Vitali Klitschko: “I sent Lennox Lewis into retirement"

:deal

 

:thumbsup

 

all your posts that FU?

 

Excellent post! :deal

 

Lennox was old and on the slide and had millions in the bank..

Why take rematch against a much younger and fitter man and lose more brain cells than he had already.
Unlike most of the greats who carried on past there prime, Lennox knew he didnt have the desire or the stamina anymore.

 

Its already done......:good

 

Some points are valid, some are not. In terms of the ref warning the fighter that the fight would be stopped, I don't really consider this a valid argument. Surely after the 3rd round when the corner was trying to stop the flow of blood, they would have known how bad the cut was, and they would have known that going forward, it could be stopped at anytime. These are experienced trainers and cutmen we're talking about, they've seen hundreds of fights. One can only assume Vitali's trainer would have said something to the effect, this is one hell of a bad cut so you probably only have a few rounds to get the job done, now let's get out there and KO this guy. Also we don't know for sure if the ref, and/or the doctor said anything in between rounds, but I suspect they did.

As for accusing Vitali of retiring Lewis, I'm open to that arguement. Vilali proved he was no push over and Lewis had to fight for his life for a win. But win he did, and the cut (s) ie multiple, proved that Lewis could definately hurt and cut Vitali pretty easy. No reason to think he wouldn't cut him in a rematch, especially given that there would be scar tissue there and Lewis would probably aim for this spot.

But all that aside, Lewis also would have known he could very well lose the rematch, as his reflects were much slower than we were use to seeing, and if he lost, he would either have to rematch Vitali again, or end his career on a loss. Neither would have been all that appealing to him, and therefore the money itself was a non factor. If it truely was a factor he'd have just fought him regardless of what the outcome was going to be.

Personally I think this was one of the best wins of Lewis' career, and that in itself implies that Vitali was a one hell of a tough fighter, with lots of skills. That said, it was Vitali's legacy fight, not Lennox's and in the end he lost. And you usually only get a legacy fight once in your career and you can't honestly expect a second chance..and at the end he never got his second chance...End of story.

 

Vitali did retire Lewis.

He showed him he was on the decline and there were fighters swimming in the heavyweight pool who could beat him now that he was aging. Lewis decided to be done with it, not to be likely beaten in a rematch or by somebody else.

He'd done enough, he was on the wrong side of 35, and his physical ability was starting to decline. His retirement, while preemptive, was probably a good decision.

 

Great Post

Cut wise - If Vitali was not cut - he wouldnt have been coming forward so much - but because he was so badly cut he knew the fight could be stopped at any time, he had no choice but to go for the KO - I would imagine a rematch would have been more chessmatch like.

 

Vitali is a spoilt baby.

 

If that were the case, I see Lewis winning the rematch.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjOEuM6gbbk&feature=related[/ame]

" Will you give him a rematch? "
" If he calls for it and the money is right "


He did call for it and the money was $20 million dollars six months later to fight a rematch.

Lennox Lewis gets into his slippers and retires. Nothing wrong with that, he was old had all the money in the world and retired on top. But to say Vitali had nothing to do with his retirement is well ******ed....

 

Age and lack of enthusiasm had more to do with it that Vitali.

 

:good