"Vitali retired Lennox Lewis"...?

I have no doubt that his sloppy performance against Vitali made him consider retirement more seriously than ever before. I don't think he retired because of Vitali though but rather his own inability to perform to the level he expected to. His conditioning was bad and his timing was off.

Lewis had been able to re-dedicate himself after the Rahman loss but perhaps there was nowhere to go after the Vitali fight. There was no Mike Tyson fight looming around, only the likes of Byrd, Ruiz and Vitali who was unheralded at the time (Wladimir had recently been wiped out by Sanders). It was probably difficult for him to get motivated for those fights at 38 years of age and he had probably learned his lesson about going into fights less than 100%.

 

:goodA fair post that i would go along with.

 

Vitali was an important factor.

 

this is all hypothetical crap on my part, but it would have been fun to see him spark Sanders, right after Corrie had beaten Wlad... Would have been perfect timing to. Sanders had beaten Wlad in March of 2003... Lennox beat Vitali in July of that year.. A December match between Lewis and Sanders could have been easily made, giving Lewis time to get into respectable shape, and probably beating the man who beat Wlad plus Vitali... in that scenario, Lewis would have likely improved his legacy just a tad, and had a thorough claim over the Klits.

 

Well sure it was.. He had just fought life and death with a tough opponent in his fading years... But the main thing is that he still came up victorious... Not many 38 year old champs can say that.. By all standards, if Vitali was truly a future great, he should have taken Lewis who although still formidable, was ripe for the pickings... But the difference between the two stood out, as marginal as it may have been. There seems to be a standard in boxing that a great fighter can't retire on a good note without criticism until he loses... Why?... Had Lewis beaten Vitali in the rematch, would he THEN have the right to retire gracefully, or would some people today still be crying that he should have fought Chris Byrd, Wladimir, or Sanders? Bottom line is that no matter how thoroughly a champ cleans up a division, there will always be an argument that he could have fought " this guy" or " that guy" or given " this one " a rematch...... There are some who still attack Rocky Marciano for not fighting Nino Valdez or lingering around longer to face Patterson.... The legacy speaks for itself...

 

His wife and mom are both called Violet.

 

And that difference favoured Vitali. And it was a little more than marginal.

Lennox won the fight but it was by cuts stoppage. Now, that does not make the win any less legitimate nor valid, but it's not an event that's likely to be repeated. Therefore, while I wouldn't use the term 'lucky' as cuts are part of the game, I certainly wouldn't say that "...the difference between the two stood out," unless I meant that Vitali came off as the better of the two.

In the normal run of things, a rematch would have been de rigeur.

i can understand why Lennox declined, given the stage of his career and the fact that he may have felt he dodged a bullet, so to speak.

And I rank Lennox as a top four ATG while Vitali scrapes the bottom end of my top twenty.

But it's patent that Vitali played a significant, (probably decisive ) role in Lennox's decision to hang'em up.

 

That's almost perverse.

At the very least, kinky !

 

I think Vitaly was only a factor to the extent that it was the Vitaly fight that made him realize how much he's aged and what the extent of his short comings are. Lewis was always gung ho on rematches and there is no doubt in my mind a younger version would have given him an immediate rematch to clarify any doubt in the minds of observers. But it was no secret that Lennox was taking it easy in training. He had after all beaten the one man that he wanted to beat his entire career, Mike Tyson.

Vitaly was the icing on the cake. For starters he walked away facing his heir apparent on an off night and still beat him. Apart from a Vitaly rematch a Wlad fight lost it's intrigue when Corrie Sanders stopped him in 2. Motivation was gone and father time had started to set in.

 

Lewis was talking retirement from 2000 onwards.
He only really stuck around waiting for the big Tyson payday.
Following the win over Tyson, and the obvious absurdity of expecting any Tyson rematch to materialise, for months it was assumed that Lewis was already retired.
It actually came as a bit of a surprise to many when Lewis scheduled a fight with Kirk Johnson (who Vitali replaced two weeks out from fight night).

Lewis hung around too long, if anything. And he knew it.

The answer then is YES and NO.
NO, Vitali didn't come along and make Lewis retire. Lewis's retirement was on everyone's lips for months and years before that. But ...
YES, the tough fight with Vitali probably served as a very profound warning that Lewis was falling victim to the old mistake of hanging on too long, even while he was way past his retirement schedule. He probably hung around one fight too long, it would have been stupid to hang around for another one.

 

This.

Lewis was quoted before Klitschko saying he only wanted Tyson or RJJ, which coincidently are 2 fights Lewis could afford to be less than 100% for, also two fights that would bring in more $$.

 

Why cant people cut Lewis a bit of slack? Isnt he allowed to just retire? Has there always to be something sinister behind his decision? This is akin to suggesting that Rocky Marciano retired rather than fight archie moore cos moore dropped him. Preposterous, i know. Do people think he was frightened or something of vitali? OK, ive went a little off the TS question and i think Lewis retired himself, realised he hadnt the need or the will, to put it all in anymore and made the best decision he could have made. Vitali's role in it was circumstantial, he coulda fought anyone that night and still have gotten his eyes opened (as in a 'road to Damascus' kinda way)

 

:-(( Quarry over Smellin.

 

Now I think we need to cut Vitali a little slack. If that was Kirk Johnson out there against an aggressive Lennox Lewis, he would have been KOed in the first round and Lewis would be moving forward with his plans to fight Jones. What other top contender going into that fight could have pushed Lewis that hard? McCline? Rahman III? Tua II? Holyfield III? Jones, Byrd, and Ruiz might have been frustrating but for different reasons, doubtful they would batter and rock a forward moving Lewis all over the ring. Wlad and Sanders have a puncher's chance but Lewis would probably get to them first and early. Lets give Vitali a little credit here as an awkward troubling opponent.

 

Lewis beat Holyfield and Tyson, the fight with Bowe never materialized, he had cemented his legacy. He had NOTHING to prove.

The VK fight came along and it simply confirmed in Lewis mind, what he already knew, and that was retirement.

He didnt want to start losing to guys he would have blasted out in his prime. Guys like Vitali and Wladmir Klitscko