"Vitali retired Lennox Lewis"...?

Doesn't explain why he waited for the outcome of Johnson/Vitali to make his final decision. All hypothetical of course, but if Johnson exposed Vitali as a fluke and grabbed the mandatory contender spot, you think Lennox would have still announced retirement? If THAT fight with Vitali made up Lewis' mind about retirement, one has to ask why he waited 6 months to see who his next opponent would be before stepping out the door? Why didn't he announce his retirement after the fight that disillusioned him?

You can't credit Vitali as the sole reason for Lewis retiring, but you can't pretend as if he was a complete non-factor either.

 

Vitali was a factor, Lewis decided he was near retirement around the Holyfield fight and was mainly hanging on for a Tyson mega money fight. After that he wanted a Tyson rematch despite winning easily, at that stage of his career he wanted easy money for easy fights. The Vitali fight was a hard fight that exposed Lewis no longer had the same stamina that he used to. The only option after Vitali beat Johnson was realistically a Vitali fight or retirement. Vitali's workrate, size and boxing skill would make him another hard fight. He would need a very hard training camp, he needed to improve his stamina for that type of fight - could he even manage that at 38? It is a fight Lennox could win but was a risky 1, it's a fight that even if he won would be hard and at 38 you're less inclined to want to put your body through that. Legacy wise though it's a fight that didn't make that much sense. Lennox beats Vitali again at 38 - well so what you beat him once already. Still I would have liked to have to seen it. Lennox probably toyed with the idea of coming back too but he got more and more out of shape going up to 315lbs and I wouldn't be surprised if his weight had started sky rocketing before he announced his retirement

I don't agree with this. There is an assumption that Vitali was winning/dominating and Lewis was lucky to get the win isn't at all what was happening. Let's pretend Vitali's skin for a minute is made of fibre glass and Lewis's accurate powerful punches didn't have anything to do with scoring around 4 separate deep cuts. Let's pretend after scoring 1 cut, Lewis didn't try to deepen it and in the process caused more cuts

So the main argument is Vitali was up 4-2 on the cards but it could easily be 3-3. Both men were tired though and that made a KO for 1 man or another the likely scenario. Vitali was landing more punches but Lennox was landing the more significantly bigger punches. Vitali was nearer to being ko'd than Lewis, Vitali was the 1 being hurt and hanging on for dear life. Lewis was adapting finding his left hook and uppercut time and again. Not to mention the straight right, Vitali was reduced to arm punching. Lewis was probably more tired but he was also using his energy more wisely, as Vitali got more tired he was also easier to hit.

 

Lewis ducked him for not giving him a rematch after beating him? That seems odd to me. To me there was no controversy. Vitali was competitve but he lost because Lewis rearranged his face with punches. The fight didnt end because of a headbutt or unfair foul.

 

Agreed,

I think over the past 15+ years people have gotten so used to fighters hanging around until they're older than Jesus Christ, that the very notion of a long reigning champion retiring at "ONLY" 38 years of age is unimaginable to some. Now had Vitali been an easier fight, would Lewis have stuck around for another payday or two? Possibly.. We'll never know.. But just because Klitschko just so happened to be the last man he fought, does not mean in my eyes that he retired him....

 

:deal

 

It is not about Klitschko being his last fight. It is about what happened between his last fight and the actual retirement. Had he announced his retirement immediately after the fight then one could make a case that he bowed out on his own accord. However, it took almost a year and WBC deadline for Lewis to make up his mind. The man was obviously looking for ways to continue boxing or, at least, keeping his options open.

 

Keeping his options open yes. You talk like it's a crime!

With boxing being his life since he was a boy and after achieving what he had, i think he had earned the right to ponder his options...don't you?

 

Making the decision to end a lucrative career that produces millions of dollars per year is not one that someone makes on a whim... My guess is that he went through an extensive process of discussing the matter with his family, trainers, management, attorney's, financial account managers, etc, before making his final decision.. Its rather daft in my opinion to assume that just because he didn't grab the microphone moments after being announced the winner of the Vitali fight and announce his exit from boxing, that Vitali was the SOLE reason for his decision.

 

Lewis went so far as to enter minicamp befor making his decision. He didnt have it in him anymore. You can talk to any fighter, money cant put your heart in a fight. If you have lost the ability to compete and train and go through the painstacking commitment to get ready for a fight, its time to hang them up. Lewis is one of the few who was smart enough and secure enough to recognize it and get out.

 

Being at the top of the amateur and professional boxing for more than 2 decades retired him.

Would he have stayed around if he'd run over Vitali? Probably.

But I think the phrase "He retired that boxer" should only be used when said boxer was in or near his prime going into the fight, and ruined afterwards. Think Marciano vs Vingo, or Taylor vs Chavez. Lewis was 37 years old and already had an ATG career behind him, going into the Vitali fight.

 

If he ran over Vitali there would be no need for a rematch. Somehow people think those bad cuts magically appeared on Vitali's face, and if it wasnt for those cuts he would have won. I say its a complete crock of ****.

 

Vitali took the options from him by destroying Johnson in December. The options were: retire, lose the belt by getting stripped or most likely lose the belt in the rematch. Retirement was the only graceful way to bow out. You cannot deny that Vitali forced him to make that decision.

 

It is all about perception. The timing of Lewis announcement was most certainly forced - you cannot deny that. WBC basically gave Lewis an ultimatum: "step up or step aside." So he stepped aside.

 

I think the tough fight with Vitali and the lack of other options were certainly catalysts in why Lennox stepped down when he did. I don't think it was fear because I don't buy that in high level boxing, but it's understandable that he wouldn't want to end his career with a loss like so many champs do - and that would've been a very realistic outcome had the rematch happened. Even if he'd won the rematch, he'd have taken significant punishment in it. That was enough that a mountain of cash wasn't able to persuade Lennox back.

As for those saying it wasn't necessary for there to be a rematch, I'd beg to differ. Lennox always got rematches for his losses (or the gift draw in the Holyfield case), but never once handed one out for his closest/most controversial wins, including Vitali. It was a massive fight that the sport would've benefited greatly from. The first one was patched together pretty hastily- this would've had the proper build up to be a genuine superfight, and the sport's never better off when those superfights don't come off. Lennox didn't have to prove anything to anyone and had an illustrious career, I just wish there was one more fight in it.

On another level, even though I respect the guts it takes to retire as champion and not keep fighting until it's too late, it does leave a void in the division when a champion retires with his title and no clear line of succession has been established. Part of what held back HW boxing in the 2000's was Lennox and Vitali both leaving as champions. It took years for another heavyweight to step up and land the fights necessary to become "the man" again instead of having a clear lineage of who the champ was. Outside of Wlad, unification fights were unheard of because nobody wanted their slice on the line. So, although Lewis was well within his right to retire and it was the right call for him personally, that fight not happening did set heavyweight boxing back.