Lewis reason for not giving vitali a rematch.

A: As has been pointed out there were numerous cuts, two on the eyelid, a huge gash on the cheek and cuts on and inside the mouth.

B: That's what busting up means.

 

:deal

 

:good Good point. It did tarnish his legacy. Even now, 7 years after the fights, he has to come up with reasons for not giving Vitali a rematch.

 

I'd agree with you if he want on to fight other fighters and purposely avoided Vitali but that wasn't the case, he retired.

As to comments after the fight, he had just stepped out of the ring after a hard fought fight, which he won, my guess is one is pretty hyped up with adrenaline at that particular point in time, and not thinking about any long term decisions.

As for it tarnishing his legacy, if it did, it was only as it applies to Klitschko fans who for whatever dillusional reason still can't seem to accept the outcome of the fight and Lewis' decision to retire afterwards.

Lewis still ranks as one of the top ATG heavies who ever fought, regardless of what they think.

And one has to really wonder what the benefits would have been even if Vitali won a rematch..he would have only proved that he was better than an over the hill Lewis who didn't even want to fight anymore..that's not exactly the legacy enhancer many V.K. fans think it is.

 

this exactly:deal

 

I hope this applies if Vitali ever loses before he retires. Which is very unlikely. But I doubt it and the haters will come out again with "Over rated, etc." Luckily the chances of this happening are close to zero.
And for all those people who say Vitali looks sluggish or sloppy and not impressive while he wins every minute of every round. You should be very impressed. He's 39 years old; a year older then Lewis was in their fight. So this is the over the hill version by your standards.

People forget that Lewis was coming off the destruction of Rahman and Tyson(old Tyson) both within a year and a half of his fight against Vital and all of a sudden he turned into father time.

 

No worry about a double standard from me. Lewis was clearly old and rusty and Vitali is far slower than he use to be. Both are clearly past their best.

So if someone now beats Vitali, they clearly beat an out of prime version of him as far as I'm concerned, and yes, Vitali does look impressive albeit he's fighting fighters that don't impress me all that much.

 

Your right he didn't owe him anything. But with a fight this close, competitive and eagerly anticipated by the networks and fans it should have been made again. You'd think by the way people talk; the commentators and fans were like" whelp that's over with thank god what a boring fight and doesn't warrant a second. Let's move on to another fight".With your logic we would never have had The Bowe/Holyfield , Ali/Frazier trilogy's. Or and rematches from Tyson/Holy, Bowe/Golota, Lewis/Rahman and etc. But these were all fight the public wanted to see again, and rightfully so. Name one other fight at the time after this match which had more interest at Heavyweight then this rematch

So many of you brush this fight off like it was KO of the year( P.Williams vs. S.Martinez) when it wasn't even close to that. And I'm not saying it was the most exciting fight in history either.

About the only other Heavyweight title fight recently I'd have liked to have seen a rematch was Lamon Brewstervs vs. Serguei Lyakhovich. But for obvious reasons never happened (detached retina) before Lyakhovich lost the title himself.

 

Well no one has looked impressive while against Vitali besides Lewis, and he(Vitali) has been fighting since 96'. That's why the rematch was so wanted.
And while there will always be new contenders and flavors of the month. These young guys will always be called garbage if they don't win a belt, and seeing as the Bro's have held them for so long it isn't that easy to do. Look at how many times the WBA title has changed hands this decade compared to the WBC,IBF,IBO,WBO. With the exception of the period of Vitalis retirement for the WBC belt and the people who held he belts in the earlier part of the decade before the brothers won them(Bryd-Lewis).

 

I thought Sanders looked good before Vitali ground him down. He's the only other fighter other than Lewis who has ever been able to land anything decent on Vitali.

I disagree about your point that all contenders will be regarded as garbage before they win a belt. Tyson was the favourite when he challenged Berbick for the WBC belt. Vitali's own brother was deemed the next big thing before he won a belt due to his obvious natural talent and olympic gold medal. There are many more examples, like Tua, Ibeabuchi etc. The problem we have with young contenders in this era is that they won't dare to fight anybody that could be deemed half decent, they spend their time fighting journeymen and expect a title shot from that alone. And even when offered a shot at Klitschko they bottle it and go back to fighting has beens and journeymen.

 

Well Sanders only looked good when he timed that counter punch on Vitali while he was in the corner. A punch I'm sure would have sent more then the majority of fighters to the canvas. Other then that, not really except for having a huge heart. Sanders is also underrated in my opinion.

I agree with you also. Maybe I should have said after they(contenders) lose in a title fight, either way I think it could still apply to both our interpretations. Seeing as there was hype around Sam Peter and Arreola but after losing to the Klit's they suck. I bring these two names up cause they're the only two who had something in common with the two you listed. Undefeated and Tua one lose(to Ike) and KO specialists.

 

Don't make is sound like he said it only after the match. The rematch was in the works and then Lewis backed down:

"Other people are hyped up about the Klitschko fight and obviously they want to see another one," Lewis said. "I enjoyed the first one. Right now we are just working out the logistics and talking to his manager and HBO [the American pay-per-view cable television company] to see what we can work out. If a man thinks he can beat me I'm out to prove him wrong"

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing-lewis-set-to-retire-after-rematch-with-klitschko-588533.html

 

Again, I'd definately be agreeing with you if Lewis hadn't retired and if he fought others beside Vitali but he never. Instead he retired and never fought again, which of course is his right.

 

Thansk for the link, as a matter of fact, I think that article supports my position better than yours.

Here are a couple of comments from it.

"Lewis said that he will wait until the negotiations with Klitschko are concluded before finally deciding his future.

Asked if he would retire after a re-match, Lewis said: "Yeah I think so. I'm going to make a wise decision in the near future. I would have nothing left to prove. Even now I have nothing left to prove."

Those are hardly ringing endorsements about fighting again.

He said he'll wait until the negotations with Klitschko are concluded before finally deciding his future..how's that a committment to fight??? And he later goes on to say the obvious, which is that he has nothing left to prove.

Lots of fighters say they want to fight each other, and they mean it, until negotiations start and it turns out they can't come to an agreement.

In any event the topic itself is starting to bore the hell out of me..so believe whatever you want to believe cause it really has no baring on history.

They fought, Lewis won, they never rematched, end of story.

 

:rofl

That's putting a positive spin for Vitali.

How about this one - twelve years on and Vitali is reduced to fighting recycled Lewis victims and still cannot knock them out!