Just re-watched Lewis/Vitali..

You klitschko fans are true idiots. Who cares who was or wasn't in shape, the fact is Lewis won by TKO and clearly won the last round. At 37 retiring isn't a bad option. Frazier, Dempsey, Marciano etc, were all retired by that age and Ali and Tyson were mere shells of themselves. But in shape or not, his timing was obviously off at the beginning of the fight and he took a few rounds to get his timing down, but again, none of that matters, the only thing that matters is TKO in 6. A rematch would be hard to predict because of all the scare tissue Vitali would have, the most likely outcome is that it's once again stopped on cuts.

 

Vitali lost that's a fact, but the outcome was not decisive enough to determine who was the better man. But you can't deny the possibility that Lennox retired to avoid rematching Vitali, in fact all things would suggest that to be the case. Vitali wanted the fight, boxing press wanted the fight, fans wanted the fight, only Lennox didn't. Lennox was still very game when he fought Vitali, he was not a badly faded fighter, certainly not shot. Rematch should have happened, Lennox is an ATG but fans will always question his heart for not taking the lucrative rematch with Vitali. Fact.

 

I'm not denying the possibility but I'm not saying that it's a fact either. By all accounts he was prepared to have a rematch and the women in his life say said no and he decided to honour their wishes. As to whether or not he was shot that's a matter of opinion, certainly Lampley said he wasn't the same fighter he was when he fought Tyson and I've watched his whole career and I never seen anything close to this sloppy of a display. Go watch the Tyson fight and then tell me this was the same fighter.

As to fans questioning his heart about a rematch, which fans would they be? Certainly not Lewis fans or even boxing fans in general, only deranged Klitschko fans want to beat this line of thinking to death almost 12 years afterwards.

 

TKO6, does tend to get them all upset with what really occurred. But as no rematch happened they then can claim ultimately 'the victory'. Makes no sense unless you're a fanatical Klitschko fan.

 

This fight was over 12 years ago and people still got upset*sigh*. Lewis came in the heaviest in his career, 38 years old past-prime, did not fight for 13 months against VK who was in his prime. The first 2 rounds was all VK, landing hard right hands over and over and manhandling Lewis like a ragdoll. Round 3 was Lewis's, landing that "lucky" overhand right and open a nasty cut over VK's left eye. Round 4, 5, 6 were relatively even but VK was landing more, I still remember his triple jabs that Lewis had no answer for. Lewis landed a hellacious uppercut at the end of roung 6 that would decapitate any hw in history but VK held on. Perhaps at this point Lewis realized he couldn't KO Vitaly however he tried. Both men were dead tired at the end of round 6. VK's cut over the eyes was to serious and the ref stopped the fight. It's a bit underwhelming but cut won fights all the time.
* Verdict: Lewis escaped with a win but realized he was too old for this **** and retired. Wise move. VK got the short end of the stick but he was the challenger and supposed to do the job. Lewis was ripe for the taking and VK couldn't do it for 6 rounds, despite his so-called ironfist and high KO percentage. McCall did it in 2 rounds, Rahman in 5. It's VK's fault that the biggest fight in his career was a loss, leaving unfullfiled potential and a bunch of butthurt nuthuggers that cry and whine to this day. End of story.

 

Would the underlined fans question Vitali's heart after he quit when in his prime and in front against powder puff hitter Chris Byrd?:think

 

Bottom line, prime for prime Lennox wins,as he did when he was nearly 38 years old and past his best.
Bottom line Lewis has some stellar names on his win resume Vitali does not.
Bottom line Lewis beat better opponents in a better era.

Bottom line Lennox is imo a top 5 atg hvy. Vitali does not make the top 10 imo.


Bottom line if hearts are to be questioned Vitali's performance against Chris Byrd will always come up.
http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/05/removing-the-false-veil-of-greatness-part-1-vitali-klitschko/

 

I believe both brothers are short in the heart department. Pushed hard hit and hurt they don't want to be in there anymore. An old unfocused Lewis had Vitality on the verge of a Ko at the end of the last round when they fought. Prime Lewis I believe walks through him like a hot knife through butter.

 

Vitali only had one bad cut in his career as a pro or amatuer. Lewis clearly used a backhand with his glove ( Laces? ) and caught Vitali at an odd angle. Neither would have happened in the re-match.

Lewis running from the re-match tells us everything.

 

Tell us that he was old and should retire before becoming another Joe Louis or Mike Tyson? Yeah, right. Good call.

 

Then why was Lewis trying to make other matches? Why did he say multiple times he would take the re-match?

Lewis was talking like an active fighter. He was forced to show his cards once the WBC ordered the re-match. Fight or lose your belt they told him! He knew he would lose.

In boxing re-matches tell us a lot. Louis vs Schemling, or Patterson vs Ingo.

 

Not sure if he wanted another fight after VK. He was trying to rematch Tyson and when it failed he took a 13-month layoff. He was supposed to fight Kirk Johnson in June, 2003 but Johnson dropped out and he faced Vitaly instead. So VK is not really his first choice. After a disastrous fight that he was quite lucky to win, Lewis tried to save face and said he would rematch VK to Larry Merchant. It's prolly a spontaneous decision and not what he planned. Yeah it sounded like cheating but Lewis got nothing left to prove, he could go away with his health and money intact and I undestand that. Ali never gave Foreman a rematch and nobody really cares.

 

WTF are you talking about? Vitali had more than one bad cut in that fight, never mind his career. Do you think he only had one cut?

If so, best go look at a picture of his face after the fight.

Good God this is ridiculous, if you don't like the facts, well just change them, that's about what your post amounts to.

 

More like WFT are you reading. I said Vitali only had one bad cut in his career as a pro or amatuer. He did not have any bad cuts in the AM's or Pro's outside of the Lewis match.

I did not say the cut in the Lewis fight was not a bad one. There was backhand right after the cut appeared. It has been posted here before and could have very well caused the bad cut over the eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtdOteT5G0Q

In addition reported that lose tape on Lewis glove caused the cut.

My stance is this. Vitali up 4-2 on all three cards. Lewis was tired and won on a cut that was not bleeding badly at the time of the stoppage, and might have been caused by laces or a backhand. A re-match was needed. Lewis said he'd take one, then ran away from it.

 

Lewis tried to fight Johnson in Canada, but Vitali's 2nd round TKO over Johnson ended that opportunity.

In addition to saying he would take the re-match live, he also said the same to the press on more than one occasion months after the fight.