I thought Lewis was gonna lose in the rematch with Rahman

Exactly what I was thinking. Lewis was pretty much in control of the first fight, before getting caught. & I figured he would be out to punish Rahman. Which he did.

 

i picked lennox to win both,although i wasnt as confident for the rematch for obvious reasons

 

I remember being pissed off when Rahman dropped Lewis like a bag of potatoes. Lewis traded big bombs with Ray Mercer for 10 rounds, survived a first round slaughter from Shannon Briggs, took a few hooks from David Tua, and was stunned a few times against Holyfield in their rematch, and then gets KO'd by Rahman with a single punch. Everytime I expected someone to knock Lewis out, it never happened. But when you expect him to breeze through an opponent (Rahman) he got his lights turned out instead.

As for the rematch, I expected Lennox to be more careful, but I didn't expect him to flamboyantly knock Rahman out the way that he did. I thought he'd win another careful, backpedaling decision.

 

I also thought he'd lose the rematch. I thought the age had caught up to him.

 

I was confident Lennox would settle the score, since he was dominating the first fight despite being undertrained, & had badly rocked Rahman twice at the start of round 5.

 

I knew Lewis would win the rematch...I was surprised at how spectacularly he did it though. Winning a shoving match in a studio is no barometer of how a fight is going to turn out..so there was no hope for Rahman. Rahman's win over Lewis was a classic fluke...that's all.

 

I hold my hand up, I feared for Lewis. I had a letter printed in boxing news stating it at the time. I decided that regaining the title in straight rematch after such a shattering KO defeat could not be done by an older fighter. I compared what Lewis was attempting by straight rematch with rahman to jersey Joe Walcott taking Marciano on the second time since Lennox was nearer Walcott’s age than Patterson who had succeeded.

I figured Walcott’s punch resistance must have been blown after the first Marciano fight, I expected Lewis to be just as bad. I felt Lewis's chin was no better than Walcott's, and therefore expected Lennox’s chin to let him down in each of his remaining fights but I was totally and utterly wrong. Rahman landed a real beauty on Lennox, I never expected him to be the same. I think a large part of Lewis's legacy counts on what hapened after that loss to Rahman. It was some turn around.

 

Happy new year Hydraulix. I predicted that Lennox would win the rematch,but on points. I did n't think Lewis would put on such a devastating performance. I saw him being ultra cautious.

 

It was a great win by lewis. pehaps defining win for him.

 

I thought Rahman got into his head pretty good leading up to the second fight. He even wobbled Lewis in the opening round, but Lennox Lewis was mentally very tough. He was leagues better than Rahman but I thought Rahman had a little edge going into the fight because of the win and all the mental games he was playing on Lewis.
Rahman pulled the bone head move of the year falling for the cash in the duffle bag Don King trick, and wound up getting screwed into signing a multifight deal with King.

 

I thought Lewis would win.
I thought he'd play it safe and win a clear decision in a boring fight.

It was one of Lewis's better nights.
Rahman was always a second-rater though, and beating him shouldn't be made out to be any better for the fact that Lewis LOST to him. I hold the same criticism against Sugar Ray Robinson's middleweight championship record too, among others.
Avenging a defeat to a "lesser fighter" is not actually better than routinely beating one the first time around.

 

There is no way rahman needed to fight lewis again, im glad they did fight again but I bet rahman wishes he never did!

when you think about it lewis did not have time on his side and rahman had to be due a gimmie title defence or three by which time lewis would have been retired. Lewis may never have got his chance to fulfill his legacy as it stands today: as a guy who beat all the guys he ever fought.

 

He had to fight Lewis again because of his contract. Rahman wanted to fight Tyson so Lewis sued him to enforce the contract.

 

Gods honest truth? I thought Lewis would do a number on him. I think he felt he had a lot to prove to certain people i feel, and nothing less than winning,and winning big, would be good enough for him.