I think Vitali his biggest problem was his very low langing left hand. It's no coincidence only the left side of his face had cuts. A tall rangy fighter would always be able to exploit that defensive hole.
tko6, except he wasn't knocked out, stopped or even wobbled. In fact he was ahead 4-2 on all three cards and only cut due to illegal shots in clinches and a midget incompetent ref. DQ6, TD6 Vitali, the event winner and real warrior, not the ***** liar, sorry 'lion'.
Vitali lost. Get over it. Its been almost a decade, surely Vitali has done something by now that's proven his worth beyond putting in a valiant performance against Lewis - even though it is the fight that defines his whole career.
There is a strong case Vitali won the fight, and his opponent should have been DQ'd, for repeated illegal holding and punches, or a technical decision given. A no contest could also have been given. You had a wholly incompetent and inadequate referee that didn't do his job. Lewis was boo'd out the ring for a reason.
Again. Get over it. You can't change the past. Whatever case you think there might be for Vitali winning that fight the fact remains that in reality he lost. So once more I have to say that surely he's done something in the past decade since that fight that's proven his worth as a heavyweight beyond any doubt, something that means that all his fanboys dont have to keep going back to that fight with Lewis and coming up with conspiracy theories and all the rest of that bull**** to "prove" that he "never lost" and was the "real winner". I cannot think of another heavyweight in history who has been active and on top for as long as Vitali has yet who's fans continue to dwell on one loss as if the rest of his career is worthless, as if somehow Vitali will never be credible unless that loss gets overturned.
It's not me dwelling on anything, I'm responding to people who think tko6 is some kind of definitive statement that proves their man was better than Vitali. When you skim the tko6 surface it reveals a different story as I've detailed.