The farcical 'myth' that Lewis would have KO'd Vitali

Just rewatched the fight.

Well put even though I categorically disagree.

Thing is, the one fundamental flaw in your argument is; if I may borrow a phrase from Lennox himself, look at the state of his face.

Vitaly despite being the fresher of the two, had a major cut on his eye that was not going to get better as the fight wore on. Barring a 1 punch KO which was unlikely, he was going to sustain further damage to his eye that would have undoubtedly affected his ability to fight. If it did't get stopped at the end of the 6th round it would have happened at the end of the 8th, or 9th. The cut simply wasn't going to get better. Remember as the fight was going along another cut had formed below his eye.

As for the OP,

I think a Lewis KO was a very likely scenario. Lewis for whatever reason didn't seem to respect Klitschko's power as the rounds wore on. He would barge in with such impunity you'd think he was wearing a helmet. Given his big fight experience and his wake up call in the 2nd round I can only conclude that he must have decided that Vitaly didn't have the kind of power that could easily put him away. If Vitaly was going to win, it would have been on the cards. Lewis on the other hand got into his rhythm late but was fighting more and more competitively as the rounds wore on. Lewis would have landed a punch that Vitaly never saw coming and would have proceeded to close the show.

 

DID U SEE HIS FACE?????.....IF U WERE VITALIS FRIEND A REAL FRIEND....WOULD U WANT HIM TO CONTINUE????....LENNOX WAS GONNA SERIOUSLY HURT HIM MAN.......LENNOX KNOCKS BIG GUYS OUT....AND HE DID JUST THAT....HE STOPPED VITALI/AND THE REFS AND DOCTORS DID THE RIGHT THING BECAUSE VITALI IS STILL FIGHTING TODAY....:smoke

 

No way Lewis would have KO'd VITLAY. VITLAY was about to quit anyway, he tends to do that whenever he's in trouble.

 

Vitali couldn't see the shots coming, and Lewis was landing bigger shots more frequently. Vitali would have been either out or missing an eye.

 

Lewis ducked and retired to avoid losing in a rematch with Vitali.

 

I would have loved to see a rematch, and it was well deserved, but Lewis pussied out of it. Lewis really ****ed his legacy up by doing that, but it was probably better for his health.

As for the result of the match, it was a good stoppage because Vitali's face was obliterated and it would have been much worse if the fight continued. Vitali WOULD have won, and was winning by 2 rounds on the scorecards, but his skin betrayed him. It is one of the shittiest parts about boxing, but they are the rules and Lewis did win fair and square.

But he absolutely didn't prove he was the better fighter and that is the bottom line. It was a meaningless win where he was losing except for a lucky cut, but a win nonetheless. I would take the win, but I would know in my heart that I didn't prove anything. I think Lewis knows this but would never admit it.

 

The only reason I saw was that Lewis was kicking his ass.

 

Are you out of your mind!!! Vitali only had 2 weeks to get ready for Lewis you dum fk

 

Bull**** !!! Lennox was signed to fight Kirk Johnson as a warm up . Kirk pulled out. To save the card from being scrapped World champ Lennox put his title on the line against his #1 contender on 2 weeks notice.
Lennox was barely 80% fit. He still stopped Vitaly & retained his title
Name me one other champion who took on his #1 contender at 2 weeks notice when he'd just trained for a warm up fight ?? You cannot there isnt one. A 100% fit Lennox kicks Vitalis ass EASY

 

If someone like Steward was in his corner instead of Lewis's, or another big well conected trainer, Vitaly would have been allowed to continue. Let's say Angelo Dundee or Duva is in corner--no way they stop it. Heavyweight title fight you don't stop without giving guy at least one more round, often more.

 

Young, hungry, no1 contender and had been training to fight Cedric Boswell so physically was in good shape.

If memory serves me right it was Lewis's camp that offered Vitali the fight. Lewis was under no obligation to fight Vitali but he did, that's the true mark of the man he was.

 

The problem with this argument is; its going on the impression that Vitaly's cut was minor and the fight was stopped prematurely. Lets say for sake of argument that Dundee, Lou Duva, or even Freddy Roach trained Vitaly. Even if he was given another 2 rounds; the eye would have sustained even more punishment thereby causing even more damage leading to an inevitable stoppage.

1. Lennox Lewis was turning the tide; the fight was getting more and more competitive as the rounds progressed. That is a fact. The fight started off with Vitaly as the clear leader and as the rounds went on Lennox started to get more competitive and had at least 2 of the last 3 rounds.

2. Lennox Lewis for whatever reason didn't seem to respect Klitschko's power as the rounds wore on. He would barge in with such impunity you'd think he was wearing a helmet. Given his big fight experience and his wake up call in the 2nd round I can only conclude that he must have decided that Vitaly didn't have the kind of power that could easily put him away. That leads me to believe that a Klitschko stoppage wasn't imminent.

Bottom line: Even if Vitaly was given another round; the odds favoring a stoppage on cuts was still very high. The two cuts on Lennox were pretty bad.

 

It's not #staggered# it is #floored#, don't you know it by now?

It could have gone either way, Vk losing on cuts down the road, with stoppage or by losing ability to see the shots. It could also be that VK would have finally taken out an exhausted Lewis.

It was a great war, with an unsatisfactory ending. That is why people are still discussing the fight. It's a shame we didn't get a rematch.

 

You can take it as a disrespect towards VK power, but there is another explanation. VK was kicking Lewis' arse in a boxing match. The only way he could turned it around was to make it in an outright brawl. That is what Steward told him too and that is what he did.

VK has a few weaknesses, but the most glaring is his lack of infight game. He doesn't like, he doesn't do it... but Lewis was good enough and large enough to come near and land some bombs on him when inside. No one had done it before, no one did it afterwards, I doubt any body will do it in the future. Lewis won the fight by making it a street fight and by roughing VK on the inside. He did what he had to do against, most likely on the night, a superior boxer.

 

I think thats bull**** considering Vitali was the younger and more hungry man, if i remember rightly hes less likely to go up in weight between fights.