Lewis vs. Klitschko

I dont think it was a top performance from Lewis he looked lethargic, and his timing was off,he was blowing early in this fight and was clearly past his best imo.
I thinik he retired at precisely the right time he was slipping and I believe he knew it.
You might call it a top result with some justification ,given Vitali's subsequent resume ,but as a preformance it was distinctly below par,imo.

 

So you didnt see Vitali slowing and Lewis getting closer as the rounds progressed? It was a very physical fight but Lewis was coming on stronger and Vitali was fading quickly. It may have answered questions about his toughness, but certainly not his ability to fight a tough grueling 12 round fight against the divisions best at that time because they were only in round six when Vitali was stopped. Thats only half of a championship fight, in which I felt Vitali clearly started to wilt.
He no longer could keep the distance at which he was able to counter Lewis, and Lewis starting landing some serious jabs and power punches that led to the eventual facelift on Vitali.

 

Care to remind me of someone who fought on with a worse cut?

I've been watching fights for decades, and I can't recall off the top of my head anyone fighting any length of time with that kind of cut. I was actually surprised it went on for as long as it did.

But regardless, I do think both fighters silenced their critics for the most part. That is except for a % of Vitali fans who felt he was owed a rematch, or that the fight wasn't won fair and square. Funny thing is I've seen dozens of fights stopped with less damage than V.K. suffered and I don't remember such claims regarding the legitimacy of the outcome. Cut stoppages have always been part of the game and it's a legit way to win, whether fans of a particular fighter acknowledge it or not.

 

Yeah especially when the cuts were caused by punches which in this case they were. Ive definitely seen worse eye cuts, but the cut on his mouth was very bad. I think Chico Corrales had something similar in the Castillo fight?
I dont know if anyone has had cuts over the eye before but it takes a good year before you stop feeling the tingling in them and they become less sensitive.

 

Good point. The cut to mouth seems to always gets overlooked. I remember during the fight the commentators mentioned that Vitali was likely swallowing a lot of blood.

 

I think you're thinking of the first Casamayor fight where Corrales was stopped.

 

"I dont think it was a top performance from Lewis he looked lethargic, and his timing was off,he was blowing early in this fight and was clearly past his best imo."

I gave my reasons. It certainly was not his prettiest performance.


"Care to remind me of someone who fought on with a worse cut? "

Just recently, I'd say this was worse since the bleeding was not controlled and Jones eye was clearly shut to the point he could not see.

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"So you didnt see Vitali slowing and Lewis getting closer as the rounds progressed? It was a very physical fight but Lewis was coming on stronger and Vitali was fading quickly."

No. Vitali threw 66 punches in Round 4, and 70 in Round 5. I think Lewis only managed 27 and 40+ respectively. Round 6 was slow as both were clinching heavily. All three announcers commented that Lewis had no legs and was badly fatigued. Again, this is all a mute point cause anything could happen and the last couple rounds were very close in terms of effectiveness though Lewis was still being outworked.

 

Numbers alone do not tell the full story, the fact is although Vitali was throwing allot his punches were much weaker than Lennox's and getting progressively weaker, Lennox was simply walking through them to land harder shots after round 2. Lennox was throwing KO type punches, Vitali was arm punching.

Who was rocked the most? Vitali was, so I don't see how he was as effective as Lewis

 

As bad as:

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Vitali had more cuts and 1 in a much worse position, hell in 1 of the pix (not this 1) I always thought his eye looked ready to pop out it was that bad

 

I think the fact Lewis won round 6 on all the scorecards tells the story of how the fight was heading. That and those hellacious uppercuts Lewis threw in the 6th round tells me he had, at the very least, the momentum on his side.

 

"I think the fact Lewis won round 6 on all the scorecards tells the story of how the fight was heading. That and those hellacious uppercuts Lewis threw in the 6th round tells me he had, at the very least, the momentum on his side."


Lewis probably won the round with that single eye catching uppercut but was clinching just as much if not moreso, in addition to being out threw and landed once again. Ugly round, both looked spent. There's just not enough to go on. Fans of either fighter can point to bright spots in the last round as justification for some outrageous predicition, while I just don't see anything that points to either man being the inevitable winner had the fight continued.


"Who was rocked the most? Vitali was, so I don't see how he was as effective as Lewis "

Sorry, no idea what fight you were watching. Vitali always throws arm punches and he really wasn't slowing down anymore than Lennox was. During the fight, Lewis appeared to be rocked several times, especially in the early stages. Vitali got his head snapped by the vaunted uppercut but there wasn't anything as visibily urgent as Lennox's rubber leg dance in Round 2 from either fighter again.

"Vitali had more cuts and 1 in a much worse position, hell in 1 of the pix (not this 1) I always thought his eye looked ready to pop out it was that bad "

Its about the fighter's vision and ability to protect himself. Roy Jones was complaining that he couldn't see, his eye was completely closed from blood pouring into it, and the fight wasn't even remotely competitive. Its the ultimately the doctor's decision regardless. That's also just a most recent example of the top of my head, lots of bad eye cuts in boxing with varying results.

 

I cannot recall any set of cut that was worse than what Vitali Klitschko had, though the film pre-60's makes it harder to see because of lower resolution as well as the black-and-white film. A cut like Cooper's vs Clay looked very bad in terms of bleeding, but doesn't seem to be as extended as Klitschko's. Or Galento vs Louis: Galento looks fairly unmarked on film, but during some of the photographs at the end with Tony helpless into the ropes, you can see him being horribly damaged.

I'll say one thing: Vitali was lucky to even make it to the 6th round with a cut THAT bad in this era. Obviously, they gave him a few rounds because he was doing well, but it was a horrendous set of cuts, which he healed very well from, by the way. And this is coming from someone who does appreciate VK.






Edit: a somewhat related note, i think Vitali Klitschko (accidentally) took GREAT advantage of Lennox Lewis in terms of popularity. In 2003, Lewis was still not really that respected by most fans, although they knew he was the best in the division. But still relatively unpopular. In comes Klitschko, a fresh face with a monstrous KO record and even larger than Lewis in size, and he's beating him up and is always in exciting fights, particularly the Lewis one. Lampley's comment that Lewis won the fight, Klitschko won the event, couldn't be more correct.

 

I'd say Liston vs Wepner is the worst cut I've ever seen. The fight was allowed to go into the 10th and final round.

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Winky had a bad one in the Hopkins fight in terms of size and depth as well. I tihnk the most amazing thing about the Vitali cut was that the bleeding was being controlled so well for so such a huge gash. Lewis having a hard time landing on the eye after the fact with Vitali still doing well probably played a huge role in the stoppage being delayed for so long. Think he had a really great corner. The Jones cut for instance wasn't nearly as large but his eye was just drowned in blood. Completely agree with your last paragraph, very fair analysis of the situation.

 

atsch

Phil Anselmo mentioned that one, which pains me because Phil is the ****ing patron saint of metal and he really knows his boxing. Yeah, as much as I'd like to make excuses for my man Vitali, the dreads thing is absurd. Lennox was coming on stronger, Vitali had kind of blown his load. Without the cuts it is an interesting fight, but those cuts were the death knell.

Felt like Vitali deserved a rematch, though. I've always liked Lennox as a person however, so I can't hold it against him. He was a better boxer than Vitali IMO.