatively young and unseasoned champion coming off a devastating early KO loss is probably going to be scared about going straight back in with the iron-chinned nutcase who just destroyed him. An experienced, seasoned champion 7 years later may be an entirely different fighter from a mental perspective. Hence they rehabilitated Lewis (who looked nervy in his rehab fights against journeymen) rather than throwing him straight back in with McCall but by the time he fought Rahman he didn't need the training wheels treatment.

I don't think Lewis was intimidated by Vitali but he did fear destroying his legacy by losing a rematch against his best H2H opponent, who he beat controversially on a doctor's decision while 4-2 down, in a fight that was in the balance against a stronger-chinned and fitter opponent. Lewis was in a position where his options were: extremely lucrative rematch against a dangerous opponent and address the controversy vs cancel plans for at least two more fights, refuse the rematch and retire with no serious risk/damage to his legacy. Vitali put Lewis is a difficult position and he chose to leave the sport, despite feeling he had more to give. But it worked out fine for him, it was sensible.

 

It's highly questionable whether Vitali's best wins are better than Wilder's. Sanders (hard-hitting southpaw counterpuncher, fast hands, decent size, determined, coming off a huge win) and Chisora (durable, heavy, determined, aggressive, relentless) are his standout wins imo and they did the best against him of the fighters he beat. Vitali and Wilder also have one mutual opponent (Arreola) and Wilder was more dominant, for what that's worth.