Should Lewis have fought on a few years to insure a better cv than Wlad?

There are far, far, far worst title fights than Wlad vs. AP.

You should know that if you've been "watching boxing for over 40 years".

I still don't understand why people say this. Wlad knocked the guy down 4 times! It was a rugged fight, not all of them are gonna be masterpieces.

 

Steward said Wlad would probably win. I don't really put to much stock into it.

 

Wlad only needs 4 more wins to beat out Lewis IMO.

If he can get past BJ, TF, DW and another top contender he will easily be ahead of LL.

 

Vitali quit. There's no two ways about it. Whether he was legitimately injured or not nobody made the decision for him. His corner did not tell him to stop, the doctor didn't intervene, the referee didn't stop it, Vitali chose to quit that fight all by himself - thus he and his fans must come to terms with that decision and accept the responsibility for it.

He was was clearly winning the fight, it was fully within his ability to jab and clinch his way through three more round and secure the victory but he chose to do it.

The injury Vitali suffered was practically the exact same injury Holyfield himself suffered against Byrd but Holyfield fought on to the end and saw out the 12 rounds, and Holyfield picked up the injury in the opening rounds not the later ones.

No I dont, but that doesn't change my point. When Lewis fought Holyfield, Holyfield was rated amongst the worlds greatest fighters - one of the three best across all divisions - and rated #1 fighter of the Heavyweight division and WBA and IBF Champion. Ibragrimov has never got close to matching that - not at the time he fought Wlad or at any other point in his career - and the idea he's somehow a better scalp than 1999 p4p #3 Holyfield just because he beat 2007 not even top ten Heavyweight ranked Holyfield is ludicrous.

At least one because he fought Greg Gorrell - http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=2144&cat=boxer

As to the three most famous southpaws that were active during his career: Moorer wanted nothing to do with him, Byrd's promoter didn't want to make the fight and preferred to set up one between fighters from his own stable for a vacant title instead and Sanders was a nobody until he beat Wlad and this turned out to be too late to get a shot at Lewis.

 

Haha leave the sausage fighting to Wlad and Vitali.

I would go as far to say their combined record is weaker than Lewis.

They have split a very poor era.

As for people saying Haye just ran against Wlad. Rematch the fight, Wlad was just as bad in terms of engaging. He knew he could do nothing and get the decision, so that's what he did.

 

Well, Lewis should have fought on, imo, but if he had he would have had to face Vitali again and I don't think he wanted to. He's still got a great resume for a fighter in a relatively weak era.

 

Lewis did more in his 44 fights than Wlad has done in his 62

 

i thought he said wlad had the better jab but lennox would drag him deep and win. not impossible he said different things on different occasions, though.

 

Even with those names on his record Lewis has the better resume.

Jennings!
Who's he beat exactly?

Fury is a good scalp.
Still I think a lot of people Lewis beat further down his resume are better scalps.
Bruno for example would beat Tyson Fury.
Wilder beat 30+ bums and faced a defensive maestro in Stiverne for a World title?
Wilder isen't that good, Just another Michael Grant.
That will be apparent the first time somebody decent hits him more than once a rd.

 

Vitali quit against Byrd in a fight he was winning easy and is clearly the better fighter. Lewis stopped Vitali by damaging his face so badly that it wasn't safe to continue. Lewis's victory over Vitali was better than Byrd's regardless of whatever qualifiers you want to give as to which version of Vitali you think is better.

Holyfield was a proven force in the Heavyweight division, a multiple time World Champion who had held all the relevant belts in the division and fought all the big names. He was P4P #3 when he fought Lewis and widely regarded as the divisions best fighter. He may have been old but he was still a top fighter. And Byrd didn't beat the same version of Holyfield because Holyfield fought most of their fight with a torn rotator cuff when he suffered no such injury in the fights against Lewis.

Why people feel the only way to bash Lewis is to talk down Holyfield and Vitali I'll never know.

 

Please don't call liakhovic "ex World champ"
"a ring" top ten fighter! Are they a Governing body or a magazine publication who favours American boxers?
HOF'er Tomaz Adamek! He's HOF due to him being a Cruiserweight. Arthur S is top 20(that's being generous)