Lewis was going to get KO'd by Vitali..Really

Vitai was holding becuase he only just realised his all out style had cost him the fight with the cut. He was trying to save himself from a TKO.

If he'd tried to do that from the beginning then he'd not have been ahead on points.

 

Good post mate.

 

Larry Merchant -"we have never seen this Lennox Lewis before"

Even the usually critical Larry knew he was watching a man removed from his best.

Still Lewis got the stoppage but was denied another KO win. :thumbsup

 

Then they're incompetent, and no more mention of their cards at the end of the fight need be made. Right?

 

Not incompetent, but if the champion has been getting his a** handed to him all night and in one round its close the judges sometimes give him the round to give him a chance to keep his title.

I agree with giving the champion a chance and the close rounds for that matter. Being the champion Lewis deserved to win that 6th round.

What I don't agree with is people who say that Lewis was going to knock out Vitali because he dominated him in the 6th round. Where in reality Vitali was still getting the better of Lewis.

 

You should watch this round again, because you're wrong. That was clearly Lewis's best round of the fight. Hell near the end Vitali was hurt and was drapped on Lewis, while Lewis was trying to create space to finish him off. How can you not see that?

At the 2:42 mark Lewis threw a body punch, than a right and a left that clearly hurt Vitali, and all the while Lampley's was commenting on how tired Lewis was while Vitali was hanging on for dear life.

Go head, watch it again and tell me I'm wrong about that.

 

Yes I think it was Lennox's best round, but I think Vitali won that 6th round although it was close.

Every time I hear people saying that Lewis won the 6th I often will watch it again. I have watched the 6th round many times and I can't see why so many people think Lewis won that round easy. It was a close round, but Vitali out landed Lewis. When was the last time you watched the 6th round?

 

I watched it about 5 minutes ago the damn video's at the beginning of the thread for all to see.

It never changes.

Lewis was landing the more effective shots, and with 18 seconds left he threw a right to the body and a right to Vitali's head followed by a left that clearly hurt Vitali and Vitali was hanging on. As they were backing up Lewis was trying to create space. With about 4-5 seconds left they broke up and Lewis immediately threw an upper cut to end the round. The was clearly the aggressor at this point.

A round isn't simply scored by who lands the most punches, it also takes into account the power behind the punches and the damage they inflict. Vitali may have landed more punches at the beginning of the round, but the uppercut changed the tempo, and Lewis was clearly landing harder punches in an effort to end the fight through out that round, particularly at the end of it.

Specifically at which point was Vitali getting the better of him? It sure wasn't at the end of the round.

 

Vitali landed 8 hard punches before Lewis landed his very hard uppercut. After that Vitali landed a hard uppercut of his own and went on to out land Lewis the last 2 min of the fight by a quite a few punches. Lewis closed the round with a hard uppercut. Lewis did good, but Vitali a little better imo.

Vitali got the better of him except for the uppercut at about the 1 min mark and the last 10 seconds of the fight.

 

I disagree. Vitali was pushing his punches throughout the round, and as Foreman said, Lewis had no respect to Vitali's power and was walking right through his punches. Yes, Vitali was landing punches and may have even landed more, but he certainly wasn't throwing his punches with the same authority Lewis was. Lewis was throwing his with bad intentions while Vitali wasn't.

 

I think lots of those punches in the first minute looked plenty hard from Vitali. Lewis landed the hardest shot of the round no doubt. I don't have a problem with someone scoring it for Lewis as it was fairly close round. I do score it for Vitali though.

I just find it strange that so many score it for Lewis by landslide. Do you at least think it was close?

 

Having watched the fight again, i see alot of people saying that vitali was guna ko lewis in the 7th or 8th, lets not forget by the 6th round lewis was landing the much bigger shots and wobble vitali with a jab in the 2nd or 3rd round. It was a toss up, lewis was gassed but vitali wasnt that much fresher by the 6th. Could have gone either way, as soon as lewis saw that gash he was like a shark. If not the 6th that fight would have been stopped in the 7th or 8th. It was an awful gash, which was made worse by the cutman rubbing a dry towel over it, i mean wtf was he thinking!

 

I wouldn't use the word landslide. It was sort of like the first round, it may have been a feeling out round, but it was a round that Vitali clearly won. This round the punches had far more bad intentions behind them but it really wasn't a particularly hard round to score. Basically Vitali may have landed more but Lewis was walking though his punches to try and land his own and the punches he was throwing were designed to end the fight.

Interesting enough Lederman had the fight 48-47 for Vitali after the 5th round, so presumably he had the fight tied prior to the stoppage. Personally the score wasn't really an issue for me, Vitali started out fast, Lewis started out slow, but by the 5th and 6th rounds, while both were clearly tired, Lewis was clearly the one trying to end the fight. I noticed in the 5th round Lewis landed 23 punches while Vitali landed 27 but Lewis landed a far higher percentage of the punches he was throwing.

But honestly rather than having different camps support different fighters boxing fans should be praising both fighters for a very very hard fought and entertaining fight.

 

Lewis was gassed by the middle of the 5th and flatfooted. He had a good uppercut in the 6th and that's it. Had it not been for the cuts Lewis would have been in deep deep water, and IMO only a KO would have saved his ass.

Like the one guy said, get over it.

 

Lewis didn't have the strength to KO Vitali. Think about it, Lewis landed no real power shots apart from 1 that was a result of a hold. Vitali landed 3 good power shots that almost laid Lewis out along with a numerous amount of punches.

Vitali was going to win...