Imagine what a prime Lennox Lewis would've done to Vitali Klitschko

“End of his career,” is misleading in describing Lewis, IMO. The guy peaked very late, after his physical prime. 1997-02 is roughly him at his best as a fighter - I’d say his conditioning for that particular fight was more the issue.

Both of these men are over-rated for mine, but one was great, the other was not. Lewis wins a clear decision. Maybe not dominant, but clear.

 

Lewis was in terrible shape for the Klitschko fight. Unsightly.. kind of like Fury was vs. Naganno.

 

I shudder to think.

 

Would have been about the same. A couple of months before the fight, I was reading a boxing magazine in which they were quoting Steward saying that Lennox was better than ever and might fight on for years. Immediately after the Klitschko fight, the narrative developed of "old, out of shape Lewis..."

I have always supported Lennox and said he won fair and square, but let's just say thing like the are. He got a bit surprised early on, made some adjustments and did what he had to do for a great win.

 

I imagen Vitaly stops Lennox late in the fight. Vitaly being the better, stronger man with an iron jaw. Lennox just got so incredible lucky when the ref stopped the fight with Lennox behind on points and 30 seconds from being ko'ed.

 

But against Lewis that strategy failed ,and his plan B was what? Against a younger Lennox I suspect it'd fail more spectacularly

 

I don't pick a lot of people against the best version of Lewis, maybe none. But Vit would be no pushover. And Lenny was known to have his share of off nights.

 

Cuts over the eye...............cuts under the eye.............cut lips............cut inside the mouth.....halfway thru the fight.......he needed like a 100 stiches afterwards......and that was vs a old one foot out the door Lewis at the heaviest in his career.............if that version carved VK up like a Thanksgiving Turkey a prime version would literally end his career and yes, the ref/Dr saved VK.s career.

 

I don't recall too many fights I wasn't cut in the mouth. The main gash was nasty for sure. Plenty of hard punchers hit that same spot later and it didn't bust so no sure if Lewis would turn that magic every time out. The fact is that Lennox got stung by Vitali and was losing the fight. The same Lennox got sparked twice in his prime and turned in several underwhelming performances besides those. Again, I don't even always pick Ali over a properly tuned, Steward-led Lewis. So, it's no shame to say Vitali would lose, too. But I think he would always make his mark against him and have a reasonable chance (not favored) to turn the trick.

 

Like you, I don't think VK would be a pushover. IMO VK improved after the Lewis fight, maybe not physically, but his confidence improved and that fight gave him "big fight" experience. If LL and VK fought again, at their best I'd probably favor VK, but I wouldn't bet anything that I wasn't willing to lose. It could go either way, but in a tough fight I'd lean toward VK. I can't see LL ever dominating VK or winning easily.

 

Steward can say whatever he wants.

But the facts of the matter are that Lewis was a bloated 37 year old who weighed in at a career high 256 lbs and was gassing after just 4 rounds. He was in fact getting old and was in terrible shape, yet he managed to secure a win over a future hall of famer.

The angry Lewis of Rahman 2/Golota decapitates Vitali.

 

How different Vitali would be viewed if a younger Lewis got rid of him without too much fuss. The bulk of the Ukrainian's reputation is based off ultimately losing a fight against a jaded champion. I've never known a single fighter to benefit so much in the eyes of fans for a losing effort. A head-to-head monster, apparently...an amusing extrapolation to say the least.