Tyson vs Lewis

I will admit that I haven't watched the fight since I first watched it, but I seem to remember that it was pretty obvious Lewis would murder him. Maybe he just wasn't trying so hard?

 

Yes, it was strange fight from Lewis. reminds me Wlad's performance against Povetkin - countless clinches by taller fighter, very cautious performance. The only difference is that Tyson was shot and didn't have a fraction of Povetkin's stamina, he was tired after round 1 actually. Awful to watch fight. I believe Lewis did all he needed to nullify any risk of getting caught with those enormous amount of clinching, just like Wlad against Povetkin, but both could win in much, much better style. They certainly had all the tools to do, just didn't want to risk

 

Unusually, it got to the point where even Steward in the corner was denouncing Lewis for his caution. He looked to me worried that the longer Lewis left Tyson in there, the longer the risk (however small, & ever-diminishing) remained in place. He felt Lewis could’ve done it sooner, & he knew Tyson might only need to muster a few good seconds of fighting to knock Lewis out, even in 2002.

There was at least one, if not two, mitigating factors, in Lewis’ defense. The main one was that he’d been knocked stupid by a single punch just the year before against Rahman. He was probably gunshy as a result. The second, less convincing but possible factor was the refereeing of Eddie Cotton. Good God, was it atrocious. I’d give Felix Trinidad a fairer go if I were referee in one of his fights. Lewis was constantly fighting Cotton’s abysmally one-sided officiating as well as Tyson himself. I don’t know that that is an excuse to let it go on long as it did, but it certainly couldn’t have helped.

 

I thought Tyson jabbed quite well and moved his head nicely in the first round.
He staggered a squared up Lewis with a jab and landed a nice left hook around the last minute of the round. But his stamina was poor and he seemed to hurt his right hand with a bodyshot (he fought mostly with his jab and left hook after that if you pay attention).

Lewis, as he puts it, was " unsettled" in that first round, although he landed a few good uppercuts. Like the OP said, the amount of clinching was insane and Eddie Cotton was right in his refereeing. Lewis took over in the second round by imposing his will, his jab with terrific right hands and uppercuts.

 

After I saw the fight. With the amount of clinching Lewis did the first 4 rounds, he should have been disqualified.

I really don't understand how anyone is allowed to clinch this much, and for some reason, it is always in Mike's fights. Watch most of Holyfield and Lewis' fights, they only do this with Mike, and the ref usually just allows them. I counted 12 clinches in the first round alone by Lewis, just what the hell.

Also, Lewis was scared of Tyson. You could tell.

Both Lewis and Buster were scared in the first round until they got comfortable.

Evander was the only one that said F that and just started to slug it out with Mike, he did clinch yes,but he also traded punches and you can see on Mike's face in one of the exchanges in the first round,his expression is almost like "He is not following the script", not in terms of Mike losing or getting hit,but no one really fought Mike like this before where they just stand there and trade punches. Evander's balls were bigger than his brain, and that is not a compliment as it probably lost him fights in his prime he could have won.

 

Lewis broke his hand in the second round I think and couldn't use his right hand until adrenaline kicked in and numbed the pain. That's what he says at least.

 

I do remember Lewis saying he hurt his hand on Mike's head but don't remember him saying he broke it. Maybe he did.

 

Cotton should’ve done prison time for that performance.

 

I remember the fight at the time - the anticipation was huge. In the end the 'event ' was massive. Though yes, the fight was somewhat of a let down.
I haven't seen it for a long time, but I remember thinking Tyson faded dramatically after the first round. And Lewis seemed to take his time in breaking Mike down. It was quite soon after the Rahman KO and I recall thinking that Lewis was wary of getting caught and blowing it all at this late stage in his career.
I was picking Lewis to win at the time and it did have the feel of 'an end of an era' for both guys ... Lewis because he'd slain the beast who'd long cast a shadow over the division, and Tyson because he seemed to gain a degree of public redemption in his beating.

 

A very sad fight. Mike kind of lost it after the first round, but I thought it should have been stopped two rounds before it did. Mike was useless and taking awful shots.

Lewis was fine, I think he just wanted to ensure victory.

 

If I remember correctly, Mike was found to have been on antidepressants leading up to the fight, and that caused a minor controversy. Even though Mike was well past it at that point, he still generated an aura that had many believing / hoping that he would blast out Lewis in one round. Lewis had a reputation for being vulnerable.
In retrospect, it was a money-grab from all parties involved; the fighters, the promoters, HBO, Showtime. Mike was mentally unstable, him attacking and biting Lennox, saying he would eat his children. Hence the antidepressants. Remember the strange way Mike was trying to tenderly wipe the blood off of Lewis’s face during the post fight interview?
In some ways this fight was comparable to Holmes vs Ali.

 

Steward did not want the guy as ref and was lobbying for a different guy almost up to the bout. But they were taking on a DKP fighter in a cross promotion and Don King always gets his guys for those.

 

To me was kinda the Manny-Floyd of the heavyweight division if not worse: a fight that if the fighters were in their respective primes could have been heat yet when it happened was hella disappointin'.