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

Byrd top 30 HW ever?
You've not seen any boxing before 2000 have you?
Byrd is in my top 30 boxers from he 00's
History? If you think that I'm truly sorry.

I can think of 10 people from every decade who would knock him out.
I'm not listing them because you'll just say "that'your opinion"

 

Well, I'll quote your words back to you shall I? "Old Holyfield a blown up light HW on steroids or the post injury Vitali Klitschko" What exactly were you trying to do when you called Holyfield a "blown up light heavyweight on steroids" if not trying to undermine his significance as a heavyweight so as to lessen the worth Lewis's victories over him? And what exactly were you trying to do by saying "post injury Vitali" if not to imply that he wasn't a great fighter after that, as if the injury damage his ability to fight and significant diminished his ability as a fighter, so as to lessen the worth of Lewis's victory over him in relation to Byrd's?​

 

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.

Quit can be used if fighter have enough beating and are losing the match or have hard times. You dont quit if there is nothing wrong with you and you are ahead on points by big margin.
When your injured you dont quit. There is pain and pain, same as injury and injury.
For example i can train with sore forearm, but how i will train and fight with sore shoulder ? Not to mention what bigger problem you can make of your "courage" to fight/train with injury ...


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.

There is injuries and injuries, you have proof that Holyfield injury was the same with the same effect?
Vitali injure his shoulder again against Chisora, but the

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.

But Byrd beat Holyfield in 2002 ..... He also beat Vitali, and Lewis ducked him, but Klitschko destroy him 2 times ....



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

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.

So Great Lewis fought atleast one southpaw, he usually avoided them like plague....
And this Gorrell you cant find him even in wiki, thats how good he was.
And no Byrd want to fight Lewis, but Lewis ducked him - fact, period, that was the reason he drop the title ....
He simple do not want any contact with southpaws ....

 

:rofl

 

Lewis is behind Ali.
I base this on resume, talent & physical ability.

Byrd beat Tua after Lewis already did.
Tua was never the same after the Lewis bout.
Byrd fought him 1 year after Lewis did - In your mind Tua somehow TURNED BETTER in that space of time?
GTFO
Byrd never beat Vitali, he won due to an injury. I've said that before. Vitali's doctor will tell you the same. HE HAD 1 ARM FOR 80% OF THE FIGHT AND COULND'T CONTINUE.
That's how much pain he was in.
He wanted to continue vs Lewis even with those eye injuries.
That's the type of no quit attitude Vitali has.
He quit against Byrd to save his career.

Fully fit Vitali knocks out Byrd.
Wlad did. Vitali would have in a rematch.

Holyfield was shot even before the Lewis fight. Same as Mike Tyson was shot when he met Lewis.
Still, the version of Holyfield who fought Lewis was better than the one who faced Byrd THREE years later.
Holyfield struggling with paper champ John Ruiz shows what level Holyfield was at during that time period.

 

he lasted 80% but then couldn't continue??
sure could continue for that 80% before he was getting creamed though.

his arm would have been fine, he quit because he was getting turned over and hurt by byrd. he had barely 10 or 12 minutes in which he was hardly going to save or lose his career.

so why didn't he, he had plenty of time to do it before he quit.

 

To the Lewis haters - Lennox advised Sanders before his fight with Wlad. He told him to rush him. Lennox knocked him out without stepping into the ring!

 

Lennox Lewis retired when he wanted to and he went out at the top at 37, 38 after a hard career. That's the idea. Can't really knock a man for that, even though I wanted to see a Lewis-Vitali rematch like most fans. I think that could have gone either way. Remember, the first fight had only gone six rounds and HAD to be stopped...I would say Lewis is probably superior to either Klitschko as a fighter, but both Klitschko brothers are fine heavyweights too and a good match for Lennox in this era. They're somewhat comparable. Wlad is a premier heavyweight champion now with a long reign. I rate them all highly.

 

Lewis has better wins than Wlad does so its moot point.
Wlad has a lot of wins but how many great fighters...struggling to think of many. Chris Bryd. Good win over Sam Peter. Good win over Haye then lots of competent but not fighters of a real high calibre.

Lewis has great wins over Bruno. Holyfield. Prime Briggs. Golota. Good wins over Grant Mercer etc. and win over Vitali...

Head to head Wlad would be trouble my most of those fighters with the possible exception of Grant and Golota. Lewis beat them all

 

Lewis would have been knocked out in the re-match vs Vitali. The WBC ordered a re-match. At the time Lewis only had one belt ( He dropped others to avoid Ruiz and Byrd ), so he retired.

Not even the $18,000,000 offer for Lewis was enough, nor his word that he would take the re-match.

 

Good thing Wlad has 66 fights.

 

21 title defenses (not including WBO which would help more) vs. 14 title defenses
Undisputed Champion (holding all belts, 1st time ever) vs. Undisputed Champion (having belts stripped and not getting the WBO)
Longer time as champion