How much did the VK fight hurt LL's legacy?

What no one has mentioned is Lennox was supposed to be fighting Kirk Johnson & Vitali was also on the card.
Everyone knew Kirk had not been training properly & neither had Lennox. When Kirk pulled out "injured" Lennox was faced with, find another opponent or scrap the card. Instead he did what no other World Heavyweight Champ has ever done Lennox offered to defend against his #1 contender on a few days notice. Name me one other Champ that had the stones to do that knowing he wasn't 100% for a title defence.
Lennox won a tough fight TKO-6 & to me proved how great a champion he had always been
If you remember Vitali gave Kirk a Title shot when he was champion & rumors spread this was really a thank you for dropping out against Lennox giving Vitali the chance of upsetting Lennox. As we saw Kirk was in no shape for the fight with Vitali & got blown out. Kirks heart was broken when he was robbed of the WBA title by John Ruiz Oscar worthy acting & Joe Cortez blatant bias. He'd busted his butt to be ready for that fight & got wrongly DQ'd when he should have won by KO..

 

It didn’t hurt him in my eyes. Lewis was not the referee, the ringside doctor or Vitali’s corner. He was a near 38 year old veteran who was very clearly in decline. And even if you DON’T want to award him the win then at least you can say “ he didn’t lose. “

 

Helped it a tiny bit. Lewis was past it for sure, obviously not in the same kind of shape he was in for the Tyson fight.

Yes, he was losing for sure before the stoppage, but he did stop him.

Do I think VK would have won if not for the stoppage? Oh yeah. But that doesn't take away from the actual outcome, it was already mentioned here that VK ruled the division with his brother for a loooong time after, and proved he was a more than great fighter.

Put it this way: compare what happened to Ali, Holmes, and Tyson at the age of 38...

 

Something that’s forgotten is that Vitali was regarded as a stiff guy who quit in tough circumstances and Lewis was regarded as a prime champion going in. I don’t think the fight would’ve happened in two weeks notice like it did if Lewis’ camp had know how difficult of a match up it was.